The Boots

In the first scene of the film “Waiting for Godot”, Estragon is struggling to take of his boot. As we have discussed in class, this play must not be taken literally. Everything that happens is a metaphor such as Godot, whom can be seen as God. He is a person that we are always waiting for and although he may not come we do what Gogo and Didi do, wait. We wait for the hope of something to brighten our day.

When watching this scene I wondered what the boot of Estragon meant? Why did he always have those boots on, even though it made his feet hurt? Why were they  so hard to take off? The answer is, because that is life. We are attached to things that make us suffer because somehow there is something that we like about it. Estragon might enjoy seeing his shiny boots, or maybe he just doesn’t want to go around barefoot. But at the end of the day he is always struggling to take them off. That is when Vladimir comes and helps him take them off. Vladimir is a representation of the people that help us pass through hard times. He is the support that we receive when “the boot is stuck”. These type of people never get tired of helping the person even though it is something repetitive like in the case of Vladimir and Estragon.  “So there you are again”, Vladimir tells Estragon when he sees him struggling with his boot. Immediately he goes running towards to help him. Those are the kind of people we need in this world. People who are not going to give up on you, but rather help you when it is needed.

This reminds me of a time when my cousin had a girlfriend. This cousin of mine is as if he was my brother, we are very close. One year ago he came very excited and told me that he had a girlfriend. He was extremely happy, the smile would not come out of his face. As some time went by, I realized that this girl didn’t treat my cousin how he deserved to be treated. She started to become the person who always said what had to be done, and Alejandro would be the one suffering. She didn’t mind because she knew that Alejandro would still stay with her. One day he had had enough, and stood up for himself by braking up with her. He was full with tears and couldn’t believe what had happened. I would go to his house, take him to the movies, and help him take of that boot. But he didn’t take it off for long. Two weeks later she was back in the family. It wasn’t long for them to brake up again, and then get together once more. This was something that happened around four times. All of the times Alejandro was devastated but I was Estragon whom was always there for him. Right now they aren’t together, but who knows when he will put on that boot once again.