Self-awareness & Collective Unconsciousness

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Self-awareness & Collective Unconsciousness
Cao Biqin

In the movies, And the Spring Comes, and Mona Lisa Smile, both protagonists Kathrine and Wang Cailing, were confronted with great obstacles, but they all try to attain their goals. But differently, the strong self-awareness buried in Wang's mind urges her to fulfill her own dream at all costs. However, Kathrine, who has high education, regards the emancipation of women's minds and help the independent and complete personality of students as her hope. On account of various factors, they have different destinies.

Wang lives in a remote, small town, and she has the longing for her singing career and passion for love. However, this young dreamer, surrounded by people that are stubborn, boring, and are biased against art and the dreamers' attitude, behavior, the road to Wang's success is quite tough. Kathrine has a close affinity to Wang here, whose idea collides with the traditional view that "women will eventually return to their families." There, in the two films, exists collective unconscious in the society, which means that the prejudice towards women, hipsters or arts is in the soul of human race. Namely, the vast majority of people accept something true unconsciously though they do not have a clear understanding. This is a tragedy of times and is awfully hard to change.

In such position, to be honest, Kathrine is luckier than Wang, she grows and lives in a transition age where a group of women have broken the shackles of conventions and can manifest their capacity in the society, which let her be free and active. Meanwhile, with Kathrine's encouragement and support, some female students gradually realize their identity, and have the self- awareness to pursue emancipation. As the end of the film, Joan choose to step into marriage, which makes me wonder Katherine's challenge to those impartiality towards women is failed, but Joan's explanation let me realize that the core of the movie is not enable women to absolutely emancipate from the restrictions of family, or choose one between career success and academic mastery to manifest their independence, but to live the way they want and keep their thoughts free.

As for Wang Cailing, she lives in a small town where the minds of the residents have been solidified permanently. For those old fogies, Wang Cailing's dream is a negligible and impractical joke. Wang Cailing even made the residents look up to her by over beautifying her experience. However, what she got was endless ridicule. They even scorn Wang's life style, and persuade her to marry. Even though Wang has a strong self-awareness, within question, she compromises to reality.

From the two movies, we see a gap between self-awareness and collective unconscious. Someone wins in the battle, and someone fails. Regardless the results, we should show our appreciation to those who stand in the front line fighting against authority and old-fashioned customs, for the reason that their actions may affect or correct people's misbelief in a degree. Most importantly, what can we do when a collision between self-awareness and collective unconscious happened? Firstly, so as to acquire true liberation, people should be loyalty to themselves. Besides, remember that escapism will not solve any difficulties. The key is that people have the capacity, firmness, determination and bravery to do their own decisions, to achieve ambition and to fight against those inequitable conventions. What's more, since the process is quite tough, those who attain their goal are always persevering, patient and diligent. So even if the reality has also been consistently disappointed, just take them in your stride. And remember in your mind, there is nothing insurmountable. With such determination, your dream and hope are sure to wait you at the end of tunnel.

However, sometimes we feel that it is impossible to cross thorough the collective unconscious. If so, you can learn to reconcile with reality and adversity by employing the forbearing and liberal nature that buried in your soul. For instance, Wang not attain her goal at last, so she adopts a girl and starts selling meats, which can be seen as concession. However, we also notice that she does not marry a man that she dislikes. Meanwhile, she teaches her daughter sing and smiles a lot than before. We can assume that she wants to cultivate her daughter to be a singer. In this way, she finds the approach to satisfy the need of self-actualization. This is her uncompromising posture. In doing so, we are likely to find a way out of confusion and frustration.

[1348831303]

Dear Cao/Li

We have read your article in detail. This film review takes two protagonists as representatives of self-consciousness and collective unconsciousness. The theme is very profound and this entry point is also very good. The article talks about the performance of the two protagonists' self-consciousness and collective unconsciousness, and the question of what we should do when the two conflict, which also leads to our thinking.

However, there is a problem in the article. Perhaps we do not know much about the words "self-consciousness" and "collective unconsciousness"; and the discussion in the article is somewhat empty and difficult to understand. So you can explain the two words for us, and it might be better to use the examples in the films to prove it.

If you have any questions about the review，you can tell me!

Guo/Liang

[mnc5223]

Dear Cao,

Your essay has a very interesting analysis! I like the reflection on self-awareness and collective unconsciousness. I agree that these movies show self-awareness and the collective unconsciousness of their different countries and communities. I think this essay does a great job of explaining how difficult it is to overcome hardships, but that overcoming hardships is possible. I would suggest to use a few more specific movie scenes to demonstrate your points. For example, in the fourth paragraph, the point "They even scorn Wang's life style, and persuade her to marry. Even though Wang has a strong self-awareness, within question, she compromises to reality" could be more concise. I wonder in what specific scene does Wang compromise to reality, and who "they" is. I remember Wang's parents question her about marriage, is that the scene you were thinking of? When your points are backed up with specific movie scenes, they will be even stronger!

Let me know if you have questions about my suggestion!

Megan

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Dear Guo, Liang,
I have gotten your comments. Thanks for the advice. Here I want to share you the idea of us about collective unconscious.
Collective unconscious refers to structures of the unconscious mind which are shared among beings of the same species. Namely, sometimes human beings have a consistent attitude and recognition that are populated by instincts towards something.
We can see collective unconscious in the two movies from many details. For example. in the movie And the Spring Comes, Hu Jinquan, a young man who love ballet deeply, does ballet in the ground. However, residents around Hu do not understand him, even laugh at his action, and doubt how can a man dance. Similarly, when Wang start singing, People leave quickly. The arts are strange to most people which Hu and Wang devote themselves to. These people look down upon arts, and they cannot figure out a rational reason why they dislike arts because this kind of thinking about collective unconscious is buried in the soul of human race. Though a few people can break the shackles of collective unconscious, most people are still susceptible by collective unconscious. Besides, those people who are out of collective control are hard to realize their dream, because they are not able to get people to understand them. In the movie Mona Lisa Smile, Wesley College, its education that spreads to students is the idea that "women should serve men" and that schools do not teach them how to get knowledge and wisdom, but how to be a "qualified wife", All the efforts that female students make is to pave the way for marrying a good husband. The school even treat marriage as the standard of educational success. This is kind of collective unconscious. People who no matter men or women, think that women have no place in politic or business, and should stay home. Though this idea is ridiculous in a contemporary’s mind, people in that times value it.
I am going to end my explanation here. If you have any questions about my explanations please tell me.
Cao Biqin
Li Boxin

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Dear Megan,
Thanks for the advice. I will try to answer your questions.
In the movie, we can see that some people persuade Wang to marry. For example, Zhou Yu said:"Tsai-ling, come to live with me. I will take care of you...And you are not getting any younger, share life in earnest." Besides, when Hu jinquan could not bear people's comments, he asked Wang to marry him. When Wang went home, her mother asked her whether she can get married this year. What is more, Miss Zhang also went to Wang's home, and she said:" You really should find a husband." In the sentence "They even scorn Wang 's life style", "They" indicates Miss Wang, and many residents in that small town. Have you ever noticed that Wang is always alone? Whether she walked in the street or she was accused by Huang Sibao. Nobody talked to her or tried to helped her. So, I believe residents in the town scorn and dislike her.
After experienced the swindle of Gao Beibei, Wang went to Dating Agency. I do not know if there is a Dating Agency in America which is an organization and aimed at helping people to find partner. I think Wang’s act that she went to Dating Agency is a kind of compromise since she wanted to get rid of rumors. However, she failed.
I am going to end my explanation here. I really appreciate your advice. It will help me improve my article. If you have any questions about my explanations just tell me.
Cao Biqin
Li Boxin

[heg5082]

Hello Cao!

I really liked the theme of your essay. It was interesting how you compared Cailing's and Katherine's stories by acknowledging how their environment influenced their destinies, as you put it. I also liked your idea of emphasizing these women's struggle with self-awareness versus the collective unconscious. I grasped what you were trying to say, but maybe you can provide more examples from the films to demonstrate this further. I think you have a strong theme here, but I think you should dive deeper into talking about your idea of the collective unconscious.

Thanks for working with me!
Heidi

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Hello Cao and Li!

Thank you for your careful contact with the plot in the movie to explain to us the meaning of self-consciousness and collective unconsciousness. I think I can understand the theme of your film review now, which is very profound.

But I just want to mention some minor problems in the article. For example, at the end of the first paragraph, for various reasons, they have different destinies? You can say something briefly and let us know what you think. Secondly, I think in the fifth paragraph, you can add some plots in the film to your views on what to do when self-consciousness and collective unconsciousness collide, so that we can understand it more intuitively. Finally, some sentences in this article are too long, which may lead to some grammatical errors. For example, the last sentence of the third paragraph is so long that it may take us a long time to understand.

Look forward to your reply!
Guo/Liang

[mnc5223]

Cao and Li,

Thank you for your elaborations and specific movie scene additions. I better understand which scenes you were referring to and where you were getting your ideas from. I think those quotes and scenes from the movie will be a great addition to your essay! I agree that your evidence from the movie support your claims. I notice that Heidi made a similar comment. So, I think adding the scenes that you explained to me will improve your essay from both Heidi's and my own suggestions.

I've enjoyed working with you so far!

Megan

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Dear Heidi,
Thank you for the comments. Actually, I have also noticed that there exists ambiguity about self-awareness and collective unconsciousness in my article. Megan, Guo and Liang, they also point out this problem. I have explained this to them. You can read my reply to them. Hopefully that help.
If you have other questions and suggestions after reading my explanations, please let me know.
Thank you again for your advice.
Cao Biqin
Li Boxin

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Dear Megan,
Thank you again for your suggestions! It really helps me improve my article. I will continue to revise article. After revising, we will post it on the website. If you have time, you can give us other suggestions.
It is nice to work with you!
Cao Biqin
Li Boxin