Katie Greenberg Shallow Hal Post 1: Question #1

          I believe that I am someone who follows my heart a lot of the time. I choose to do what feels right to me in situations. I feel very uncomfortable if I force myself to do something that deep down does not feel good or right. Still, my head and my heart usually want the same things. I definitely rationalize and think things through very extensively (sometimes a little too much), so usually the things that I think are right for me are also the things that feel right to me. So overall, I think that I make choices based on a balance of following both my head and my heart.

            Despite previously following his head and only going for women that were physically appealing to him, at the end of the movie Hal chooses to go with Rosemary on her 14-month trip for the Peace Corps. As the movie progresses, Hal literally sees the inner beauty in people. This helps him realize—even once he loses his ability to physically see inner beauty—that it is what’s on the inside that matters most. Even if someone does not look like a supermodel, she can have qualities that are definitely more important and more appealing. Hal comes to adopt this philosophy, and even though Rosemary is not the picture of what his ideal woman was before, the feelings he has for her in his heart make him want to spend the rest of his life with her. Hal makes the transformation from following his head to following his heart and his true feelings; he stops letting superficial things get in the way.