Choi Beetlejuice response

Why does America refuse the idea of death? Compared to many other civilizations around the world such as China or Korea, America has a very short history. China has developed over a course of a few thousand years, whereas America was declared independent only 237 years ago. Despite being such a young nation, America has achieved a lot over a very short period of time which is nothing but remarkable. On the other hand, such rapid change and progress could have entrapped the minds of Americans in the “present”. Since everyone was busy playing their parts in helping the young country develop, there surely would have been less room for people to think about neither the past nor the future (in terms of afterlife), needless to say that they did not have the chance to acquire the laid back, somewhat optimistic approach to death that some “experienced” countries with long history have. America is a nation that did not experience too much history or change, and therefore people are afraid of changes, and love being in the present. Death, being the one greatest change in our lives, is not the kind of thing that Americans would love.

Having said that, the view on death imposed by Beetlejuice can be described as the epitome of such stable, unchanging way of life that many Americans prefer and live. Upon death, the Maitlands have a hard time comprehending what happened to them. When they realized that they are dead, their first and most natural instinct was to go back to where they were in life, not accepting the fact that they were dead. They did not want to leave their house (although they couldn’t even if they wanted to), they did not want intruders in their house, and they wanted nothing to change when everything has changed. Beetlejuice is a story built on that one great desire to seek stability in life. It could have been a story about the Maitlands going through a mystical and fantastic journey through the world of afterlife, but instead, Tim Burton chose to depict a couple seeking to retrieve their original lifestyle, although their life seemed pretty mundane and uninteresting to me.

The Maitlands

Well, I guess it doesn’t matter if afterlife is way more adventurous and interesting than life. The Maitlands just wanted their lives as they were, and change was something they didn’t want, no matter how dull and colorless their lives might be.