Who gets to tell their story?
Mona’s actions and words seem contradictory, even mad, from the standpoint of “traditional” reason, for although the “witnesses” to her last winter evince the need to categorize her, she eludes their efforts (Hottel 11).
Mona in Vagabond and Wyatt in Easy Rider are both central characters who hit the road to fill their need to be free of society. But as a woman Mona’s cinematic journey is quite different than Wyatt’s.
Extended Entry--
One feminist idea focuses on the underdog in any category – sex, race, sexuality, or class being unable to tell their own story. There is an academic idea that takes the histories and confessions of those of a lower class and being tell them from the dominant binary’s point of view. While I agree that Mona is in charge of her destiny and is controlling the course of her story, she is still not the one allowed to tell it. We see the story of this woman (this binary underdog) through the eyes of others, many of whom were more privileged in the category of sex - men, or class- the professor. Wyatt in Easy Rider is also in control of his journey’s outcome, but we get the sense that he is conveying the story to us himself- we don’t have to watch or hear about the action through anybody else’s eyes. We watch it directly as it happens. Varda uses the cinematic tool of looking at the main character through the looks of other characters on the screen; and even though we aren’t looking at the main female character in an objectified or sexual way, her story is still told through the eyes and words of others.
One small similarity I noticed between the central characters in Easy Rider and Vagabond was the markings on the things they carried with them. Wyatt rode a motorcycle coated with images of the American flag with a helmet to match; on Mona’s bag was a monogrammed M that looked like a University letter. I thought these were interesting symbols for them to carry on their journeys of searching and wandering. It makes me think that they were always carrying a piece of their past or of what they were escaping from and avoiding (American tradition and society for Wyatt and Mona respectively). I would like to think that this was why their journey’s “failed” or ended in death. Because you can never be allowed to completely escape your past or the things that have shaped you.