Noah Cohan
Period C
Mrs. Sutton
9/5/12
Harvey Response The play and movie Harvey is about a man named Elwood P. Doub who can see a six-foot bunny named Harvey. Elwood’s family can not see the so they believe that it does not exist, so they put him in a mental where he quickly makes friends with everyone in there. Later people start to believe in Harvey because they see how happy Elwood is having him in his life.
My favorite character in the movie “Harvey” was Elwood. To me he represents the good and innocence in everyone and inner good. He shows most when the cab driver is growing impatient with his sister and the judge for not having any money. Instead of getting mad at the cabbie for being so pushy, he calmly gives him the fare plus a generous tip and also invites to dinner at his house. Elwood is just a very nice person and is willing to do almost anything to make people happy, even if that means getting rid of Harvey.
I believe that Elwood sees Harvey because his mother died when he was a little kid and he is very traumatized about so he imagines a six-foot bunny that is his best friend. A bunny could have been Elwood’s favorite animal as a kid and just imagines that one came alive and grew up with him. An element of fantasy in this play is that there every young kid would like a favorite childhood toy or animal to come alive and they could be best friends. As a child I always wanted my stuffed dog named Scooby to come alive so we could solve mysteries just like in Scooby Doo.
If there is anything wrong with Elwood it is not very present in the movie. There could be something wrong with him seeing a giant bunny as his best friend. This isn’t bad for his subconscious because he volunteers to take a shot that would get rid of Harvey and make him “normal”. At the last minute his sister doesn’t want him to do it because she is afraid of what he will become. I think this does make me question what is normal but not concerning Harvey. When I think about what it is going against the norm in Harvey I think of basically every other character besides Elwood. If you look at how all the different people in the play act when Elwood tells them about Harvey
