Subject: Re: Laura Palmer.
From: alternat@watserv1.waterloo.edu (Ann Hodgins)
Date: 1991-02-28, 12:36
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

In article <16651.9102280939@uk.ac.keele.seq1> iru03@seq1.keele.ac.uk (P.R. Grove) writes:
> >
> >
> >I`m really having problems trying to understand who Laura really was.
> >Thinking back on it, she seems to have been totally unrealistic as a
> >character - justs remember all the things she was supposed to have done:
> >
> >Delivered meals on wheels.
> >Looked after Johnny.
       etc.
       etc.  
> >C`mon folks - even I would have difficulty fitting that all into one
> >day! I think that Laura is not a real character as such, but a
> >personification of all the good within us, to act as mirror image of Bob
> >- the evil within us all (Junge et al.).
> >Thoughts, suggestions?
 
The Secret Diary helped me get a fix on Laura.  It showed how the sexual
molestation by Leland was the source of her hyper-energetic behavior.
She was trying to push back sad and angry feelings and unwanted memories
by working very very hard at being good. She kept herself very busy in
order to keep her cool, and because she was attractive she was given lots of
opportunities to get involved in things. 
 
Leland's confession of the secret came at the very end of the Laura Palmer
plot so the audience did not get to see how his actions were at the beginning
of Laura's wild behaviour.  If you are sincerely curious about Laura, I
recommend the diary.  I found it worthwhile because although I had heard
that sexual abuse is at the back of much promiscuity and drug taking,
I'd never before seen so clearly just how that works out step by step in an
individual life.

> >
> >
> >Why do I get the sneaking feeling that we haven`t seen or heard the last
> >of Laura Palmer?
                                      Paul R. Grove.

I don't know but I feel the same way.  
 
ann h.