Analysis #3 "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House

In the movie, "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House", the Blandings decide to move away from the city and find the perfect house. One problem after another arises until they decide to build a new house from the ground up. In the process of building the house, the project becomes larger and larger and more expensive. At the end of the film, they are broke, but they have the house of their dreams. How does this contrast with our views of home ownership in today's world? Many of us will never be homeowners, spending our lives in rented apartments, condominiums, or houses. Many people in the real estate market today are in danger of losing their homes because they bought houses that they really could not afford to own. The loans being made were interest only and when the housing market changed for the worse, they were left with a mortgage with a rising interest rate that they could no longer afford. Since very few, if any payments had been made toward the principal on the house, soon they were"upside down" when the bottom fell out of the market.The "dream house" was now worth less than what it originally cost to purchase. Couple this scenario with the rising unemployment and you have a large group of people who may never have the satisfaction of owning a home. The question worth asking is this? Does everyone deserve to own a house? If one lived in the city of New York, one would be quite content to spend their life in an apartment, and never dream of owning a home. How would Sigmund Freud analyze the dream thought and the dream content in regard to home ownership in our world today? Freud states "The dream-thoughts and the dream-content are presented to us like two versions of the same subject matter in two different languages"(819). How is one able to translate the dream as it relates to us today? Conversely, how does the theory of the Oedipus Complex enter into this discussion? Do we want to attain home ownership because we feel that we deserve it, or is there an underlying competition to do better than one's Father? Freud states that the words of the chorus in "Oedipus Rex" "strikes as a warning at ourselves and our pride"(816). Something to consider when one decides where and how to live.


"Works Cited"

Leitch, Vincent B. Ed.
The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism Second Ed. New York: Norton, 2010. Print.