Taxi Driver and the Pursuit of the Norm

I believe that a person should become like other people-Travis Bickle

Normal. A word we all use everyday to describe something that we don’t fully understand. I mean, after all, what does normal even mean? It would seem to be the average member of the subgroup being discussed. But none of us are actually normal. We perceive ourselves as something that sticks outside of the vein of normal activities, normal diet, and normal ideas. And we constantly seek to be a member of this normal group that does everything in a normal way. Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver is also one of these people. He just wants to be like other people. The blatantly obvious flaw in this desire is that he can never be himself, and thereby, can never be really satisfied. All of his actions in the films are motivated by this urge to be a part of some larger community, to end his increasingly depraved alienation by acting normal. Unfortunately, his perspective on the world is not conducive to this endeavor. And this leads to his eventual downfall.

The movie begins with Travis applying for a job as a taxi driver, a job that might help cure his insomnia, a job that might allow him to meet new people, but mostly a job that allows him to be normal. He is one of several hundred, if not thousand taxi drivers in NYC. He is suddenly no longer alone. But a taste is not sufficient to sate his hunger. He falls for Betsy (Cybil Sheppard), a campaign worker for the democratic nominee for president, and one day gets the courage to ask her out. They go to a diner where he orders apple pie and she a salad. We, the audience, know that his conversation is anything but sincere, rather it is a façade that he puts up, trying to convince her that he is not a whack job. She finds his bumbling cute and agrees to another date with him. This is when things go sour.

He takes her to a porn theater. It sounds a lot worse than it actually is. I actually find it quite adorable (and will go down in history for calling Travis Bickle by such an adjective). The only thing he knows about dates is that it includes a movie, and that he sees people go on dates to the afore-mentioned theater. All he wants to do is something that seems to be normal, but his limited perspective on normal stunts his ability to get along in the world. He can’t cope when her rejection stems from something he has seen done a thousand times. He reacts like a puppy that is being punished. He didn’t know any better. After she storms off and he gets back into his taxi, he has his first encounter with Iris (Jodie Foster). As they say, when one doors closes, another opens.

Iris becomes his new project, as he continues to deal with the rejection from Betsy. Iris is a 12 year old prostitute. The first time he is given a 20 by her pimp (Harvey Keitel) and told to forget it. The second time, he almost hits her with his cab. After that he seeks her out and procures her services in order to convince her to get away. His primary complaint with her activities is that they do not fit into his perception of normal. He thinks, as do most of us that 12 year olds should be in school instead of strutting their stuff on a street corner.

The third chapter to this story begins just after meeting her. He decides that he needs to get back into shape. His muscles are not what they used to be, and he needs something to protect himself. So he works out when he is off duty, and purchases several handguns. He also takes apart basic household objects to reduce the amount of effort required to draw said guns. It is around here that he has his famous “You talkin’ to me?” speech. This speech is a continuation of the normality that he pursues. He inflates himself with a sort of pseudo-machismo trying to be some sort of superhuman. As the bard will tell us, there’s the rub. Because when it comes down to brass tacks, normality is a fantasy. It’s really a rehash of the Platonic theory of forms. There is some form that is beyond our comprehension that we are all based upon and seek to become. We all wish to be this Ubermensch of Nietzschean proportions. We stare into the abyss of normality, and the abyss stares back.

Effectively we are all Travis Bickle. We live in a world devoid of reason, devoid of morals, and devoid of truth. We can go to the street corner to sleep with Iris, or get an instant hamburger, made with only 10 % beef and 90 % plastic. The irony of the last scene in this film, and I’ll try not to ruin it, is that it is extremely surreal. Things happen that would not normally happen. Perhaps this is a symptom of some medical condition, or it is his idea of heaven, but his actions are understood for the heart behind them instead of the extent to which he broke the law. For that matter, vigilante justice is never looked highly upon, and Bickle would go to prison for what he did, but instead he lives a happy life and even gets to see Betsy again in a positive light. In all actuality his actions would be condemned, and he would be called a madman. Also, certain authorities would recognize him, and he would spend many years in jail. As it is, everything ends happily. The point here is that the world could be better. Someone could do something good outside of the laws and be recognized for it. But its not, and they won’t be. We are all tragically alone in this world. Unfortunately, we too are stuck in a downward spiral, a spiral that leads to only one destination, that of the abyss.