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I wonder how life would be from the standpoint of Elwood P. Dowd since he appears, at face value, to be a person who may be losing out on grasping the reality of life. Still, explaining why Harvey’s character is so captivating should not be very difficult, because the film is literally about a man trying to come to terms with a world which is intensely fast paced to the point of being unbearably fast. As if with the speed of light, it only became clearer to me what it was that I absolutely loved about Harvey, aside from the fact that it carried what was easily one of my favourite James Stewart performances. This was not only one of the best James Stewart performances neither of his greatest roles. It was most likely him at his most down to earth and approachable.
“Anyone else’s best friend would surely elicit laughter, but in the case of James Stewart’s Elwood P. Dowd, it was sadly the mark of someone mentally unwell,” says Thomas, “because his best companion to no other human eye exists – Harvey, the human sized rabbit or ‘pooka’”, as Dowd terms him. This strange friend did not leave Elwood unscathed. Everyone around him believed he was a troubled man and fell under the delusion that they need to help him out. This further alienated Elwood from everyone else. There is no lucid explanation to this phenomenon – his condition is never defined. Elwood’s existence alone is vindication of the argument that some people are just not intended to be ‘normal’ and their way to fit into the world is gravely misunderstood. Even so, looking at the socio-political dynamics that prevail today, and how a segment of the society still chooses to belittle such peculiar characteristics and affirm their a priori suffered prejudice, I personally cannot help but sympathize.
Once more, as I was pondering over Harvey, I found myself thinking about how actually the world outside had perceived me considering I was a social pariah. I have always been scared of interacting with others and my family was never supportive of this. I could hardly make acquaintances during elementary and high school because inherently, I did not possess very good social skills and whenever I was left by myself, I had a habit of talking to myself which my parents did not appreciate. In the same vein, I look at how Elwood’s contemporaries had to perceive him because the idea of an invisible rabbit being a best friend to someone does not seem reasonable. But taking into consideration how Elwood’s life is (his family is obviously disintegrating and he is still trying to make friends), just imagine what kind of coping mechanism it might take to free one’s mind after being bombarded by harsh realities where a friend who is only visible to oneself is a must.
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