Utopian Concepts in The Beach

Why do we search for something greater than our existence itself? What makes us crave the unknown, the unexplored? Since the beginning of time, humanity as a whole has always tried to better itself, to perfect the art of civilization. The Beach is a prime example of human kind's quest for the perfect society, our own Utopia. In our minds, a Utopia is the "perfect" community, where no flaws are established, no problems occur. Yet, human kind typically will always destroy itself, no matter how perfect their community seemingly is. Deterioration of these makeshift communities is inevitable. This is exactly what happened to the community at the Beach. Their discreet society was single handedly destroyed by one man, named Richard. Richard, the main focus of the film, displayed the three most inevitable traits of human kind. Richard exposed the Beach by one simple map, afraid of leaving the comforts of home completely behind; he inhabited Earner Goubvich's statement that "The innocent eye sees nothing," and he exposed the Utopia for what it was, not for what everyone thought it was. Richard was the sunglasses that filtered and separated reality from fantasy, and in the end, destroyed the Beach's utopia completely, by introducing pure reality.

Rousseau beliefs' were similar to the ones held by the Romantic Paradigm. Both Rousseau and the Romantic Paradigm state that human beings are naturally born completely self-sufficient and self-governing, yet once socialized, they are dependent and very restricted on what they can and can not accomplish by themselves. Romantic thinkers such as Rousseau rejected the common laws of society, and the rationality of civilization. Rousseau's statement, "Man is born free, but everywhere...

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...s greed and selfishness to maintain the "utopia," was the ultimate downfall to the Beach's community. Everything that Sal had worked so hard to keep was destroyed, and the Beach dissipated into a subtle memory with held by all who had came and gone.

The Beach was no more, if not worse, than reality's true society. The community was challenged once, and failed as a whole. No one was willing to take responsibility for any of the actions or decisions anyone made. "The innocent eye sees nothing," proved to be true in the beginning, but as time elapsed, Richard prevailed and saw the truth of the community for what it was. The Romantic Paradigm's innocence was destroyed by the greed and selfishness of human kind, and in the end, proved that no matter how "perfect" your society is, you will always inherit the natural flaws installed upon you by society itself.