Been thinking about Noel Gruber.
When Ride the Cyclone starts, each member of the choir is described as a stereotype. Digestible archetypes to act as our baseline. Their respective taglines all are based on their relation to their town "The Most _ _ In Town". This is to establish that they are basically prisoners of this No Man's Land. They each represent a different way of looking at their town.
When Noel is introduced, he's described as "The Most Romantic Boy In Town". He's eccentric, into film noirs, acts like a character in a play and is very poetic. He sees the world through a dramaticized, romantic lens. He is established as the dramatic gay guy of the group.
But then, we learn more about him. We learn that his flair for the dramatic goes far beyond a few theatrics. In order to get away from his gruelling daily life, he escapes in his fantasies. And those fantasies are just like him...eccentric.
He has an alter ego--Monique Gibeau, a prostitute living in post-war France living a life of debauchery and dying alone in an alley, tragically, next to a priest.
Many people believe that this alter ego is proof that Noel is secretly trans. And I won't take that away from them. Personally, I believe Monique Gibeau is more so a product of a repressed creative mind living in the middle of nowhere. Noel wants an exciting life, one where he can freely feel with all of his heart. Because he isn't just dramatic, he is intense. He feels deeply and wants to finally be able to experience those emotions.
But how can one feel deeply in a town where the most exciting attraction is...the Cyclone roller coaster?
"I wanted a man that would drive me to drink. I wanted to wake up in an alleyway in my own vomit, missing teeth! I wanted to drink myself to death on the cup of life."
Noel doesn't actually yearn to be a prostitute living a life of misery. He wants the world to match his emotional intensity. He wants drama and love and beauty and desire. He wants despair and sadness and agony. Because he's an artist. And someone like him feels smothered living a boring, everyday existence.
So, he dreams. At least he has that.
In a sense, he got what he wanted. His life will be remembered as a tragedy. Like Misha said : "Cut down before the words could ever come out." He died at 17, along with all of his friends, in what was supposed to be a fun after-school outing. All of those poems he wrote, all of these stories he had yet to tell, his plans to move to France once he'd saved up enough...all gone.
What's more tragic for someone like Noel than to be remembered as a Burger King order?
It makes sense that Misha was the one chosen to play the role of one of Monique's many love interests in his song, since outwardly, he fits the bill. He's an aggressive alcoholic who seems pretty strong in stature. I don't see how Ricky could have played that part.
I believe his frustration with Ocean doesn't just stem from her bossy attitude but also because he doesn't understand her. He doesn't understand how she can just accept her life in this boring town. Be so well adjusted, have the best grades and social standing, always be so energetic. How is she not miserable? Doesn't she want to see what's out there? But honestly, I think she does. Why do you think she works so hard? I think she, too, wants to escape and establish her future elsewhere. And that's where she gets her energy from. Where Noel is bitter, Ocean looks forward to the future.
"Tell him that like him, I choose to burn out rather than fade away." This quote perfectly encapsulates what he desires. Living fast and dying young sounds exciting to him. However, with a creative, romantic mind comes romanticization. And Monique's life is not something one should yearn for. But that's what I mean when I say that she's the product of years of repression. He doesn't actually want that life, but rather what she represents. Freedom, spontaneity, emotional and sexual liberation.
His life is a tragedy, but not the right kind. He wanted Monique's, where he could have fun, make mistakes, drown in his own emotions before crashing like so many artists before him.
