Editing Joe Versus the Volcano (section)

==Themes and visual motifs==
''Joe Versus the Volcano'' contains themes pertaining to [[Death|mortality]] and the search for meaning and a sense of purpose in one's life.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Niemiec|first1=Ryan M.|last2=Wedding|first2=Danny|date=2013|chapter=Achievement, Positive Emotions, Engagement, and Meaning|title=Positive Psychology at the Movies: Using Films to Build Virtues and Character Strengths|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FpubEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA359|edition=2nd|publisher=[[Hogrefe Publishing]]|isbn=9781616764432}}</ref><ref name="Seitz & Tafoya 2015">{{cite web|url=https://www.rogerebert.com/mzs/the-unloved-part-fourteen-joe-vs-the-volano|title=The Unloved, Part 14: Joe Vs. the Volcano|last1=Seitz|first1=Matt Zoller|last2=Tafoya|first2=Scout|date=February 3, 2015|website=[[RogerEbert.com]]|access-date=October 1, 2023}}</ref> Writer-director [[John Patrick Shanley]] said of his inspiration for making the film:
<blockquote>I started to experience ''[[Weltschmerz]]'' in New York a couple of years ago because all of my smaller problems were taken away, so I was faced with the really big problems like mortality and being alive on earth for a limited amount of time and what to do with that time. When you're a working stiff, you don't have as much time to brood on these things. [So] I sort of decided to write a film about it and how it might be overcome.<ref name="Van Gelder 1989">{{cite news|last=Van Gelder|first=Lawrence|author-link=Lawrence Van Gelder|date=June 2, 1989|title=At the Movies|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/02/movies/at-the-movies.html|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|location=New York, New York|page=C8|access-date=September 30, 2023}}</ref></blockquote>

Regarding the film's exploration of coming to terms with one's own mortality, Shanley stated:
<blockquote>Almost all of us are in denial about death. And the weird thing is, you think, "They do that because if you were to worry about death you couldn't enjoy your life."  But I think the reverse is true—if you don't recognize your mortality, you're tiptoeing through life and not letting in the full reality of what it is. When Joe lets that in, that's when life comes flooding in.<ref name="Seitz & Tafoya 2015" /></blockquote>
[[File:American Panascope logo.png|thumb|200x200px|The film features a zigzag shape as a recurring visual [[Motif (visual arts)|motif]], seen here in the logo of the fictional American Panascope company from the film]]
The film features a lightning-bolt-like symbol as a recurring [[Motif (visual arts)|motif]], first appearing both in the logo of American Panascope—the fictional company at which Joe is initially employed—and as the shape of the pathway that leads to the American Panascope factory.<ref name="Erickson 2000">{{cite web|url=https://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s110volcano.html|title=DVD Savant: Volcanoes and Lightning Bolts|last=Erickson|first=Glenn|author-link=Glenn Erickson|date=March 17, 2000|website=[[DVD Talk]]|access-date=October 1, 2023}}</ref> The pattern also appears as a crack in a wall of Joe's apartment; in the lightning bolt that strikes and sinks the ''Tweedledee''; and in the procession of the Waponis to the top of the volcano.<ref name="Erickson 2000" /> Film critic [[Glenn Erickson]] wrote: "The zigzag crack represents both the fear we humans need to overcome, and the circuitous, detour-ridden paths our lives become when we don't aim straight for the truth. Like the absurd walkway leading to the hellish Panascope factory [...] we instead walk Joe's "crooked road" of doubt, cynicism and fear of life itself [...] ''Joe Versus the Volcano'' wants you [to] shuck off your zombie rags and stop being a [[Pod Person]]."<ref name="Erickson 2000" />