Retelling the Love Story of Napoleon and Joséphine at the JFK Airport

Written by Kenneth Ting

Life is all about waiting

The main theme of The Terminal revolves around the concept that life is full of moments of waiting, and this is illustrated by creating the story at the terminal. The terminal is more than just a location of the story. It serves as the design principle because it symbolizes the waiting phase of our lives before we arrive at a new destination. Therefore, all the characters created in the terminal are also in this waiting phase of their lives. Viktor is waiting for the end of the civil war in his country, while Amelia is waiting for her lover’s phone call. Waiting does not discriminate. Screenwriters’ Perspectives Vol. 1 No. 1 2020 26

An important sub-theme being illustrated in The Terminal is xenophobia in USA. The purpose of demonstrating this concept is easy to understand because The Terminal is written after the 9/11 terrorist attack, therefore it still reflects the fear that are instilled in many Americans. In an attempt to eliminate xenophobia, The Terminal utilizes both positive and negative examples to demonstrate the importance of love and compassion to foreigners. For instance, a positive example is how Viktor successfully befriends with other Americans despite his identity as a foreigner, eventually helping others, such as playing the matchmaker for Enrique and Dolores. On the other hand, a negative example is how Milodragovich is being mistreated by Dixon upon his arrival at the airport. In fact, it is explicitly stated when Salchak criticizes Dixon for his heartless behavior, “The people, compassion. That’s the foundation of this country.” Together, these examples show the prevalence of xenophobia in USA and the importance of eradicating it to solidify the foundation of any country.

Napoleon & Joséphine at the JFK airport

The love story between Napoleon and Joséphine is used as the backbone to describe the relationship between Viktor and Amelia. Specifically, Viktor sees himself as Napoloen, while Amelia sees herself as Joséphine. Therefore, it is not a coincident that Viktor and Amelia also share similar traits as Napoloen and Joséphine respectively. Similar to Joséphine, Amelia enjoys her engagement in adultery, while Viktor’s one-sided devotion to Amelia is comparable to Napoloen’s.

Apart from this, the dysfunctional love relationship between Napoloen and Joséphine also foreshadows the doomed ending of Viktor and Amelia’s relationship. Near the end of the story, Amelia terminates her relationship with Viktor by making a reference to the gold locket inscribed with the word “destiny” that Napoloen gave to Joséphine during their wedding. This can be interpreted based on Heraclitus’s quote, “Character is destiny”, meaning that Amelia still accepts her own character at the end. In other words, she still enjoys in engaging adultery, which defines both her destiny and the impossibility of Viktor’s engagement in her personal life. This interpretation is reasonable because we, as audience, know that Amelia is perfectly aware of her own contradiction, which is both her enjoyment and dissatisfaction in engaging adultery. However, she still indulges herself in these affairs for many years. Even when Viktor tells Amelia that she is farsighted, which literally means she is farsighted, but also implies that she is poor at judging the men who are near her, Amelia still deliberately chooses not to correct her vision, as she says, “I always see men the way I want to see them”. Based on these examples, it can be inferred that Amelia decides to embrace her character, and therefore her own destiny at the end.