Youth, Beauty, and Time
In Sweet Bird of Youth, the inevitability of aging wears on characters who have come to depend on a superficial kind of beauty. Chance, an aspiring actor, has no true talent as a performer. Nonetheless, he has spent his life chasing the minor success he enjoyed as a young man, always believing himself worthy of fame. A ladies’ man and gigolo (male escort), he’s supported himself by exploiting his youthful vitality and appeal…
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Purity and Corruption
In Sweet Bird of Youth, the antagonistic Boss Finley sets forth bigoted notions of racial purity as well as patriarchal views regarding womanhood. Not only does this politician believe whites and blacks shouldn’t integrate or copulate, but he also thinks his daughter Heavenly has been corrupted—defiled—by her pre-marital sexual exploits with Chance Wayne. In other words, Boss Finley loathes what he sees as impurity, and so he brings his racist and misogynistic agenda…
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Love, Obsession, and Pleasure
Chance Wayne’s love of Heavenly drives him throughout the entirety of Sweet Bird of Youth, encouraging him to not only endure a number of social disgraces, but also to face down dangerous threats. The only reason he has worked so hard to become famous, he claims, is so that he can return to St. Cloud and earn Boss Finley’s blessing to marry Heavenly. However, because this never comes to pass—and because Chance…
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Escapism and Denial
In Sweet Bird of Youth, characters like Chance Wayne and the Princess try to keep themselves from facing difficult thoughts and feelings. Whether by using drugs or running from city to city, they both actively avoid the fact that their deepest fears—of aging and fading into irrelevance or obscurity—have come true. For the Princess, this means drinking, popping pills, running away from her everyday life, and having sex with a younger man in order…
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