Freedom

Albert Camus' novel The Plague has a real overlaying theme of freedom and how it can be removed. When the plague strikes Oran, it's citizens become cut off from the rest of the world, stuck within the cities walls. However, you also realize that the citizens are never really free being stuck within their same old lives. It's not until a calamity happens that the people realize that they are really confined into one place. This idea of "freedom" throughout the novel is actually quite ironic. When free, the people really are not free. And when their freedom is actually taken away, people start to complain even though their lives before the epidemic were plagued with the rituals of every day life repeating endlessly. Now for Donnie Darko, freedom could be an idea applied to it. Donald may be totally insane with creepy and imaginary friend, but Frank is the main source of Donald's freedom. By telling him to do these things, Don is free to do whatever he wants. It's this freedom that shapes the entire movie and it's events. His mental freedom allows him to interact with the thoughts in his head and even travel in time. In the end of the film, Donnie goes back to when this freedom didn't exist. Avast! Instead of following his free mind away to safety, he dies just like that. I feel that these two freedoms, mental and physical, totally relate between the novel and the film. Donnie's mental freedom is like the citizens freedom before the plague. In both situations, their lives were being lived the ways they wanted. The people of Oran's lives may have been lame and dull, but they still had this freedom to do whatever they want. Donnie works in the same way. No one stops him (not like they could), and the events that unfold are almost like routine for him. Now when that freedom is taken away, things get bad. Donnie dies, the people of Oran go crazy and sad. Or I'm full of shit, either or.