Donnie Darko Psychology

“Donnie Darko? What the hell kind of name is that? It’s like some sort of superhero or something.” (Donnie Darko 2001) This movie takes place in a space that does not exist in our world. This wondrous place is connected with wormholes, which is a passage to a parallel universe. There is one person who has the ability to travel through the wormholes. Donald Darko is a mentally ill teenager that happens to sleepwalk often and ends up outside in strange places, such as a field in the mountains. Sleepwalking genuinely saved his life, due to the fact that a jet engine landed in his room at night, but he was meeting his special friend for the first time. An imaginary friend named Frank, although he is not a typical friend. A six foot tall man in

a grey rabbit suit that consistently tells Donnie to do cynical things that would result in a crime. “28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, 12 seconds. That is when the world will end.” Frank told him. An example would be when Frank convinced him to flood his own school and put an axe through the head of their mascot statue. Donnie discovers time travel, and also falls in love with a new girl at his school, named Gretchen Ross. They attend a Halloween Party together and she is ran over by a car. The owner of the vehicle appears to be Frank the rabbit, but to everyone else, it’s a guy in a clown suit. Shortly after mourning over his love’s death, Donnie accepted fate; he was supposed to die the night the plane engine landed in his room. Donnie realizes that if he lived, she would die and still be alone. He goes back to the beginning of the month and allows the jet engine to fall into his room and kill him.

The last scene with Donnie, he is laughing and accepting his death. “I just hope, that when the world comes to an end, I can breathe a sigh of relief...because there will be so much to look forward to.” This quote concurs with Donald’s choice to die. Frank the rabbit symbolises Donnie’s destructive, malicious thoughts. He represents the unknown, which often leads to fear.
There is an extravagant amount of proof that Donald Darko suffers from a dysfunctional personality. Dr. Thurman, his psychologist, has tried to help him with his issues. He struggles with understanding reality from fantasy. She even states to his parents “Donnie’s aggressive behavior, his increased detachment from reality seem to stem from his inability to cope with the forces in the world he perceives to be threatening.” The illness affects his relationships with his family and teachers. Donnie is extremely intelligent, but he happens to have many conflicts with adults at his school and home. His mother says “What happened to my son? I don’t recognize this person today.” He responds “Then why don’t you start taking the goddamn pills?” Right after this scene, he takes his pills, which were supposed to help his schizophrenia, but he ends up meeting Frank that night anyways.
Another day right after taking the pills, he hallucinates and sees Frank instead of his reflection in a mirror.

Donnie was caught talking to himself in the mirror by his sister Samantha. In the scene, he is asking Frank through the bathroom mirror , “Why did you make me do it?” Referring to the flooding of the school. He replies “Because they are in great danger.” To Samantha, there is no rabbit in the mirror, so she asks why he’s talking to himself. Dr. Thurman calls Frank “a daylight hallucination” which is “a common occurrence among paranoid schizophrenics.” She recommends hypnotherapy and more medication. Frank still continues to exist, making the pills ineffective to the

illness.
Frank is an unconscious drive, that impels Donnie to destroy things.

He tries to imply to Donnie that he is allowed to do whatever he wants because Frank can as well. At Middlesex high school, the teachers idolize a man who wrote a book about fear and love. Donald goes into Jim Cunningham's house and burns it down by pouring gasoline all over the place during a talent show. He destroyed something, but created something at the same time. The firefighters found a kiddie porn dungeon in his house and Jim got arrested. Donnie discovered the truth about a man they all thought was flawless.

Donnie does not like being alone, which is one reason why he listens to Frank. “I have to obey him. He saved my life. I have to obey him or I’ll be left all alone. And then… and then I won’t be able to figure out what this is all about. I won’t be able to know his master plan.” Donnie says this to Dr. Thurman in her office, under hypnosis while sobbing. Donnie’s fear of abandonment led him into consistently listening to a rabbit. He believes Frank knows things he does not yet

understand.
In reality, Frank the rabbit is Donald’s own dark, vitriolic thoughts. Frank makes him destructive and incapable of building good relationships, or doing good for others. Although the rabbit is clearly a part of his imagination, the way he interprets the world reflects all onto Donnie himself. If Frank did not exist though, he would not have been capable of escaping his own death.