In the scene, Randy the Ram cries, exposing to his daughter the emotional place he is in. The emotional burden of a family was more difficult to face than the physical pain of wrestling, so he left her, and threw himself entirely into a career that required no emotions, only physical strength and endurance. Now, he confesses, he is a broken hunk of meat, and he doesn't want to be alone.
The step he took, exposing his emotional vulnerability, is more than he can emotionally take; and he lets his daughter down once again. Then he is confronted by a young punk while behind the counter of the deli job he took, and the punk is successful in provoking him, making him feel inadequate in his physical aging, and, with a violent outburst, Randy quits the job and returns to the wrestling circuit for what will be his last show.
Jon E. Grant and Marc N. Potenza (2007) say that men who identify with the traditional views of masculinity have difficulty in asking for help "of any kind...
Randy is, like many men today, on the thin border between the traditional role into which for centuries men were cast, and the post feminist era role into which men are expected to behave differently as emotional communicators. Men today are torn between the roles that they once held, and the roles that society has redesigned for them. This film exemplifies how society creates roles and rules for men and women, and the emotional conflict men face in their role today. Randy's daughter tells him, "It was stupid to think you could change."
Works Cited
Aronofsky, Darren (Dir.) 2008. The Wrestler, motion picture film, Wild Bunch, English,
USA. Film.
Grant, Jon E. And Potenza, Marc N., 2007. Textbook of Men's Mental Health, American
Psychiatric Publishing, Inc., Arlington, VA. Print.
