Midnight In Paris Analysis

Throughout different types of literature the lesson of the story can be very similar. In the play “Our Town” by Thornton Wilder and movie Midnight in Paris by Woody Allen, the underlining theme of both tales compliments each other. “Our Town” takes place in a small town where two families live next to each other and their children who experience together life, marriage, and death. In the movie Midnight in Paris, a writer, Gil Pender, gets the chance to travel back in time to his golden age, the 1920’s, where he meets his idols. During both of the storylines, the main character comes to terms with the admonition that life is commonly taken for granted.

The grand scheme of everything is often brought up in both plots. Gil learns about the term “golden age thinking”, which refers to a person who wishes they could live in a different era. When he starts time traveling back to the 1920’s, he learns that people living it did not view this period the same
Emily, like Gil, was able to visit the past. After Emily died due to child labor, she was allowed to choose one insignificant day of her life to visit, deciding on her twelfth birthday. During this, she understood that all the little things she had forgotten about were important, such as her present from her husband George Gibbs. As she continues to watch her family live the day, she grasps all the things she took for granted and how she could never see or have them again. Simon Stimson described the living as “to move around in a cloud of ignorance,” as they discussed why it is that people never understand to enjoy everything in front of them till they are no longer alive.(109) Gil recognizes this during his time traveling as well. He observed the fact that one day his present will be someone else's golden age. Both characters become acquainted with the fact that current day is important and should be