Fan Forum - View Single Post - Episode Discussion: Ep #312- "Giving Up The Girl"

BepperGirl · 01-27-2005, 10:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wilpen

Gaby. I would love to see that essay. You make an outstanding point about the hands for the Brown family. Delia playing hockey would definitely fall in line with that. Even basketball.

I found it. Other people on FB had some additional thoughts too. (The topic's {Hands and other symbols} now in their Storage Room.)

Hands seem to be very important on Everwood, particularly with the Brown men. The great Doctor Andy Brown was a neurosurgeon, requiring much usage of the hands and the control of them. This has continued through the generations. Ephram Brown, the son of the good doctor, is a great piano player, maybe even some kind of prodigy. Ephram is the latest generation so far but there is another generation that has yet to be spoken of. That of his grandfather, or Andy's father. In "The Miracle of Everwood", Joel Hurwitz makes a comment that Andy's father was an auto mechanic. Andy corrects by saying his dad was a "great auto mechanic. Best to Rhode Island. Best anywhere probably." Once again the Brown men have found their gift in the manifestation of hands. They have all used their hands differently but still they have used their hands and they have become the best in their chosen profession. This just proves that Ephram Brown will be, one day, a piano player and becoming the greatest so far. But will it be a classical pianist or a jazz pianist? That remains to be seen though Ephram's true passion seems to lie in the jazz. He has brought it up more than once. Even in Season 1 when he was still with the jerk Matthew Lansing as a teacher.

So what will come next? Or what came before? Does the Brown men and the importance of hands in their professional lives stretch beyond these three generations? These also remain to be seen and revealed but it sure seems as though it would be too much of a coincidence for hands happen for three CONSECUTIVE generations. What is it about the Browns' hands that make them so special?

Other thoughts brought up: Ephram's speech to Amy at the end of "The Last of Summer", Colin's fight with Ephram and Bright in "The Miracle of Everwood", Julia was a great cook, Dr. Hoffman (Ephram and Delia's grandpa on mother's side)was a pianist and surgeon, and here's what Minerva had to say (in March '04) after some research on Joseph Campbell:

Quote:

Hands are symbols of control or guidance. When we say, for example, that your father took you in hand, we mean that he took control of you, or placed you under his guidance, maybe to tell you what the rules are or to discipline you for misbehavior. Then, when we say that "your life is in your hands," we mean that you are in control now; it’s up to you how you live. Two little mythical stories or parables from Joseph Campbell show us how hands illustrate the choices we have in life.

In the first story, a knight is riding his horse along a road in search of adventure, love, and the good life, when he comes to a three-way fork in the road. Does he go left, right, or straight ahead? Fortunately for him, there is a pole in the center of the intersection with a large hand attached to it (like those signs you have seen that say "This way out"). This is a magic hand. The knight asks it, which way do I go? The hand points to the middle road and the knight rides off straight ahead. What does this mean? It means that on life’s journey, we have choices to make. If we are not sure which way to go, it is usually best to choose the middle course. It is like a compromise. But the question is: a compromise between what and what? What if the knight had gone left or right?

That brings us to the second story. Again a knight (maybe the same one) is riding his horse in search of love and the meaning of life. The reins are in his hands. When he pulls the reins taut, the horse obeys him (the horse is under his control). When he lets the reins go slack, the horse takes over and follows its own instincts. Horse and rider are really symbols of any individual’s life: when the reins are pulled taut, the individual is using his head (his brain or logical thinking) to control his direction. When the reins go slack, the individual is relying on his inner nature, his instincts, or his heart to guide him. The horse is the symbol here of the inner self, the natural person, which is found in your body (where your heart is). So the choices in life are either to follow your head or your heart. That theme is one of the big ones in Everwood.

What we see from these stories is that hands do not make the decisions that shape your life. They may guide you, but in the end, you decide for yourself whether to follow your head or your heart, or, if not sure, whether to balance the two by taking the middle course. When we say that Andy Brown works with his hands, we really don’t mean that his skill as a surgeon is actually in his hands: his hands only do what his brain tells them to. Hands are agents of your brain or your heart; they do what you will them to do.

In all of the myths and legends in Joseph Campbell’s work, the head or the brain is associated with the father figure and the body with the mother. Father’s presumably are the ones who know about society’s rules, the laws of the state and perhaps of the church. When you respond to the father in you, you respond to the system; you do what you are expected to do. Mothers, on the other hand, are associated with the body, perhaps because we are born out of our mother’s body, and she looks after all of our bodily needs in infancy. In mythology, mothers are the guides to the things of the body, including the heart, the soul, the instinct. So, when the rider pulls tight on the reins, he is responding to the father in him; when slack, to the mother.

Now look at Ephram’s little speech to Amy from "Last of Summer," above. Losing his mother is like breaking his hand – actually, it is his right hand, the hand that’s most important to him. His mother was his principal guide for years. Without her, he can call on his left hand a little (his father), but gradually it’s his body that takes over. Note that it is not his mind or his brain, but his body. The mother in him is the only thing that can replace the Mother who has died. Finding the mother in him, that is his heart and soul, is like finding the guide, the right hand, that she was to him.

Finally, let’s talk about Ephram the piano player. That’s about hands, isn’t it? Well actually it’s about how the hands respond to either the head or the heart. Do you remember when Ephram performed for the Julliard recruiter? Ephram performed Beethoven beautifully, but the recruiter complained that he didn’t keep his eyes on the page of music. The Julliard guy saw music as a thing of the mind; there is a system, and the player must follow it precisely. Now remember Ephram’s meeting with Will Cleveland who became his jazz teacher. Jazz does not come from the page, it comes from the soul, from the heart. Will tells Ephram that his playing is "too wooden; loosen your shoulders" (loosen the reins). To play jazz, you have to reach within. It is an entirely different concept of music. Heart versus head. And the hands respond to your will! Is it just a coincidence that the teacher’s name is Will?

~Gaby