Doppleganger

"Document 2: This one concerns the strange experiences Miu had fourteen years ago. She was stuck inside a Ferris wheel overnight in an amusement park in a small Swiss town, and looking through binoculars at her own room she saw a second self there. A doppelganger. And this experience destroyed Miu as a person...she was split in two" (164).

"In the world we live in, what we know and what we don't know are like Siamese twins, inseparable, existing in a state of confusion...to use the image of the Siamese twins again, it's not like they always get along. They don't always try to understand each other. In face the opposite is more often true...confusion reigns, we end up lost..." (134-135).

The idea of the double caught my eye right away. I am currently in a Gothic in literature and film class (with Janine, so I know she at least will follow me on this one) and the idea of the doppelganger (or double) is a Gothic element we have followed through multiple works in literature and in movies. The doppelganger has appeared in literature like Edgar Allen Poe and movies such as the Shining. The double creates and element of confusion. It can be an alternate identity of the main character or a biological twin or another demonic character representative of the main character's dark side. It is many time the projection of the main charcarter's inner evil on the outside world. Seeing the doppelganger referenced in Sputnik Sweetheart surprised me at first. Sputnik Sweetheart is definitely not a conventional Gothic novel. However, this idea of the double is definitely used efficiently as a Gothic element. Miu has lost herself to her double, and Sumire personifies the double as a state of confusion, loneliness, and loss.