Mona Vagabond Analysis

As the title insinuates, Vagabond explores the life of a drifter. As we have learned thus far in the course, a woman's role/responsibility in society is to perform domestic duties. This was best shown in Chantal Akerman’s Je Tu Il Elle and Saute Ma Ville. However, the aspect of the drifter, or the vagabond plays an interesting theme. The fact that Mona does not have a home, nor the necessary role of keeping someone else’s home, she is not following cultural or societal expectations. She does not have a purpose considering that she does not have a husband to please, a home to clean, or a child to nurture. Within the car scene, the Car Lady is initially repulsed by Mona, yet following with societal norms, the Car Lady’s maternal instinct begins …show more content…
She also has virtually limitless time because she does not have anyone waiting for her. She does not have a child waiting to be dressed or fed and does not have a husband who is waiting to be serviced or fed. Mona has no real direction, no one to answer to, and nowhere to go, so she wanders aimlessly (Vagabond). Thus, our scene in a way shows not only how physically disgusting and repulsive Mona was to the Car Lady because her hygiene was sub-par due to her lack of a home, but also how repulsive she was because she did not align with what you would expect a woman to be like (Vagabond). As our scene progresses, the Car Lady becomes more and more comfortable, hearing more about Mona and ultimately understands why Mona does what she does. The Car Lady is perhaps less revolted by Mona because she envies her to a degree. As Lauren Elkin describes “the world is less scary when you have some control over where you go in it” (Elkin). Mona has this control to a degree. Car Lady is a conformist. Car Lady does not have this freedom. Thus, Car Lady envies the fact that Mona is not necessarily upheld to an oppressive household and domestic lifestyle. The Car Lady envies how Mona is free to come and go as she pleases. Further evidence can be found when Mona talks with the herder-guy saying that she hated being a secretary and thus she left. It is interesting because Simone de Beauvoir states that women are often “proud of being self-sufficient as a rockefeller” (Beauvoir 721). Therefore, Mona is proud of her status, because she is free and to a degree self-sufficient, at least in her own mind. Mona is free to escape the expectation and oppression that typical, “less repulsive” women are plagued by. Thus, in a way, Varda’s goal could be to show that it is the women who are at the absolute bottom of the hierarchical pyramid, those