Brief and Random Thoughts on Presents
In honor of the season, I thought I’d make some quick notes on Mad Men and the gifts they bear. In a way, the entire story really begins on Christmas, with Anna and Don exchanging presents (Episode 12, The Mountain King). Don is grateful for the gift of his new identity and the life it has made possible. Later in the same episode, Betty gives Sally riding boots — interestingly, boots have the symbolic meaning of grounding us. In her father’s absence, Sally’s mother has turned into a wicked witch of a sort, one who locks her in the closet and in turn Sally must learn self-reliance. Later in the same episode, another gift pops up, the book Meditations in an Emergency that Don sent to Anna in For Those Who Think Young, (Ep. 1, Season 2).
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