The real ideal country should be that you have the right to choose. ——2020-05-05
Leslie's suicide shatters the apparent calm. Harper and Jack are antagonists to father of six, Ben. On the one hand, it is the pursuit of material freedom and the enjoyment of the safety and convenience afforded by today's material civilization. On the one hand, it pursues spiritual freedom and concentrates on building Plato's ideal country.
These two methods of education seem to be correct. Existing alone is bound to perish, but how to coexist is an eternal proposition. Harper's two children, educated in modern civilization, know all kinds of brands, but they don't understand the essence of some concepts. Ben's six children, despite not being systematically educated, have reached a professional level in both knowledge and athleticism. The rules of the material world and the ideal country are different, although the products of education must be different.
This is also reflected in Leslie's mental problems, the tension between two worldviews that ultimately overwhelms her. Although both Leslie and Ben are pursuing a Platonic Utopia, Ben still admits that Leslie cannot be saved in their isolated Utopia, so he lets go and sends Leslie outside for psychiatric treatment. But what if Leslie came to the outside world, she hoped to return to the Utopia to heal herself.
The confrontation between the two worlds also culminates in Vespyr's mission to save Rellian. Vespyr was nearly paralyzed or even killed on this mission by his father. Ben began to have doubts about his educational methods. Like Leslie, he doubted not the spiritual world he believed in, but whether it was right to impose his own pursuits on children. So Ben decided not to interfere with the children's decisions. Let your children go to pursue a formal university education and get used to the rules of survival in the material world.
The conflict between Ben and the kids, and Harper, and Jack, has always been, in essence, whether this life is of his own choosing. Respecting each other's choices is true freedom. Just as the interpretation of Lolita's book in the film, disgust with this compulsive love that does not respect freedom, this desire for control, will make people hate and pitiful. This is also the attitude of Rellian to Ben in the early stage.
As Leslie's ashes are flushed down the toilet, they laugh, relieved, and strike a delicate balance, reconciling the pursuits of father and child.
As us who have been learning how to live in the physical world, Ben's education is something we lack in living in concrete structures. STOP, stay calm, think, observe, and plan.
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