Re-watching "Little Women",
There are many emotions.
For a woman to truly walk on a path of self-realization, she must not only overthrow many worldly prejudices, but also struggle with the shackles of innate human nature. Life is like this,
There are always regrets.
If women want to walk on a path of self-realization, you must first find yourself
When I watched Little Women, I was reminded of Alice Monroe's short story Escape. Both are feminist novels, but the two heroines have completely different endings.
In Escape, 18-year-old Carla falls in love with clark, a handsome equestrian coach who is tired of her grandparents' lives and elopes with an equestrian coach.
When you leave, leave a note:
"I've always felt the need to live a more authentic life. I know I will never get your understanding at this point."
This sentence can be used as a word for Carla's self-conscious awakening. She didn't want to live the rules-abiding life of her father's generation, she wanted to be true to her heart and live the life she wanted to live.
But what kind of life such a life is, where to find it in the world, Carla is not known, she is a person who betrayed the world but did not find a way out.
Many years ago, Mr. Lu Xun once gave a speech: "What will happen to Nala after she runs away?", at that time, the reflection was on the problem of survival after the escape, and Monroe reflected on the problem of spiritual belonging in "Escape".
She and her boyfriend Clark go on a quest for a more authentic life, running a racecourse for a living. But the business of the horse farm is not good, and Clark does not really love her, and is cold and rude to her.
Not only that, but Clark is also a complete villain. He instigates Carla to fabricate that her employer, Jamison, has sexually harassed her and asked Jamison's widow, Sylvia, for compensation.
Such a life runs counter to the real life That Carla is looking for. With Sylvia's help, she ran again, wanting to go to Toronto.
But on the way to Toronto, she developed a fear of the new life she was about to start, and going to Toronto would not necessarily lead the kind of real life she wanted, so she called Clark and asked him to take her back to the racecourse.
Joe in "Little Women", like Carla, is a betrayal of traditional life, she hates that women are "objectified" and have only one way to get married and have children.
But one of the most essential differences between her and Carla is that Joe has a life he clearly wants to live, knows how to live that life, and keeps trying.
Joe wants to be a writer, and the process of becoming a writer is the process of her self-realization. Such a process and goal is clear and realistic, not just a vague concept.
Therefore, when the eldest sister decided to marry, she was able to be loyal to her heart, even if the people around her denied her values, she also bravely went forward.
She was able to walk on the path of self-realization all the time, and finally became the person she wanted to be. Moreover, I also found my own belonging.
Two. On the road to self-realization, the "girl's heart" is the biggest obstacle.
After watching the movie, many viewers were upset about Joe and Laurie. It is believed that Joe can only be regarded as a truly perfect ending if he has both realized himself and married Joe in the end.
The audience's mentality, I see as a "girl's heart".
Does Joe like Laurie or not? She loved it. Because like the other three sisters, the extravagant prom would make her happy.
Laurie is golden and handsome, and she is a green plum bamboo horse, and she is very protective of her, such a Prince Charming, any girl will like. But such a liking is only emotional and physical, and the lover she wants most is someone who can communicate with her spiritually.
Does Joe have a "girlish heart"? Although Laurie can't really enter her heart, because the depth of the two people's thoughts has a wall, Laurie is traditional, Joe is the pioneer, but the other is her emotional sustenance.
That's why Joe chose to go back to Laurie when she felt so lonely on her way from her hometown to fulfill her dream of being a writer.
The reason why Laurie confessed to her and she refused was because she knew clearly that after being with Laurie, she would lose herself and convert to tradition.
But then, when Joe pursues her dream and becomes suspicious of her own path, she feels very lonely again, so she goes back to Laurie.
At this time, Joe, seeing that she is about to compromise with the world like Carla in "Escape", the law of the development of objective things "saves" her.
When she went back to Laurie, Laurie was married to her sister by this time. Joe's sister was also a self-possessed person at first, but later gave up on herself and chose marriage.
Laurie is married, and Joe can only continue to be alone. When watching "Little Women" now, one of the most painful scenes is the part where Laurie confesses to Joe and Joe rejects her.
The pain was not because Laurie was rejected, but because Joe gave up on his own initiative.
When a Prince Charming who can arouse his "girlish heart" confesses to himself, the self in his heart and the "girlish heart" are repeatedly playing, but in the end she still chooses to suppress the "girlish heart" and gives up becoming a princess who is favored by the prince.
Thus becoming his own queen.
Three. In a patriarchal era, self-realization and marriage and children may not really coexist.
Now many people, including some men, are calling on women not to be full-time wives, because full-time wives have no income, the economy cannot be independent, and the risk is too great.
They only call on women not to be full-time wives, but they don't address the issue of who does the work of full-time wives. After two people get married and have children, women do not become full-time wives,
Who will bring the child? Who does the housework?
Some people idealistically say that men and women are equally shared. In theory, this is possible, but it does not work out. Because if two people take the baby and do housework, the work income will inevitably be affected.
After all, it was an era of 996 working hours. Why would the original writer of Little Women feel that Joe would not get married in the end?
This arrangement was not made to oppose the marriage system, and if it was to oppose the marriage system, she would not let the eldest sister get married.
In the author's view, in a patriarchal society, a career-oriented woman who takes care of her career is doomed to not take care of her family. If she gets married and has children, her career will inevitably stagnate.
Because of such a society,
Men are not allowed to return to the family with their babies and do housework. However, for a woman, not getting married not only means that she cannot continue her life, but also that she wants to rebel against her "will to belong".
Every girl, eager for love, but also eager to have a home, Joe did not marry in the end, only with the ability to communicate with himself spiritually, and willing to achieve his own professor to accompany the end of the year, this is actually a helpless move.
A woman, in order to achieve a career in a patriarchal society and realize her ideals, then she must overcome her femininity and give up some worldly things.
Looking at Joe many years later, you will actually find that she also has a lot of regrets in her life, and she gave up a lot in order to realize her ideals. Thankfully, however,
She got what she wanted most.
Perhaps, in an adult world (not just in a female world), the real gain is not that all desires are satisfied, but that they are benevolent and then let go of what must be missed.
albeit
Those things are also extremely precious and beautiful.