Bun | Wakasugi
After watching a movie called "Revolutionary Road", I have many emotions and want to share them with you.
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The story is that in 1955, in Connecticut, usa, there was a residential community called "Revolution Road", which was located on the outskirts of the city, and the residents of the community lived a stable and economically prosperous life. There lived a middle-class couple, wife April was a woman pursuing a personal acting career, and husband Frank was also ambitious, but now doing a job he didn't like at a company, and life was occupied by boredom and triviality.
The film stars Leonardo and Kate Winslet. Because they acted in "Titanic" together, the story of "Revolutionary Road" is very similar to the life of Jack climbing the planks and he and Ruth ten years later.
From a secular point of view, they are not bad. He has a pair of children, the husband is handsome and has a stable job; the wife is beautiful and keeps her life in order.
But apparently, the core of the family is not as good as it seems. Because, this is not the life they want.
Both people have their own dreams, and both want to be different from others.
Ten years ago, Frank was a talkative young man, and April attended a top drama school in New York and was expected to become a future star of an actress.
Ten years later, Frank, like most people, was catching trains and squeezing elevators every day, sitting in a depressed office, repetitive and tedious. He said: "My dad works at Knox. God, I beg you not to let me spend my whole life as mediocre as he did, and now that I'm sitting here, what can I do? ”
And April, who has two children, has become a mother of two children, spending day after day in the washing brush.
This dreary life, after a terrible community performance by April, exploded. April thought of change, she remembered the wonderful Parisian life that Frank described for himself when she was young, and decided to move her family to Paris.
It was a bold decision, and a decision that surprised the dull and boring life. They excitedly told their neighbors and friends the news. Although this bold idea is often exchanged for the incomprehension of others, what does it matter? They packed their bags, bought their tickets to Paris, and looked forward to their future lives.
This sense of anticipation is the most joyful and enjoyable part of the whole movie, as if the air is full of the smell of hope.
But soon, this joy of anticipation was shattered by reality.
April was pregnant.
Frank was unexpectedly promoted to a much higher salary than before.
So Frank hesitated, he wanted to stay where he had lived, to greet their third child well, to give this home, a better life.
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When the movie sees this, it feels like it's a copy of life.
How many people want to change, but are blocked by these more or less, big or small "accidents".
16 years old, arts and sciences, originally loved literature, but everyone said that science is better to find a job, so they chose science in a muddy way.
18 years old, chose a major, originally wanted to study law, but the family said that the economics department has more "money", so I read the economics department.
Graduated and had a safe and secure job. In the repetition day after day, the whole person is like a dry dead leaf, barely supporting life.
It's not that I haven't thought about change.
It's just that the schedule of life is pressing step by step.
I'm about to get married, and I can't be reckless.
Soon the child will be born and the responsibilities of the family will be assumed.
It's time to buy a house, have a mortgage to pay back, and think of what freedom.
After that, the children must grow up, the house should be bought larger, and the education fund and marriage fund should be prepared for the children.
Life never gives you a chance to breathe, so you choose to compromise again and again. How many dreams have been made before going to bed, and after waking up, they have returned to their original point.
Carelessly, a job has been done for decades. Even if you don't like it anymore, you will live a lifetime.
To tell the truth, I am afraid of such a life in my bones, so from journalists, to headhunters to psychological counselors, I am constantly adjusting, constantly exploring, and looking for the most ideal state of life.
Because, I want, life to be what I want it to be. Even if the process is a little hard and a little uneasy, I am willing to pay the price.
In the eyes of many people, this is a wayward choice.
But at least this willfulness will not smooth out the longing and anticipation of life.
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Speaking of the movie, the "change alliance" that was originally ready was because one party chose to leave the scene in advance, and the other side had to shelve the idea.
For April, the dream of Paris that had once flashed was her only dream of life, and she was unwilling to let it be shattered so easily.
Finally, after a seemingly normal and warm breakfast, April decided to put an end to it all.
She chose the most extreme and cruel way to herself. She self-harmed herself and miscarried, eventually dying in the hospital. Frank was plunged into infinite pain.
At this point in the story, I'm sure many will say that April is too stubborn and too unrealistic. What if you did move to Paris? If you are not looking for a job, raising children, coping with life, life will return to the current cycle, maybe it is not as good as now, why must it be tossed?
However, changing and not changing are not the same after all.
Not to mention, in Paris they will face new landscapes, new jobs, new friends and, of course, new difficulties.
The experience of the two desperately switching tracks alone may excite the couple for a long time. Two people will get to know each other again and face life like comrades-in-arms again.
Who knows what will happen in the process?
Ten thousand steps back, even the choice to go to Paris is wrong. They finally realize that life is a cycle, no matter how you live, the end is the same, the most important thing is to enjoy the moment, to find passion in ordinary days.
This simple conclusion is also a sense of life that has been fought, tossed, experienced, and finally rose from the bottom of the heart.
Instead of the so-called true meaning of life obtained from the chicken soup text.
Even if it is true that Maugham wrote in The Moon and Sixpence: "I will do my best, but I will eventually live an ordinary life." ”
This process of exhaustion is vivid enough.
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In fact, change doesn't necessarily lead to the desired life, but at least change brings hope. In the ordinary days, hope is greater than anything.
April finally decided to commit suicide because the light of this little hope was shattered.
In the whole movie, what makes me most uncomfortable is actually not April's suicide, but when their husband and wife propose to change, friends, colleagues, and neighbors are full of disdain and questions on their faces. It seems that at any time, seeking stability is the most politically correct choice, and "change and tossing" becomes unreliable and unreliable.
Some dreams, because they are labeled as unreliable and restless, are easily broken.
Those who want to change, in addition to the courage necessary to change, must also learn to ignore external voices.
I think of another movie called Food, Prayer and Love. The heroine Elizabeth is also a middle-aged woman who is tempered to despair by a dull life. However, she bravely chose to divorce, ran away, gave herself a year-long vacation, and went to Italy, India and Bali to find herself and life. Finally, in the process, she reconciled with herself and was lucky enough to find someone she loved.
The same is tired of life, the same is the desire to run away.
April chose suicide, and Elizabeth chose to redeem herself.
I don't want to advocate that you run away from life, go travel, change to a city life. But when life is oppressed to the point of not seeing new hopes and options, remember to seek change, even if it brings anxiety and uncertainty.
As Adler puts it, "The uncertainty of life is exactly where we want it." ”
We seek change, not to escape from life, but precisely to make life look forward to it.
Life, because of expectations, is worth living.
—The end—