In Inception, death is a constant presence. It moves a person from one form of reality to another. However, Dom's imagination, the memory of his wife, the guilt he lives with keeps him returning to a fantasy world of the mind. That fantasy world is an attraction, a pull, even a call to death. It is what draws him to what killed his wife, and it keeps him from the reality of his own children. Is not sin a belief in more than one reality, as Mal asks at the end? Therefore, what can destroy Dom is his sin? Sin allures us with attractive fantasies, and it justifies our engaging in it because their can't be just one reality, that of God and His just hatred of sin.
Interestingly, the person who most often confronts Dom about his problem is Ariadne, who of all the characters in the book, dies the most. Three times she dies in a dream - in her first encounter with a workshop of shared dreaming, when Mal stabs her in part 2 of that same workshop, and at the end when she leaps from a tall building. And we see it register in her face. She, in spite of her name which is taken from the ancient goddess of dreams, is the person most rooted in reality and able to judge Dom's inordinate fascination with what can kill him and harm others who join him on his projects.
Inception is a fascinating and imaginative study of the human psyche, the effect of guilt, and the need for purging that guilt by death. Thus, it not only shows the importance of the relationship with God the Father (see earlier post on the core theme), but it also demonstrates the need for atonement and sacrifice. But the sacrifice is not our own, or Dom would have died at the end of the movie to pay for his sin. Instead, he is restored to his family. Dom is restored from his guilty state by engaging in a project that restores a son, Robert, to his father, Maurice. But Robert must die first, and who kills him in the dream? Mal, the person who gave herself over to the other reality, who believes in more than one reality, and who is trying to draw Dom to death.
Friday, December 23, 2011
Monday, December 19, 2011
To Kill A Mockingbird
You would think this movie would be easy to peg with relation to a biblical theme. It's not. Of course, there's the theme of racial equality, a very biblical principle. We are all created in God's image, all sinners equally in need of a savior. You could also assert that Atticus is a Christ figure, as he stands with the downcast, even risking his life at one point. However, I don't think that captures what seems to have made this movie (and book upon which the movie is based) so captivating. Let me give you some key events in the movie and see if you agree with what I'll later explain as the key biblical theme. I think once you read it, you'll have to agree.
The movie is told through the eyes of a child, Scout who is the little girl in the movie. We also see life through the eyes of her brother, Jem, but as Scout relates his experiences. However, Scout doesn't tell us what she will have learned by the end of the movie. We move along with her as she ages, as she experiences life in Maycomb, as she matures. The basic theme begins at the beginning, when Mr. Walter Cunningham delivers his payment for legal services to Atticus' home. It's a bag of hickory nuts because during the depression, farmers were "hit the hardest." When Scout is surprised to learn that it's better Atticus not thank Mr. Cunningham, Atticus explains to Scout that it's better that he not know when Mr. Cunningham delivers payments; Mr. Cunningham is embarrassed at being thanked. This is just a hint of the reversals of that the adult world performs upon the ethics she has been taught as a child. This adult world about which Scout is just beginnning to learn.
Soon, we learn from Jem of an antagonist in the movie, a strange character named Boo, who is over 6 feet tall and only comes out at night and eats raw squirrels and drools. This opinion is confirmed by Ms. Stephanie, their friend Dill's mother. According to her, he's a murderous fiend, a danger to man and animal, someone to stay away from. In fact, Ms. Stephanie seems more fearful of Boo than the children themselves. Again, the child's view is contrasted, compared, and merges with the view of the adult's world.
Briefly, we meet a minor character, Ms. Dubose, an elderly woman whose sole enjoyments in life are her roses and harassing children with cruel and vicious language if they walk by and don't use the correct language to properly address her. Atticus ends up defusing the situation between Ms. Dubose and Scout by complimenting her on her roses. Adults have to be manipulated by Atticus, but he speaks freely and explains "just about everything" to Scout. In this brief encounter, we see the adult world and the child's world being contrasted, but the adult world looks smaller, meaner, even more childish than that of the children.
Later, Jem, in true child adventure fashion, proposes to Dill and Scout that he go look in the window of the Radley house to get a look at Boo. The escapade contains all that is needed for a child's imagination to run wild with the excitement of seeing the fiend of the town. It's a close call, and Boo almost gets Jem, but even though he had the opportunity, he doesn't act on it. Boo is still a mysterious figure to us and the children because all we see is a menacing shadow hovering over Jem. The children escape, but not without Jem losing his pants. When he goes back for his pants, the childish adventure turns into a potentially life-threatening disaster. But the danger came not from Boo but from Boo's dad, Mr. Radley, who shoots at a prowler near his collard patch. Of course, the prowler was a 7-year-old child, Jem, who almost lost his life because he was retrieving his pants from the barbed wire around Mr. Radley's collard patch. Mr. Radley's fear of a possible prowler, his fear of what he did not know, caused him to shoot first and ask questions later. So, where was the danger to the kids - Boo or the "responsible" adults? The contrast between the children's world and the adult world lessens, and yet it deepens because we start to wonder whom should the children be more afraid of.
Later, after a fight with a fellow classmate at school and a run-in with the teacher during her first day at school, Atticus has to explain something to Scout, something he understands but we question whether there's anyone else in this town who does. Atticus explains to Scout that you don't really know a person until you walk around in his shoes. Scout and Jem are always learning from Atticus, and much of what they learn involves the elimination of misperceptions about him. The story is about misperceptions. The adults in charge are not to be emulated, and the ones who seem to be not much or even evil, turn out to be better than the others. When the kids start seeing people for who they really are is where their journey begins to diverge from that of the so-called adults; they are maturing, while the adults are stuck in childish prejudice.
The kids are impressed with Atticus' advice, but they think that's all he's good at. The shooting of the rabid dog near their house causes the children to begin questioning their understanding of just what kind of person that Atticus is. Experience shows them what they didn't know before. He's also the best shot in the county. Atticus represents civilization. Just as he protects his kids and the community from the rabid dog, he also protects the community and justice from men like Mr. Ewell. We see this when Mr. Ewell approaches him when Atticus is visiting Tom Robinson's wife. Mr. Ewell is drunk and a threatening figure to of all people, children. He calls Atticus a "nigger lover," and Atticus stares him down but does not respond in kind.
Atticus is misperceived by the town also. They're talking about him taking the job of representing Tom Robinson, as if that makes a negative statement about Atticus' character. They fear one of their kind, a white person, going over to "the other side," which they perceive as dark, literally and in other ways. But they judge by the wrong standards.
Mr. Ewell, the true evil antagonist, is a "responsible" citizen reporting a crime against his daughter by a black man. Boo is a fiend, but we learn that he secretly folded Jem's pants and left them on the fence for him the night Jem was almost shot and that he leaves little gifts in the knothole of a tree on the Radley property, which Jem had found and placed in a cigar box, used by Jem as a treasure box. The kids are just starting to look at Boo differently, but this occurs after they start to look at Atticus differently. Their views are beginning to diverge from those of the other adults in town. Reputations are beginning to get turned around at this point in the movie, or set right for us, as we move toward the denouement of the movie, the Tom Robinson trial, where again our perceptions are turned around and righted. But our view of the "responsible" adults of the town does not improve.
Then we see the power of the child. Atticus is protecting Tom Robinson, and he's all alone because the sheriff was called on a wild goose chase. Atticus as the defender of civilization stands against a mob. Atticus stands for the right to due process, a fair trial, and the mob wants to kill a fellow human being. They base their goal on a misperception, a pre-judgment of a man because of the color of his skin. It is Atticus' stand for justice, Jem's courage to refuse to leave, and Scout's innocence and kindness that defuses the mob. "A little child shall lead them."
The childishness that we have seen in the adults in charge results in great evil and injustice, and it makes the childishness of the children pale in comparison. And it is the children who learn something from this evil, and it is Jem who suffers in the end. And by whom is he rescued but by one who has been unjustly treated, excluded, and pre-judged - Boo Radley?
It is the children who can see what's really going on. Thus, the key theme to which the injustice and prejudice themes have been leading to and which has been hinted at throughout the movie is this: "Unless you become as one of these little ones, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven."
The movie is told through the eyes of a child, Scout who is the little girl in the movie. We also see life through the eyes of her brother, Jem, but as Scout relates his experiences. However, Scout doesn't tell us what she will have learned by the end of the movie. We move along with her as she ages, as she experiences life in Maycomb, as she matures. The basic theme begins at the beginning, when Mr. Walter Cunningham delivers his payment for legal services to Atticus' home. It's a bag of hickory nuts because during the depression, farmers were "hit the hardest." When Scout is surprised to learn that it's better Atticus not thank Mr. Cunningham, Atticus explains to Scout that it's better that he not know when Mr. Cunningham delivers payments; Mr. Cunningham is embarrassed at being thanked. This is just a hint of the reversals of that the adult world performs upon the ethics she has been taught as a child. This adult world about which Scout is just beginnning to learn.
Soon, we learn from Jem of an antagonist in the movie, a strange character named Boo, who is over 6 feet tall and only comes out at night and eats raw squirrels and drools. This opinion is confirmed by Ms. Stephanie, their friend Dill's mother. According to her, he's a murderous fiend, a danger to man and animal, someone to stay away from. In fact, Ms. Stephanie seems more fearful of Boo than the children themselves. Again, the child's view is contrasted, compared, and merges with the view of the adult's world.
Briefly, we meet a minor character, Ms. Dubose, an elderly woman whose sole enjoyments in life are her roses and harassing children with cruel and vicious language if they walk by and don't use the correct language to properly address her. Atticus ends up defusing the situation between Ms. Dubose and Scout by complimenting her on her roses. Adults have to be manipulated by Atticus, but he speaks freely and explains "just about everything" to Scout. In this brief encounter, we see the adult world and the child's world being contrasted, but the adult world looks smaller, meaner, even more childish than that of the children.
Later, Jem, in true child adventure fashion, proposes to Dill and Scout that he go look in the window of the Radley house to get a look at Boo. The escapade contains all that is needed for a child's imagination to run wild with the excitement of seeing the fiend of the town. It's a close call, and Boo almost gets Jem, but even though he had the opportunity, he doesn't act on it. Boo is still a mysterious figure to us and the children because all we see is a menacing shadow hovering over Jem. The children escape, but not without Jem losing his pants. When he goes back for his pants, the childish adventure turns into a potentially life-threatening disaster. But the danger came not from Boo but from Boo's dad, Mr. Radley, who shoots at a prowler near his collard patch. Of course, the prowler was a 7-year-old child, Jem, who almost lost his life because he was retrieving his pants from the barbed wire around Mr. Radley's collard patch. Mr. Radley's fear of a possible prowler, his fear of what he did not know, caused him to shoot first and ask questions later. So, where was the danger to the kids - Boo or the "responsible" adults? The contrast between the children's world and the adult world lessens, and yet it deepens because we start to wonder whom should the children be more afraid of.
Later, after a fight with a fellow classmate at school and a run-in with the teacher during her first day at school, Atticus has to explain something to Scout, something he understands but we question whether there's anyone else in this town who does. Atticus explains to Scout that you don't really know a person until you walk around in his shoes. Scout and Jem are always learning from Atticus, and much of what they learn involves the elimination of misperceptions about him. The story is about misperceptions. The adults in charge are not to be emulated, and the ones who seem to be not much or even evil, turn out to be better than the others. When the kids start seeing people for who they really are is where their journey begins to diverge from that of the so-called adults; they are maturing, while the adults are stuck in childish prejudice.
The kids are impressed with Atticus' advice, but they think that's all he's good at. The shooting of the rabid dog near their house causes the children to begin questioning their understanding of just what kind of person that Atticus is. Experience shows them what they didn't know before. He's also the best shot in the county. Atticus represents civilization. Just as he protects his kids and the community from the rabid dog, he also protects the community and justice from men like Mr. Ewell. We see this when Mr. Ewell approaches him when Atticus is visiting Tom Robinson's wife. Mr. Ewell is drunk and a threatening figure to of all people, children. He calls Atticus a "nigger lover," and Atticus stares him down but does not respond in kind.
Atticus is misperceived by the town also. They're talking about him taking the job of representing Tom Robinson, as if that makes a negative statement about Atticus' character. They fear one of their kind, a white person, going over to "the other side," which they perceive as dark, literally and in other ways. But they judge by the wrong standards.
Mr. Ewell, the true evil antagonist, is a "responsible" citizen reporting a crime against his daughter by a black man. Boo is a fiend, but we learn that he secretly folded Jem's pants and left them on the fence for him the night Jem was almost shot and that he leaves little gifts in the knothole of a tree on the Radley property, which Jem had found and placed in a cigar box, used by Jem as a treasure box. The kids are just starting to look at Boo differently, but this occurs after they start to look at Atticus differently. Their views are beginning to diverge from those of the other adults in town. Reputations are beginning to get turned around at this point in the movie, or set right for us, as we move toward the denouement of the movie, the Tom Robinson trial, where again our perceptions are turned around and righted. But our view of the "responsible" adults of the town does not improve.
Then we see the power of the child. Atticus is protecting Tom Robinson, and he's all alone because the sheriff was called on a wild goose chase. Atticus as the defender of civilization stands against a mob. Atticus stands for the right to due process, a fair trial, and the mob wants to kill a fellow human being. They base their goal on a misperception, a pre-judgment of a man because of the color of his skin. It is Atticus' stand for justice, Jem's courage to refuse to leave, and Scout's innocence and kindness that defuses the mob. "A little child shall lead them."
The childishness that we have seen in the adults in charge results in great evil and injustice, and it makes the childishness of the children pale in comparison. And it is the children who learn something from this evil, and it is Jem who suffers in the end. And by whom is he rescued but by one who has been unjustly treated, excluded, and pre-judged - Boo Radley?
It is the children who can see what's really going on. Thus, the key theme to which the injustice and prejudice themes have been leading to and which has been hinted at throughout the movie is this: "Unless you become as one of these little ones, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven."
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