preview

Examples Of Transcendentalism In The Sixth Sense

Decent Essays

The Sixth Sense “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” This quote from Transcendentalist writer, Henry David Thoreau, exemplifies the characteristics of Romanticism and Transcendentalism. He is saying, it’s not what you look at, but how you look at it. These characteristics are in almost every T.V. show or movie whether we realize it or not. The Sixth Sense has the perfect mixture of the two literary movements because of Grotesque characters, out of the ordinary characters and settings, and all forms of being. Quiet and anxious, and oversized glasses describe Cole Sears, a patient of Dr. Malcolm Crowe. Cole is a grotesque character because of his harmless appearance, but haunting emotional structure. Labeled “freak” …show more content…

In the first scene of the movie, Dr. Crowe finds a broken window and desk in his house. This leads to a confrontation with a former patient of his, Vincent Grey, standing in Dr. Crowe’s bathroom in nothing but his underwear. Vincent screams, “you failed me!” and fires a gun at Dr. Crowe and striking him before putting the gun to his own head. The color red flashes in mind when people think of blood and death. Throughout the movie -- red sweaters, red doorknobs, red numbers, red church statues, and red nails -- appear, most notably when death or an important event occurs. When Cole and his mother were invited to a classmate’s birthday party, Cole wanders upstairs and stumbles upon a room at the top of the stairs. He hears noises and gets frightened at the sound. Two classmates grab him and shove him into the room, causing Cole to have a panic attack and pass out, all of this occurring while he was wearing a red sweater. After the party, Cole’s mother was putting him to bed when she notices scratches on his back. Cole finally tells Dr. Crowe his secret, Cole can see dead people. When Cole doesn’t cooperate with them, they hurt him, which causes Cole to be fearful whenever one approaches him. All of these are prime examples of out of the ordinary characters of the Romanticism

Get Access