Freedom
"Rebellion is the only thing that keeps you alive" is the first sentence in the movie that caught my attention. This sets the tone for the film and it's liberation for women. Women have learned that it is okay to not be happy with the "best thing that's ever happened to you", to find a way to love something other than the leading man in your life. Sometimes, the best thing that happens to you, is the in some ways the worst, leaving you objectified and all of your energy focusing around the male (phallocentrism). The male gaze is introduced as she sets off on her motorcycle, stopping for gas and the camera pans around to her backside as the nozzle of the pump slides into the gas tank. This theme continues on throughout the movie with sometimes voyaristic taste as men look at her while she is seemingly helpless, stasis, and unreactive to any advancement. We also see this when Daniel meets her in the bookstore and grazes her legs and then dominates her as a slave of free love. This is a road trip film which paves the way for women to advance into their own ways of life despite their husband, lovers, or any male which tries to take power of them.