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Study Guide
Requiem for a Dream Disappointment
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Disappointment
HARRY: Why you gotta make me feel so guilty, Ma?! Jesus! What are you doing? Trying to get me to break my own mother's set? Or radiator? And maybe blow up the house? Your own flesh and blood! Is that what you're trying to do? Your son? Why you play games with my head, for Christ's sake?
Harry doesn't have a job. He needs drugs. He's broke and he steals his mother's TV for drug money. Yet he blames her for it, which makes her disappointed in herself and what her life has become.
SARA: This isn't happening. And if it should be happening, it would be all right. So don't worry, Seymour. It'll all work out. You'll see already. In the end, it's all nice.
A more wrong thing has never been said. Rapper B.o.B. saying the earth is flat was more right than Sara thinking this movie will end up "all nice" at the end.
MR. RABINOWITZ: Such a son. Your mother needs you like a moose needs a hat rack.
Mr. Rabinowitz might be the one person in the movie who isn't an enabler. Most other people in the film, like Sara's old lady friends, only enable her sadness, leading her down a path of temporary relief and more disappointment.
SARA: I never thought I'd be on television. I'm just a…
Sara doesn't complete this sentence, but if she did, it wouldn't be a happy one. You can play Mad Libs with it.
SARA: I'm thinking thin.
Sara is also disappointed in her weight. It's difficult to be happy on a daily basis when you are literally disappointed with your own body. Unless you live inside a Muppet, like Big Bird, you can't take off your skin and be someone else.
TY, in flashback: I told you, Mom. One day I'd make it.
MAMA: You don't have to make anything, my sweet. You just have to love your mama.
Ty seems to be disappointed that he's not living up to something his mother would be proud of. Mamas don't let their babies to grow up to be cowboys, or drug dealers, or cowboy drug dealers.
HARRY: I'm sorry for being such a bastard. I wanna make it up. I mean, I know I can't change anything that's happened, but I want you to know that, that I love you. And that I'm sorry. And I want you to be happy. So I got you a brand-new TV set. It's gonna be delivered in a couple of days. It's from Macy's.
Harry thinks he can deal with disappointment through stuff, whether it's drugs or fancy electronics. Both of these things are only temporary distractions that don't deal with the real problem. In Sara's case, the big TV makes things worse… like upgrading to HD for the first time and seeing what people on TV really look like.
MARION: Some dumb-ass junkie did what? You mean you f***ed it up? […] You promised me that everything was gonna be okay, remember? I f***ed that sleazebag for you, and I put myself through f***ing hell for you. […] You f***ing loser.
Marion's disappointed in herself for stooping so low as to have sex for money, but she takes it out on Harry and blames him for it.