Allie's fanaticism is seen briefly at the very beginning of the film. Most consumers who are in need of a product would simply go buy whatever the store had in stock. Allie, however, found out that the item he was going to purchase was made in Japan, and he went ballistic. Allie then refused to buy the product, yelled at the storeowner, and stormed off, causing quite a scene over something that would not matter to most people. This scene is only preview into the extremely short circuit controlling Allie's fragile mind. His fanaticism continues and grows exponentially throughout the film and eventually causes his death.
The second act shows again the fanatic that Allie has become in several ways. One key moment that shows this is when Allie chooses to lock the men staying at their camp inside the ice machine, which would freeze them to death. Allie's plan goes awry, however, when the men wake up, realize they are locked inside of this machine, and begin shooting it in order to try and escape. Mirroring the original "Fat Man" and "Little Boy" bombs that were dropped in Japan at the end of World War II, the ice machine explodes into a fire storm, killing the men inside. His fanaticism is shown because he not only tried to kill these innocent men, but did so in a way that forced them to explode the entire machine in a fit of panic. Allie's episode continues through the rest of the film, with the next (but certainly not last) act of fanaticism being his lying to his family about the United States burning in a nuclear war.
The third act shows the unfortunate completion of Allie's transition into fanaticism and his subsequent and untimely death. One instance where his fanaticism is shown is when his family wakes up to find him not in the bed. It is soon revealed that Allie has woken up, doused the church in gasoline, and lit fire to it. This endangers many lives, and in a fit of rage, Reverend Spellgood guns down Allie, who suffers a fatal gun wound. Although Allie's fanaticism was more severe toward the end of the film and his life, it was certainly seen as soon as the audience was introduced to Allie.
Very well written response. I like how you noted that Allie's fanaticism is first shown in the opening seen when he and Charlie are buying supplies at the hardware store. Although the movie tries to portray Allie as a reasonable person in the beginning of the film, it is clear that he has a manic and almost paranoid personality. I believe that Allie is well intentioned, however his mental instability causes him to make unreasonable decisions, which put himself and others, such as his family, in harms way. He is very controlling and has a destructive personality. Allie becomes more and more delusional as the film progresses. At the end of the film, he genuinely believes that he is doing the natives a favor by burning down Reverend Spellgood's church, when he is actually just causing pain physically and emotionally. Allie constantly puts his family, as well as the natives of Jeronimo through mental stress. Nothing seems to meet his needs and standards as he pushes them until they are physically exhausted.
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