A Cougar in a Lion's Den

After finishing a novel such as The Stranger by Albert Camus, I feel I have seen what it is like to truly be an outcast from society. While The Stranger does illustrate falling outside stereotypes of that time, the film Trust by Hal Hartley depicts the consequences of what it is like to be a woman who defeats the stereotypical gender roles and lifestyle that society promotes. 

As Maria, the protagonist gets pregnant, she quickly becomes a social pariah and is forced to move away from her parents. She goes to venture throughout the world, but lives a life of neglect from her peers, as they see she is different.

 After Maria's father died, her mother struggled to maintain sanity. She was bound to her husband, and felt lost without a man by her side. Unlike her mother, Maria chooses to venture outside the stereotypical gender roles at the time and, though not thrive, but live as a social being. After struggling financially, Maria stumbles upon Matthew, a man whose father has been living successfully independently for a while now. Matthew, being a fully grown man living at home, is frowned upon and seen as a disgrace for his style of living by his father, and the rest of society. The power couple (Matthew and Maria), though do not follow the usual lifestyles that society has set in place, stand strong in illuminating their unique way of living. 

This can especially be seen in the scene where Maria and Matthew are looking for the husband of the woman who stole the baby. Once Maria and her partner in crime narrow down their options to simply one group of men who arrive on a bus at a certain time, they find trouble distinguishing between working men as they all look the same. This scene emphasized the difference between the common working man and the two outcasts. This film, similar to The Stranger, is relevant at anytime. There will always be outcasts within a society, and to be one is to be unique in your own way.