Thelma and Louise: A Story About Breaking Free

Thelma and Louise is the adventurous, pulse-pounding story of two women who go on a small getaway, that quickly takes a turn for the worst and becomes a fugitive escape. The lives of Thelma and Louise portray the oppression faced by females in a typical, male-dominated society. We see the two women in the beginning of the film fulfilling all the typicalities of feminine stereotypes: Louise waiting tables at a diner, a job that is not uncommon for a woman, and Thelma, the wife of a loud, abusive, misogynistic man, who does not have a say or a place in their relationship other than to do domestic work. Even after being polite and asking her husband what he would like for dinner, he lashes out on her as if he feels that she needs to be put in her place; one could certainly say that Thelma's husband is an enforcer of the female stereotype, because he practically forces his wife into it by ordering her around and disrespecting her.

The two women then take it upon themselves to leave their mundane lives as they go off on a vacation, a vacation that Louise must persuade Thelma to partake in because her husband surely would not allow it. We see the women all done up and ready to go as they prepare for an exciting trip. We get a sense of relief, a sense of liberation as the two girls make their escape, but they're relief and their freedom is soon taken away. After stopping at a country bar, Thelma meets an alluring, attractive man who woos her into dancing with him. The two begin to hit it off, and we almost forget that Thelma even has a husband back home. At first, this man is such a contrast to Thelma's husband, so much that it could lead us to believe that he story is about a damsel in distress who is soon rescued by a "prince charming" type figure. But we later see his true colors, as the two go outside and the man starts to kiss her. She is resistent of this but he insists and keeps on going, even after she repeatedly begs him to stop. Fed up with Thelma's cries for help, the man becomes even more forceful and begins to rape Thelma. He takes a hold of her, even hits her and forces her down onto the hood of a car. This moment in the film takes us right back to the idea portrayed in the beginning that this film is not about a woman's reliability and dependence on man, but about the way a powerful male society dominates and oppresses its women. Before anything truly horrid happens, Louise comes to Thelma's rescue. She is holding a gun, threatening the man to back away from Thelma. This was a particularly memorable moment in the movie, because despite the usual story line, it is not a man who comes to the woman's rescue, but a woman, Louise. Louise manages to force the man to free Thelma, but even though he has let her go, she pulls the trigger and shoots him. This action marks a major turning point for the film; the two are now guilty of murder, and have no choice but to begin to run away.

"The police will never believe us Thelma, we don't live in a world like that.", a line said by Louise after  Thelma suggests going to the police. The two are now on the run and looking for an escape, as they are the source of a murder. And even though it was committed for defensive purposes, would the police really take the word of a female over a male? Gender puts Thelma and Louise in a tricky predicament throughout the rest of the film as well. For example, Thelma's submissive manner and weakness for men manages to get the two into even more trouble, just as it did in the beginning of the film when she was raped. Thelma befriends a cowboy, this "lone ranger" type man, and insists on Louise giving him a ride across town with them. Reluctant to partake this, Louise agrees and soon regrets the decision she made. After spending some time in a motel, Thelma learns that the cowboy is a thief who holds up stores. When telling Thelma about his routine whenever he performs a holdup, he is cool, collected and almost proud of what he does as if it is honorable. Thelma is even turned on, intrigued by his "bad boy" ways. Another problem soon emerges for the girls as the cowboy steals the large sum of money that Thelma and Louise have traveled all this way to get. He then takes off, and Thelma and Louise are again stuck in a situation.

With no choice but to keep running, that is exactly what the two do. Although the women are in a large amount of trouble, we see a sense of relief about both Thelma and Louise; they may be on the run from a crime, but one could say this escape that they've made symbolizes a woman's escape from the male-dominated, patriarchal world around her. On this journey, there is a change about Thelma and Louise, but most significantly in Thelma. Once a docile, timid and submissive housewife who had no voice in the relationship between her and her husband, Thelma becomes rebellious, spontaneous and independent. Thelma and Louise are not only fighting for and defending themselves, but it seems as though they are doing what they're doing for all women; they become these sort of "feminist crusaders". While on the run, the two pass a rowdy truck driver who makes degrading gestures at them; he does not hurt or threaten them, but the two decide that they've had enough of letting men degrade them. They later meet up with him, pretending that they want to engage in sexual activity, and we see them shoot up his truck with no hesitation or sign of remorse, causing it to explode. Now guilty of another crime, the women are on the run again. They drive further and further until suddenly, the police begin to catch up with them. Almost making another narrow escape, they realize there is nowhere else to go, since they are backed by a squad of police cars, and practically on the edge of a canyon cliff. Thelma and Louise are given the chance to surrender, but why give up now? After all the time they've spent running and fighting, why would they just give up to surrender to men once again? Thelma shockingly convinces Louise to make a drastic decision to drive off the cliff together, finally free from the hostility of their society, and the two drive into one of film's most memorable endings