Garcia-Ruiz, Beetlejuice

Most Americans fear death because they realize that it’s inevitable. Death is something that all living beings come to in the end and the thought about death isn’t pleasant to most people. I think that history partakes in the fear of death because dying is not often portrayed as an elated moment in life. Most see departure from life as menacing or impending and both are prone to anxiety. One can’t tell what it feels like to die, so fear builds up to those who obsess. Americans try to come up with solutions for death; most are illusions such as religion, romance, and other things like medicine. They’re like excuses to take away the conscious and subconscious anxiety that most Americans inhibit. I won’t lie…there are moments when I fear death the most.

In the movie Beetlejuice, the Maitlands have a sudden car crash, the cause of their death. For some time they don’t realize that they are dead until they find a handbook for the deceased and can’t see their reflection in a mirror. Throughout the entire film there are unusual characters that somewhat portray how they died with the way they are costumed. The Maitlands are the only ones who seem to look like normal people when they surround themselves with these characters in a clinic waiting room. For the Maitlands it’s still hard to think that they are dead because they want possession of their house and they look normal and act normal. There’s a scene where the Maitlands try to scare off the Deetzes from living in their house by wearing bed sheets over themselves. To me, this is a part where the Maitlands feel confused as to how one should live the life of the dead or simply be dead, so they resolve by stereotype. Further in the film they try to make themselves look more horrifying by mutilating their faces but that didn’t get far. In the end, there’s also the scene where the Maitlands and the Deetzes are living under the same roof and seem to live the normal average life…TOGETHER…so normal. Mr. Deetzes is also reading some book of the living and dead, which I think is trying to make it all seem like both families get along and while one has been through life and death, the other is living and learning about death. I could say that the Maitlands’ fear is gone but there’s still denial if they go about doing activities that the living do. No one really knows what happens after death, there are only assumptions and ideas that float around thoughts.