New Life

Initial Post to Intermission Two Paper Talk:
It was very interesting to see how Professor Walter changed his perceptions and attitudes towards people, throughout the entire film. He seemed like such a loner, with nothing to live for, with such a "cold", unloving attitude in the beginning of the movie and as it progressed he became a caring and understanding old soul. Especially, under the certain situation in which he was involved in. Being introduced to a different crowd can really change someone's outlook on things that don't just involve them. They begin to look at the bigger picture, which is what Walter did. For instance, I remember when Walter came back to his old apartment in New York (which he had rarely stayed at), from teaching one class in Connecticut, and ran into an old neighbor. The neighbor was so happy to see him and wanted to have a short, but sweet conversation with Walter. After explaining that his wife had passed, Walter wanted nothing to do with his neighbor, even while his "old friend" was talking about the events that has passed for him since Walter was gone. The filmmakers did a great job at turning the situation around on Walter towards the end of the movie. They portrayed Walter as being the outsider, while he was asking to find out where his immigrant friend was--no one wanted to listen to him. Unfortunately, it's like that old saying, "What comes around, goes around."

It didn't take that long for Walter to get accustomed to being around these "new" people that he found living in his apartment for 2 months. In the beginning of the film, you could tell that he was lonely on the inside but on the outside he was as cold as ice. He grew very fond of Zaineb and Tarek, that when there were rough times, he tried to fix them. Just like a community would do for their people. He became so involved in their lives that he wanted almost leave his old life behind. The filmmakers made a great portrayal in this point by having Walter's piano sold to his fourth and last piano teacher (his passed wife had played the piano, so he tried to learn it.) He ended up picking up the African drum, which Tarek introduced him to. It was very much like this throughout the movie, where Walter was throwing away old habits and items and picking up new ones, along with new friends (and family). This isn't uncommon now days, with people picking up and moving to another town, state or even country, to be with someone they love or like this movie illustrates, being with complete strangers and learning to accept their cultures and traditions.

Classmate response and question:
I think that the ending of the film wasn't extremely flashy but do you think that that final scene summarized Walter's transformation and all of the positive influences that his boundary crossing had provided him?

My response to question:
I can see how everything that Walter went through, left him with a positive outlook on people that were outside his boundaries. The immigrants that he took in for a while, influenced him in such a positive way that he was able to experience emotions again. It seemed that after his wife passed, he closed himself off from the world, walking around with no meaning and feelings. When Tarek and his wife entered Walter's "boundary" (his apartment), the transformation of Walter's perception, attitude, emotions, and even lifestyle, began.

Then I responded to a classmate's initial posting, asking questions and analyzing further:
I agree with you in the fact most people who come to America, come here in search for what opportunities they can find, and that most of the time, these opportunities they take, are ones that no one already here wants. It's unfortunate that Tarik was arrested, because like you said, if you saw this guy on the street, playing the drums, you wouldn't think twice about him. Was he arrested because of his looks or, because he was fumbling around with his bags at the station? I wasn't quite sure about that scene. It just shows that someone wouldn't be able to tell the difference from a person living here legally or a person living here illegally.

Here is one more response to another classmate's initial response:
I felt the same way about the movie and how it portrayed such a huge transformation. To go along with what caught your eye when he was trying to find his immigrant guy friend that he had met. Walter was always the type of person to not really care if other people had a problem, it was their situation and it sucked to be them. But, now he was in the same situation but as the victim. The tables turned completely on him. I definitely noticed that at the end of the movie, when he was at the immigrant holding place. He was so desperate to find Tarik, that it made the scene that much more meaningful, showing how the tables had turned, putting him in the situation that he found his new friends in a few days ago. I was able to correlate almost everything that happened to Walter, with how he treated everything before those events took place.