The Dude's Rug

“The Dude” and His Rug

The Big Lebowski is actually two separate movies united by a rug. The two separate stories taking place within this film are; a film about a lazy hippie and a trilling mystery. The Dude is a lazy, unemployed, and apathetic bowler. He spends his days drinking white Russians in his bathrobe and competing in a local bowling league. His general sloppy outer appearance coupled with his mangy long hair and the fact that he is constantly wearing sunglasses disconnects him from the outside world. The dude enjoys his lethargic lifestyle until one day a couple of thugs bust in and mistake The Dude for another Jeffery Lebowski who is a millionaire. The two thugs pee on The Dude’s rug and leave. This is where the rug starts to tie

the story together. The Dude goes to the other Jeffery Lebowski’s mansion demanding recompense for the soiled rug. The “Big Lebowski” denies to repay The Dude so he leaves and steals a rug on the way out then, the story goes back to The Dude’s life at the bowling alley. This is the subsequent flow of the rhythmic story line. A Dramatic event forces The Dude to into the dramatic side of the plot but The Dude always returns to his normal life at the end of the scene. This pattern is due to The Dude’s absolute lack of motivation for anything else except for bowling and getting reparation for his rug.
In other words, I believe that from The Dude’s perspective He is just trying to live his nice relaxing life and has no concern for what is happening around him.

Then people start to appear in his life forcing him to interact with the other story that is happening at the same time. First the thugs soil his rug, then the Big Lebowski asks The Dude to be the courier for the ransom money. The dude botches the ransom delivery and could care less so he goes to the bowling alley with the money in his car. This again shows how the dude truly does not care about what is happening around him. The Dude sits in the bowling alley as if he didn’t just come from a shoot-out filled, and failure of a ransom delivery. A new character, Maude Lebowski, now interjects herself into the story. She explains that she is the one who stole his rug, the second time, due to its sentimental value, and then explains her theory that Bunny Lebowski kidnapped herself. Maude offers The Dude a portion of the ransom money if he can retrieve it and he can then use this money to buy a new rug. This is yet another person who has no relation to the dude except for a rug. Each aspect of the dramatic side of the film somehow ties into this rug and thus rug symbolizes The Dude’s identity. The rug itself Is visually appealing, mirroring The Dude’s interesting appearance and personality, the rug is passive like The Dude they both simply exist in their surroundings. Another common characteristic of both the rug and The

Dude is that they are both drifters, the rug drifts from person to person and The Dude drifts through life.
Had it not been for the rug The big Lebowski would have been a great movie on its own.

The movie would have been following the Dude through his life. The story would have been basically the same except for the Dudes interactions with everyone tied to his rug. I imagine that in the place of the dramatic scenes the story would continue seamlessly. The camera would follow the dude through his lazy apathetic life. We would have found out if the Dude ever went to his landlord’s performance, or paid his rent. There is also the possibility that Donnie would have been a bit more loquacious at the bowling alley and the competition would have continued however, had the competition continued I think the Dude’s team would have been terrible and they would not do well in the competition. This would further show how apathetic and meaningless the Dude’s life is. He would lose the competition and not care at all, his life would simply float on to the next interaction. The movie would also be extremely different if the Dude had any self-motivation at all. He could have delivered the ransom money correctly and then get away from the drama that was unfolding around him. He could get a job and be able to pay his rent. The fact of the matter is that the Dude’s needs are perfectly satisfied so he has no wants or concerns. Boiled down to the basics he has shelter, food, and entertainment, this is enough for him so he does not have any self-motivation. The rug is a luxury for the dude, it does not

have any use other than aesthetics, so it serves as motivation for the Dude. The rug is the Dude’s identity because it is the one piece that he bought with his money that doesn’t serve to satisfy any of his basic human needs. I believe this is why the rug is the one luxury that the Dude bought with his surplus money that defines him as a person and gives meaning to his life.
Overall the rug is the single driving force in The Big Lebowski and without it the two movies would have been completely separate. This is the genius behind this film it is centralized around a meaningless, simple, rug. Many people who see this movie might not even realize that they know the rug is important because it is so meaningless but the rug is truly the stitches that ties the two movies together. I would be curious to see where the dude and his rug are now, I wonder if he has moved to a new town or if he has stayed still. The Big Lebowski is an amazingly complex yet simple story all tied together by one ru