Let’s be honest with ourselves. On your first watch, second, fifteenth, did you ever figure out what the cult classic Donnie Darko is about? I will confess. I had absolutely no idea what Donnie Darko was about. And I still don’t. Not quite.
A Poignant Look at the Current School Systems
But the film’s warnings of pervasive and predatory conservatism facilitate important conversations surrounding censorship in the American post-Trump era, and illuminate just how out of touch the powers that be are with the needs of the younger generations. The central antagonist of Donnie Darko is not the giant bunny, not the bullies, but the conservative parent/gym teacher Kitty Farmer, whose lack of understanding of Middlesex’s youth causes extreme tension in the town. Farmer’s call for a book ban of Graham Greene’s “The Destructors,” given as a reading assignment by Miss Karen Pomeroy. Her reasons behind the ban enlighten us to what is currently happening in schools across the United States, especially in the South. The film’s post-Reagan political climate further enriches the comparisons to today’s post-Trump world, and politics is no doubt an ominous specter throughout the film.
Political Tensions in Donnie Darko
Donnie Darko is set in Middlesex, Virginia, in 1988. It is October, and the 1988 election is near. The film’s first piece of dialogue comes from Donnie’s sister Elizabeth at the family dinner table. “I’m voting for Dukakis,” she confesses to her parents. Mr. Darko pauses mid-bite, shocked. “Hmm, well. Maybe when you have children of your own who need braces, and you can’t afford them because half of your husband’s paycheck goes to the federal government, who umm…” “—my husband’s paycheck?” she interrupts. Mrs. Darko affirms her daughter with a giggle. However, she soon chides in, asking Elizabeth if she really thinks Dukakis, the Democratic nominee, will “provide for this country” until she’s ready to have children.
By now, we have learned that Elizabeth is eagerly awaiting an acceptance from Harvard University. This first scene sets the film’s political tone: conservative values reign and are in direct opposition to a bright young generation. Donnie Darko showcases the generation gap between the Baby Boomers and Generation X. Considering our political climate after just having an ultra-conservative showman president just as Donnie Darko is set amidst the race to succeed Ronald Reagan. The film is a window into the effects of the Moral Majority/GOP on schools, teachers, parents, and children. And sadly, the results are what you’d expect: conservative opposition to intellectualism/higher education, and an over-policing of children and teens. Sound familiar?
At Middlesex High School, English teacher Miss Karen Pomeroy introduced her students to the story “The Destructors.” This is a tale of a gang of child ruffians in the ruins of London in World War II after The Blitz. Together, they flood and dismantle the house of ‘Old Misery,’ a man whose house, unlike his neighbors’, survived The Blitz completely. The story includes a moment when the leader, T, finds bundles of cash in Old Misery’s mattress and instead of stealing it, he lights it aflame. When Miss Pomeroy asks what this scene in the story means, Donnie explains, “They just wanna see what happens when they tear the world apart. They want to change things.”
Kitty Farmer’s Crusade Against Literature
“The PTA doesn’t ban books.”
Unfortunately, the assignment from Miss Pomeroy was also given to Beth Farmer, Kitty Farmer’s daughter. An enraged Mrs. Farmer disrupts an Emergency PTA meeting to advocate for a school book ban. “I want to know why this smut is being taught to our children!” The PTA was on the topic of recent school vandalism, which included a flooding of the school (Frank, Donnie’s imaginary friend, instructed Donnie to do this). She cites that the child gang in “The Destructors” used flooding in their mission for destruction, which is what happened to the school earlier that month. Farmer receives scattered cheers from the parents present, but not from Rose Darko. “What is the real issue here?” she asks Kitty. “The PTA doesn’t ban books.”
Farmer continues, “The PTA is here to acknowledge that pornography is being taught in our curriculum!”
The Mislabeling of Literature as “Pornography”
According to Pen America, a literature and human rights organization, it is quite common for books to be labeled “pornographic” or “indecent.” However, as in Greene’s story, it is often the case that the books being accused of sexual content contain nothing of the sort.
[T]his framing has become an increasing focus of activists and politicians to justify removing books that do not remotely fit the well-established legal and colloquial definitions of “pornography.” Rhetoric about ‘porn in schools’ has also been advanced as justification for the passage or introduction of new state laws, some of which would bar any books with sexual content and could easily sweep up a wide swath of literature and health-related content.
Conspiracies and Hypocrisy in Donnie Darko
When Karen Pomeroy explains that the story is ironic, Kitty hurls with vitriol, “[Y]ou need to go back to grad school.” Kitty prefers her limited understanding to an intellectual conversation about the literature. Just as it is happening today, conscientious and knowledgeable teachers are being policed and scrutinized for routine classroom decisions on curriculum, while those who critique their actions follow abusive demigods with no question of their morals. It is later revealed that Kitty Farmer’s idol, motivational speaker Jim Cunningham, is a serial child predator who she introduced to children and adults in Middlesex. Kitty misses her daughter’s big break in Hollywood to be at his side for the trial. “It’s obviously some kind of conspiracy to destroy an innocent man!”
Though Farmer had no problem destroying Miss Pomeroy’s career. Within a few weeks of introducing Greene’s story to her class, Miss Pomeroy is fired after Farmer’s complaints with support from the school principal. She tells him, “I don’t think that you have a clue what it’s like to communicate with these kids. And we are losing them to apathy… to this prescribed nonsense.” Similarly, an Oklahoma teacher in 2022 was fired for providing students with access to banned books. Folks like Kitty Farmer, of which there are many, want to “protect children” by banning controversial literature while they are the real predators.
Donnie Darko and the Myth of Literary Influence
To Kitty’s point, could Donnie have been directly inspired by “The Destructors,” causing chaos in Middlesex? The answer is no. Donnie Darko deals with fate, and Donnie was always on this path, as posited by the film’s central premise of time travel. In this sense, the film can be a vehicle to analyze conservative hysteria toward literature — children will always find a way to rebel, and perhaps in defiance, be inspired by the actions of conservatives to call for an end to book bans and censorship in schools.
Donnie was certainly inspired by his distaste for hypocritical and conservative school leadership. Even though his actions, or at least what his imaginary friend Frank told him to do, mirror those in the story, “The Destructors” did not dictate his behavior. Even further, the gang of boys did not kill anyone, unlike Donnie. He tells Gretchen early in the film that he had burned down an abandoned house once before, prior to his introduction to Greene’s story. Destruction/creation is Donnie’s destiny.
Honoring Teachers Like Miss Pomeroy
I and many others have had our own Miss Pomeroys, the bright English teachers who, despite colleague scrutiny or petty gossip introduced kids to texts we may have only found with their help. Morrison, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Ginsberg, and countless other luminaries were sent my and other students’ way. But then again, I went to a public high school in New York. Teachers and students in conservative areas are facing the wrath of their own Kitty Farmers, many of whom have already infiltrated their schools, towns, and state legislatures.
These are scary times. To the Miss Pomeroys across the United States, thank you and keep going.