Understanding The Running Away Theme as Depicted in Different Movies

Running away is what most people do when they are facing hardships that they cannot deal with. In the short story, “The Lipstick Tree,” written by Kiana Davenport, Eva, the main character runs away from her tribal home to become a “modern woman.” She decides to face the problem of domestic abuse, lack of further education, and the hardships against women by running away to Wewak, a town with modern conveniences and a hospital. Although running away isn’t always the most popular solution, there are characters who would both agree and disagree with the concept from other popular literature and media. The Youngers, from A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, Hannah Baker, from TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY, by Jay Asher and Pai, from the movie Whale Rider would have different opinions on the issue. The Youngers and Hannah would choose to leave with Eva, but Pai would choose to stay. All the characters have different reasons because of how they lived.

The Younger family would have agreed with Eva’s running away to find a better life. In the book A Raisin in the Sun, the main goal of the Younger family is to find a new house for their family, so that they may start anew, despite the hardships that they have encountered. After all, when the moving men arrive, Ruth, the mother figure in the story is so excited to leave and start a new life she giddily exclaims,”LET’S GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!”(113) Because the Youngers were in search of a better life, just as Eva was, if they were to disagree, it would be extremely hypocritical to their morals and ideas. The book also describes that the white people in the Clayborne would not want them to live in the town, reiterating that both parties had people trying to stop them from leaving, such as Ernest would have done to Eva. Just like the Youngers, Eva was equally as excited and ready to start a new life, when after escaping from her village she came across the boy paddling the canoe and she screamed,”Yes,...We are ready!”(11). The Youngers would support Eva’s decision to start a new life because both were excited to begin anew and that was just what both planned to do. The Younger’s wouldn’t agree with staying, they would fully accept and agree with both Eva’s reasoning and grand goal for leaving. Although both might have a hard time adjusting to the new world that they are entering and by the threshold that they are crossing, they would agree firmly that it needed to be done.

Not only the Youngers would have supported Eva’s quest to start new life. Characters such as Hannah Baker from the book, TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY, which is about Hannah’s tapes that she left after her suicide, would have also agreed with Eva’s decision to run away and start again in a better world, even though she, herself could not do such a thing, ending her life with committing suicide. Hannah only looked for a better world. She didn’t want to be noticed, all she wanted was to escape the horror that her life had become. When Hannah discusses what to do about her issues with the school therapist all she can think to utter was,”Nothing, it’s over.”(277) Hannah didn’t know how to make it better, but she knew that she both deserved better and craved something different from the bottom of her heart. She no longer wanted to be just a girl who could be picked on or bullied, such as how Eva was abused by her husband, but free. If Hannah could have found a way out besides suicide, she would have happily taken it. She saw no hope, but she would have supported others, such as Eva who found hope by running away. Eva could run away from her issues, she could get away from the conformity and discrimination Hannah felt. Not only would Hannah agree with Eva’s idea of running away to find a better life, but she might have tried it as well. Eva had found the opening Hannah had not, and because of who Hannah was, she would have supported Eva’s decision to the very end. All Hannah ever wanted was to “..get away from this Hell.”(156) She would have loved to see Eva get away from her own Hell too.

Although, not all of the characters would have agreed with the concept of running away from their problems. One such character is Paikea from Whale Rider. In the film, Pai lives with her grandparents and has to deal with being the most qualified for the position of chief in her tribe, but cannot achieve it because she is a girl. Unlike Eva, though Pai stayed on New Zealand even though she had the chance to run away with her father to go and start a new life in Germany. At home, although commonly chastised by her grandfather, Koro. Instead of giving up because she was a female, Pai tried her best to learn the practices, and skills of a chief. When Koro was unable to select a chief of the tribe’s males because they were unable to reach the whale tooth, Pai swims down as far as she can go to reclaim the whale tooth, which none of the males could do. Although Koro would have disciplined her as he had done with the stick fighting when she disarmed Hemi, she wouldn’t stop defiling Koro’s request in order to prove she had what it took to become chief of her tribe. What’s even more astounding is even with the issue of the whales, she was still able to confront what had been deemed impossible, be brave and do what no one else was able to do, which was put the beached whales back into the water. Pai would have advocated not to run away, but to stay in the village and try to change the situation there. Pai would have disagreed because she had faced many problems and hardships and learned to face them to eventually become the chief. If anything, she would have been disappointed in what Eva had done.

Running away from problems is a panned topic which many different people, and characters feel different about. Although the characters of Pai, the Younger family, and Hannah Baker would all have had a slightly different idea of whether or not they would have agreed with Eva, there are other characters who would have completely different opinions. Everyone thinks a little bit differently, so the question “Would other characters agree..?” leaves open so many more possibilities that just can’t be addressed in so small of an amount of time. Characters would both agree and disagree, but it is up to the reader of each text to decided their opinion on each.