Self-awareness & Collective Unconsciousness
Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2020 11:23 pm
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.
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.