Groundhog Day: Finding an Invincible Summer in the Deepest Punxsutawney Winter

Fields, Paul (2017) Groundhog Day: Finding an Invincible Summer in the Deepest Punxsutawney Winter. The Journal of Camus Studies 2016. pp. 1-22.

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Abstract

Groundhog Day appears on its surface to be somewhat of a typical example of a 1990s romantic comedy: the lead male and the lead female “clash humorously before the collapse of the conflict so that the movie fulfils the ‘guy gets girl’ convention.”3 As a consequence of closer and closer readings, however, thoughts have evolved to the point where it is now considered to be at least far more of a cerebral film than it was on its release, and at most as an allegory for many of the teachings in religion and philosophy. The film tells the story of Phil Connors, a misanthropic weather reporter who becomes stuck in a time loop during a visit to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to report on the groundhog festival. Having covered the 2 February event, which takes place at ‘Gobbler’s Knob’ in the centre of Punxsutawney, and the main feature of which involves a groundhog predicting whether or not there will be an early spring, he wakes up at 6am the following morning to discover it is still 2 February. 2 February appears again the following morning, the morning after that, and so on and so forth. Only Phil is aware this is happening, however; each repetition of 2 February is still the ‘first’ instance of that day for everyone else. Having been through enough successive 2 Februarys to conclude he is not dreaming or imagining it all, Phil accepts his fate. The degree to which he accepts it varies, however, and this can be seen through what are primarily three distinct stages: SEE FULL TEXT

Item Type: Article
Depositing User: J McPeak
Date Deposited: 02 Jun 2017 13:14
Last Modified: 25 May 2018 13:47
URI: https://bnu.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/15335

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