Written by: Denise Anne Castro, 2013-14434
The Twilight Zone: Time Enough at Last
The Twilight Zone episode “Time Enough at Last” was
released in 1959, a time when tensions were rising between the United States
and the Soviet Union. In the episode, Americans were depicted as normal people
who went on with their daily lives trying to earn a living. However, there were
still apparent undertones of the imminent danger brought on by the Cold War.
This period was also the onset of the digital age, particularly, the computer.
In 1956, the first computer hard disk was used. In 1958, the computer modem was
invented. Literature and periodicals were still prevalent sources of
information and leisure but devices like the transistor radio and the
television were slowly taking over as dominant media.
This is my take on the story while retaining themes of
irony, desolation, apocalypse and technology but also highlighting the importance
of pop culture and trends in today’s society.
The main character is a 17-year-old girl. She has a scholarship
in the country’s most prestigious university. Despite her dreams of becoming a
pianist, she takes up engineering in order to fulfill her parents’ dreams. On
the night before her finals, she decides to take a break from reviewing and
composes a song on an old organ she bought from the thrift shop. Her father
hears her and becomes enraged. He goes to her room, pretends to be pleased at
her daughter’s talent and asks her to play a song. In the middle of her song,
he pulls her by her hair and scolds her. He rummages her room and burns the
pile of CDs containing her compositions.
Hoping
to seek comfort, she calls up her best friend, confesses her love for classical
music and her parents’ distress over her passion. Instead of siding with her,
her best friend berates her for her taste in music, calling it cheesy,
distasteful and disgusting. Her best friend advises that she abandon her classical
music and instead, listen to the latest hits by famous pop and R&B artists.
With
nowhere to run, she puts her iPod inside her pocket and hides in a mall’s basement
parking lot. She spends all night listening to her favorite classical music
until she falls asleep. When she wakes up and goes outside of the parking lot,
she is surprised to see everything in ashes. She walks a great distance but
only burnt remnants of the city remain. There is a disturbing silence in the
air. With nothing to do, she listens to her iPod but no sound is coming out of
her earphones. She assumes that the huge explosion must have destroyed all the
electronics.
She
stumbles upon a music store containing all the instruments she could ever hope
for. She considers it paradise. She runs toward the piano and presses the keys
but it seems to be destroyed since no sound is produced. She tries out the
other instruments in a frenzy but none of them seem to work either. She goes
out of the store in despair. She sees a bird perched on a tree. The bird opens
its beak to tweet but again, the girl hears nothing. She slowly realizes that
the loud explosion must have damaged her hearing. She is now deaf and can no
longer appreciate the classical music she so dearly loves.
No comments:
Post a Comment