Analysis Of An American Fantasy? Love, Nobility And Friendship In Casablanca

In “An American Fantasy? Love, Nobility and Friendship in Casablanca,” Peter Augustine Lawler examines the relationship between Rick and the American political position. The author parallels Rick’s “regression, in effect, toward the subhuman, utterly self-sufficient contentment of the Rousseauean state of nature” with America’s policy of isolationism of the 1930’s (70). Interestingly, Rick’s with draw was the result of pain and heartbreak, just as America’s political isolation was the result of WWI and the great depression.
Although Rick appears to be apathetic, the viewer soon realizes that he is in fact struggling to maintain his aloof posturing and trying to deny the nobility he truly feels. This represents America’s wrestling to maintain