12/18/2020
Today wasa pre-celebration of Christmas!!! Sarah and I watched the polar express to enjoy the Christmas vibe and to get on track of the traditional Christmas culture. The "polar express" tells the story of the hero boy, who initally rejected to believe Christmas. After catching the "polar express" and going on an adventure, he became more aware of believing while taking responsibilities of the mistakes he made. To children, it might simply be a film to promote their belief of Santa Claus, to keep having hope, while to adults, the polar express can represent greater thing than a holiday. Like how the manager says "a lot of times, it's not about where the train is headed toward, but whether to take the train," the train can represent a lot of things: the mystery, challenge, ambitions in life...People should at least give it a try and believe in its occurence but also self to be capable of doing so.
in addition to the Christmas theme, the movie also deals with other social factors such as race. even though most people are still whites, the producer consciously picked the hero girl to be African American to show that they are equally capable. As the white boy initally hurted the girl, he still had chance to make it up and support her, just like how in 2004 the politicians were promoting greater equality to compensate the previously surbordinate race. representing the foreigner, particularly Jewish race, Billy learned to trust. The fact that his house turned brighter after learning new American friends signifies that the United States welcome them and wishes to promote their wellfare. There's the interesting fact that the hero girl and boy do not have names, while the Jewish boy does. Maybe it's due to the fact, for the hero boy, it's more focused on his adventure, the hero girl, it's focused on her attitude and decisions, while for Billy, it's focused on his identity.
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