The golden compass: give children a free space to grow

Dawn 2022-04-20 09:01:24

After watching this film, I always feel that it is a film that reflects the opposition between the world of children and the world of adults.
Marisa Coulter, played by Nicole Kidman, represents the power groups in the adult world of rule-making who hold the voice and demand that children follow their rules and do what they want, while Lyra Belacqua, played by Dakota Blue Richards Representing the group of children, they have free will, have a strong curiosity about everything, and hope to understand this society through their own thinking. Lord Asriel, played by Daniel Craig, represents a group of people whose free will is unchecked. If this group grows, it will affect the interests of the power group. The dean of the academy represents a group that wants to give children free space to grow up. However, as subordinates under the power system, they are controlled by the power group and cannot compete with the power group, only obedience. The armored bear, I think, may represent the power of nature; the walking of the armored bear with Lyra Belacqua seems to imply that children are the human group closest to nature.
Children want to develop their own free will, which has been opposed to the will of power groups. This contradictory situation makes the rule-makers who have the right to speak panic, worrying that in the process of free growth, children learn to think about the rationality of the real society with the development of free will, thus affecting their (power groups) The legitimacy and rationality of power are questioned, which endangers the stability of its own (power group) power. In order to maintain the stability and continuity of their own power and cultivate a group of people who obey the rules of power, the power group needs to stifle the free will of the children, that is, to separate the children's spirits from their bodies, so that the children lose their free will and lose their freedom. The ability to think freely and become the follower and supporter of the power rules.

This is just my personal opinion on the film. Perhaps, I have overinterpreted this film; perhaps I have misinterpreted this film.

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Extended Reading

The Golden Compass quotes

  • Lyra Belacqua: If you value your lives, come no further.

    Billy Costa: Why? We gobbled him fair and square.

    Lyra Belacqua: This ain't no game, Billy Costa. Don't you know what this gate is?

    Billy Costa: It's just the back door to your stupid college. So?

    Lyra Belacqua: There's a curse on this gate. You gyptians ought to know that. Crossing this gate is worse than touching someone's demon with your bare hands.

    Billy Costa: Why ain't nothing happen to you, then?

    Lyra Belacqua: Because we live here. We got safe passage, see? And anyway, my mother's the one who put the curse on this gate in the first place.

    Billy Costa: What mother? I heard you was an orphink and your uncle only left you here cause' nobody wanted you.

    Lyra Belacqua: Come here and say that.

  • Lyra Belacqua: [as Mrs. Coulter tries to comfort her] No! Don't you touch!

    Marisa Coulter: No one is going to hurt you. No one is ever, ever going to hurt you.

    Lyra Belacqua: They did it to Billy and those other kids. They cut their demons away. Why? Why are they doing that?

    Marisa Coulter: I know it's difficult to understand, but it's for their own good. It's just a little cut. Now, you listen. A long long time ago,some of our ancestors made a terrible mistake. They disobeyed the authority and that is what made dust came into the world. And ever since then, we've been sick with it. Been sick with dust. But there is a way out. You see, Dust doesn't settle on little children. It's later when your demon begins to settle. The Dust begins to swarm all around us,working its mixture and that is how children begin to have all sorts of nasty thoughts and unhappy feelings, but there is a way to stop it.

    Lyra Belacqua: Well, if it's so good, then why didn't you do it yourself? Why didn't you let them do it to me?

    Marisa Coulter: I'm going to tell you something. Something very important, something you don't know. Intercision isn't perfect yet, and you're not just anyone, Lyra. Your mother didn't die in an airship accident as you were told. She wasn't married to your father and even though and even though she loved you very much and she wanted to keep you. It wasn't allowed. So you were taken from her, and it wasn't until things changed... and she was free to do as she wanted... That she went to Jordan College and spoke to the Master.

    Lyra Belacqua: No! You can't be!

    [gets out of the bed and walks a few meters away from Mrs. Coulter]

    Marisa Coulter: Yes, Lyra. You're mine. And you're safe with me. You'll always be safe with me.

    Lyra Belacqua: Who's my father?

    [She took a minute to figure out, then she finally guesses who her father is]

    Lyra Belacqua: Lord Asriel? He's my father, isn't he?

    Marisa Coulter: Yes. Yes.