The most general meaning of absurdity is that man and the environment are in a state of hostility, swayed by an inexplicable alien force, unable to change his situation, unable to communicate with others and the world, and the world that exists is meaningless.
So specifically, how do humans feel absurd in the real world? Is it because of the intense pain of the sudden shattering of a beautiful family, the nothingness felt after fleeing home, or the sudden disappointment and awakening of a state of life that has become numb. Since the perceived world is absurd, there must be an attitude towards it.
Lee originally had a happy family in Manchester by the sea, but because of his own negligence a few years ago, his three children were buried in the fire. The wife could not forgive him, and the two divorced. With an irrefutable feeling of self-blame and sadness, Lee left the town to escape contact with the outside world. Later, the brother gave Li custody of his son in his will, and he had to return to his homeland when he could not shirk it.
Manchester by the Sea is a philosophical film about a tragic life, defining the absurd world as a stage in the protagonist's life full of painful memories. The overall tone is very low, the plot rhythm is slow and stoic, and the absurd world of the alienated personality is truly restored.
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the first absurd attitude: physical suicide</h1>
In the interrogation room, Lee recalls the night of the fire— he was unforgivable and should be sentenced to death by law— but the officer told him that forgetting to turn off the wind screen of the stove was not a crime, just a mistake, and everyone had a time to make a mistake. When He left, Lee snatched the gun from the policeman's waist and attempted suicide, he did not die, but the days that would come were only sadness and pain.
There are two kinds of pain. One is healthy grief: "sadness but not hurt", you can feel the emotions brought about by sadness, this emotion is fluid, will slowly dissipate with time, and return to normal. The other is unhealthy grief: "hurt by grief," a feeling of grief that is frozen by time, does not know how long it will last, and can seriously hurt self-esteem and physical and mental health.
The loss of his family has left Lee with unbearable pain in his life, living a miserable and depressed life every day, indifferent to everything in the outside world, and the world is absurd and meaningless to him. Lee's first method is to end the suffering by suicide, and this choice also gives others the recognition that he is a coward without responsibility.
Suicide is the most direct way to fight the absurd world, and the stupidest solution in the real world.
We always have the freedom to choose, but the choices everyone makes are not just for themselves, and this choice has an exemplary meaning, that is, the choices you make may affect the choices of others. Therefore, one needs to "take responsibility" for what one has done and "take responsibility" for the whole world.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the second absurd attitude: spiritual escape</h1>
Alienated personality basically has the following characteristics:
1. Behavior withdrawal, psychological inferiority, and avoidance attitude or inability to cope with challenges.
2. Deeply hurt by the criticism and opposition of others.
3. In addition to their own relatives, there are no or few close friends.
4. Unless they are sure that they are welcomed by others, they are not willing to intervene in other people's affairs and easily trouble others.
In the years since the fire, Lee has been reducing his contact with people and his relationship with the world. He was just a low-level worker in Boston, with no friends, no lovers, no worries. After his brother's death, Lee was forced to adopt a nephew. Desperate to escape the painful memories of manchester, he decided to take his nephew out of Manchester to live in Boston.
The traits of an alienated personality can cause a person to focus too much on themselves and largely ignore the feelings and feelings of others, and the typical response to arguments, pain, or other stressful situations is to become distant and indifferent.
Every escape has our secret preferences. Or rather, what we are running away from is the heart that hides under the word "escape" and is unwilling to face it truthfully. Long periods of avoidance of the same thing also generalize our fear of the event—we begin to fear and avoid other things related to that event.
"Natural selection, survival of the fittest." A stable job and income are still some kind of iron law of survival, but now more and more young people do not play by social rules, refuse to participate in social life, especially school or work, and do not have any intimate social relations. They are decadent, withdrawn, socially fearful, in order to hide the self who has always been inferior in social relations, choose to quietly withdraw from the crowded social life, and only when they escape, they can perceive their true selves.
Many people think that "escape is shameful but useful", which is actually a psychological defense mechanism at work, which belongs to passive defense. The longer they are isolated, the deeper their suffering and the more afraid they are to leave the house.
The effects of mental escape are temporary and ephemeral, it rarely actually solves problems, and it can lead to a psychological dependence on the same way of escaping, entering a vicious circle: escape - pain - continuous escape - deeper suffering.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the third absurd attitude: rebellion against shackles</h1>
Not wanting his nephew to suffer from this lack of relatives, Lee strives to overcome the rejection of interpersonal relationships at this stage and intends to raise his nephew well. He sold his long-collected guns, fulfilled his nephew's wish to replace the ship left by his brother with a new motor, and saw the happy appearance of his nephew and girlfriend, and Lee also showed a long-lost smile.
Aside from useless physical suicide and mental avoidance, the only effective method is active resistance. After man is divorced from his real life, fate no longer has meaning, but only an absurdity. Grief can become a state of automatic navigation, and without strong intervention, without simple and crude and effective tools, it is difficult to get out of this absurd world on its own.
Resisting the shackles of negative self-consciousness is a prerequisite for escaping the absurd world and existing in the real world. Lee's identity shift from an escapor to a rebel is actually an escape-utilitarian theory—an escape with a sense of resistance. But Lee is not an absurd hero, because he cannot be counted as a pure, active rebel, but only an escapist with a sense of resistance.
The philosopher Camus said, "When the absurd contemplates his suffering, he silences all his idols." In this world that suddenly returned to silence, thousands of beautiful little voices rose from the earth. "So, in addition to the shackles of one's own consciousness, the shackles of the environment are also crucial.
Since the fire, most people in the town have avoided him or sneered at him. In order to deal with his brother's affairs, Lee returned to Manchester for a short time, but no one was willing to offer him a job. When reunited with her ex-wife, she apologized to Lee, saying that she was just immersed in pain and did not care about his feelings, hoping that Lee could forgive herself.
People always have to live in social groups, and the alienated personality will show a desire for normal interpersonal relationships to a certain extent. In the world in which Lee was not involved, everyone had a new life, but he was still trapped in the shackles of the swamp and could not extricate himself.
Lee escapes the absurd world of pain and does not reject the real world. In the case of the absurd world and the real world coinciding, Lee develops a sense of unrulibility over the environment in which he lives, and the only thing he can control is his own existence, and the contradiction between this domination and inability exacerbates his "absurd perception": all suffering comes from his own sins.
Unlike the rest of the town, mr. and Mrs. George helped adopt their nephew after Lee cleaned his wounds, cried emotionally, and understood Lee's inability to get rid of the pain. They asked Lee to open his heart, admit to being cowardly, and ask for help. Therefore, for the alienated personality, what we can do is not only verbal support and understanding, but also reflected in actual actions.
In the face of real suffering, all that can be done is to live, to wait and to resist. Although Lee says at the end of the film, "I can't get out," this is still not a complete tragedy, because confirming the absurdity of life can never be an end, but a beginning.
Being born as a human being, it is inevitable that you will encounter setbacks, and some will even make people feel that the whole world has no meaning. But please don't give up, like the protagonist in "Manchester by the Sea", even if life is a tragedy, you will find your own salvation.