Challenging the Audience's Perception of Women: An Analysis of Thelma and Louise MERON BERHANU College

In order to challenge an audience, a screenwriter must create ordinary characters and put them in extraordinary situations to engage the audience with both shock and sympathy. Such is true for Thelma and Louise yet Callie Khouri carefully demonstrates that these ordinary women – an ostracized housewife and a small-town waitress, experience abuse that is not altogether ‘extraordinary’.[1] In fact, it is something both are familiar with. What becomes extraordinary, however, is their reaction which is to perpetuate the violence they have previously succumbed to. This is not only an act of self-defense but a sharp rejection of a failing judicial system in protecting them. Winning the 1992 Oscar for best original screenplay, Khouri depicts complex and traumatized female characters slowly regaining power in the middle of the vast, empty stretches of the American landscape. Here I will be arguing how Khouri challenges the audience’s perception of women and the justice system by creating sympathetic characters who break the law but still enforce a sense of justice. The passage I have chosen is after Thelma robs a convenience store and both women confront the truck driver who has harassed them twice before. This moment is crucial in...