Elaine Scarry’s Goonies

“Aye you guys!” We all know this line. It comes from the famous beloved movie The Goonies. When we were going over Elaine Scarry in class this movie came to mind. More specifically a scene came to mind which is good example of what Scarry is trying to explain about pain and torture. Chunk, the fat kid who has a weird sense of humor, was kidnapped by the bad guys, the Fratellis. They take him back to the cellar of their hide out, on old tavern, to interrogate him hoping to find out where Chunk’s friends were. They stick his hand in a blender and threaten to cut it up so he won’t be able to use it again if he doesn’t tell them. The dialog goes something like this:
Francis Fratelli: Tell us everything! Everything! Chunk: Everything. OK! I'll talk! In third grade, I cheated on my history exam. In fourth grade, I stole my uncle Max's toupee and I glued it on my face when I was Moses in my Hebrew School play. In fifth grade, I knocked my sister Edie down the stairs and I blamed it on the dog... When my mom sent me to the summer camp for fat kids and then they served lunch I got nuts and I pigged out and they kicked me out... But the worst thing I ever done - I mixed a pot of fake puke at home and then I went to this movie theater, hid the puke in my jacket, climbed up to the balcony and then, t-t-then, I made a noise like this: hua-hua-hua-huaaaaaaa - and then I dumped it over the side, all over the people in the audience. And then, this was horrible, all the people started getting sick and throwing up all over each other. I never felt so bad in my entire life. Jake Fratelli: I'm beginning to like this kid, Ma! Mama Fratelli: Hit puree! (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089218/quotes)
Scarry would view the infliction of pain on Chunk as that of the possibility of losing his fingers. When he is told to spill and tell everything, the only thing that comes to mind is all the stuff he did wrong over the years. This is the confession he makes which is scene as a betrayal of his conscious and individual self. The Fratellis would deny they used a form of pain to gain knowledge of where the other kids were. They would see the information gained as a way to preserve their whereabouts a secret. This is the same way that Scarry believes the government views their interrogation procedures.