Requiem For A Dream Analysis

**The meaning of Requiem for a Dream is that people want to feel loved, and drugs can be a way to temporarily fill this hole, but in the end, drugs cause division and only make the hole bigger.**

Examples that support this Requiem for a Dream analysis:

The use of light as a representation of love, and how the drugs can temporarily simulate this light:

– Harry and Tyrone are lit up by the sun through the window after their first score in the film
– The light of the flame
– Sarah’s neighbors sit in the sun in the front of the building
– The flashing lights of the television
– The flashing lights grow more intense as the film progresses
– “Now when I look at the sun, I smile”
– The red dress that Sarah wants to wear
– The red dress that Marion wears on the pier in the sun in Harry’s dream

The divided screens to show how drugs actually cause division:

– The opening scene between Harry and his mother
– The scene with Harry and Marion lying across from each other
– The scene with Sarah and her fridge

Holes growing bigger:

– The pupils dilating
– The hole in Harry’s arm
– The addictions growing stronger

People falling:

– The highlight of the roller coasters of Coney Island
– Harry and Marion go to the top of the building and watch the paper airplanes go down
– Harry falls off the pier in his dream in the end

Parental issues of the characters:

– Harry has a dead father
– Tyrone misses his mother
– Marion’s parents give her money instead of love
– The final sequence where each character ends up in the fetal position even though they are alone