Bonnie Was a Dreamer

Bonnie Parker looks beautiful on screen when she is portrayed by Faye Dunaway in the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde. For me, her real beauty came in her ability to dream. She lived a life of absolute poverty during the years of the Great Depression.  When she met Clyde, she knew what she had  to do.  She had dreamt  of the opportunity to escape nearly all life.  Below is my character analysis for my Film History Research Project in English 110.



Bonnie Parker was a dreamer. Growing up in Texas – this is the early 20^th Century – she was a bright and ambitious student.  In her English classes, she showed a keen interest in poetry and literature.   She dreamt of on day becoming an actress,  but life got in the way.  She became involved with violent men.  Whatever she held dearly in her heart gradually hardened.  At age 15 she married a violent and abusive man.  His name was Roy Thorton, and he was sent to jail for armed robbery.  She never saw him again.  Although you would think she would have learned her lesson, she fell deeply in love with young Clyde Barrow.  Together they formed a gang and began a two-year long crime spree.  This was the 1930s – The Great Depression.  It was hard times.  When they met, the lived in poverty.  When they died, they had become celebrated bank robbers. As Bonnie and Clyde believed in living every moment of their lives to the fullest, it is only fitting that their deaths were truly spectacular.  After two and a half year crime spree in which the couple terrorized five states, and embarrassed, taunted, and eluded all law enforcement that pursued them, a group of Texas Rangers finally caught up with the gang hiding out in Louisiana.  An ambush was organized and carried out.  Bonnie and Clyde died in a violent onslaught of bullets.  They didn’t stand a chance.