Acknowledgments: You Mean So Much to Us
Introduction: So . . . Why “The Meaning of Life”?
THE TRUMAN SHOW
1. Deceit and Doubt: The Search For Truth in The Truman Show and Descartes’s Meditations
KIMBERLY A. BLESSING
CONTACT
2. Our Place in the Cosmos: Faith and Belief in Contact
HEATHER KEITH and STEVE FESMIRE
WAKING LIFE
3. The On-Going Wow: Waking Life and The Waltz Between Detachment and Immersion
KEVIN STOEHR
FIGHT CLUB
4. I Am Jack’s Wasted Life: Fight Club and Personal Identity
JOHN ZAVODNY
BEING JOHN MALKOVICH
5. It’s my Heeeeaaaad!: Sex and Death in Being John Malkovich
WALTER OTT
BOYS DON’T CRY
6. Popping It In: Gender Identity in Boys Don’t Cry
REBECCA HANRAHAN
7. We All Need Mirrors to Remind Us Who We Are: Inherited Meaning and Inherited Selves in Memento
MICHAEL BAUR
CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS
8. The Indifferent Universe: Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors
MARK T. CONARD
SHADOWLANDS
9. Rats In God’s Laboratory: Shadowlands and The Problem of Evil
DAVID BAGGETT
CHASING AMY
10. Flying Without a Map: Chasing Amy and The Quest For Satisfying Relationships
JERRY L. WALLS
Take Four: What Do I Want Out of Life?
AMERICAN BEAUTY
11. American Beauty: Look Closer
GEORGE HOLE
LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL
12. Life is Beautiful: The Lure of Evil and the Rebellion of Love
ANTHONY C. SCIGLITANO, JR.
THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
13. The Shawshank Redemption and The Hope For Escape
WILLIAM YOUNG
KILL BILL, VOLUMES 1 AND 2
14. The Roar and the Rampage: A Tale of Revenge in Kill Bill Volumes I and II
Take Five: How Should I Live My Life?
PLEASANTVILLE
15. Pleasantville, Aristotle, and the Meaning of Life
ERIC REITAN
SPIDER-MAN AND SPIDER-MAN 2
16. Of Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, and Living Like a Hero
JONATHAN J. SANFORD
MINORITY REPORT
17. So Tired of the Future: Freedom and Determinism in Minority Report
NIR EISIKOVITS and SHAI BIDERMAN
PULP FICTION
18. Grace, Fate, and Accident in Pulp Fiction
MICHAEL SILBERSTEIN
GROUNDHOG DAY
19. What Nietzsche Could Teach You: Eternal Recurrence in Groundhog Day
JAMES SPENCE