watching this movie, I immediately thought of a novel that I love very much, "To Live". Although both works are about a person's state of suffering, there are subtle differences between the two. In "Alive", the protagonist Fugui has experienced the pain and torture brought by life again and again, but he has overcome the difficulties of life time and time again. The wealthy outlook on life in the book is strong and inspirational. Although the whole work focuses on describing the suffering of life, it promotes an optimistic and unyielding attitude towards life. "Living" tells us that wealth and honor do not live for others, he just continues to live for the sake of living. In this work, the suffering of life is like the snow in winter, which comes quietly and goes away quietly. Wealth and honor are like Prometheus in Greek mythology. He was pecked at his liver by eagles every day, and his body recovered slowly the next day because of the curse. He never gave up the struggle against fate. Wealth is a fighter, because life is always more painful than death, and it also requires greater courage.
"Scars will never heal what to do"
And one of the questions that "Manchester by the Sea" wants to explore is what happens when the pain is insurmountable. In "Manchester by the Sea," the pain Lee faces is of his own making, he never emerges from the shadow of the fire, and like Lee's final confession, he can't beat the pain. He once thought of committing suicide because of his own fault, but then he gave up trying. A person who has lost everything cannot give up the idea of suicide because of a few words of advice from his brother. Why did Lee live alone for so many years without any thoughts of suicide? Later, I gradually figured out that the reason why Lee did not commit suicide was because he had turned himself into a living dead, a walking corpse who had cut off all social relations. He believed that continuing to live as a "human" in this society would be far Much more pain than he could endure in taking his own life with a single shot. He traded this constant pain and torment for a trace of inner peace and comfort. Here, the theme of "being alive" becomes his atonement for the past. Unlike the rich and noble who live in the present, Lee is a person who lives in the past. Those who can’t get out of the past are doomed to have no future. This is why he can’t fully accept Patrick, even if Patrick brought him a long-lost winter sunset. As shown throughout the film, there is no spring in this story, and the torture of life is like the snow in the film, constantly invading and uninterrupted. If wealth is Prometheus, then Lee is more like Atlas, life does not give him other options, and he exists only because living is more painful than dying. Lee is the loser of fate. He carries the guilt in his heart forever, lives silently, and dies silently.
"Why Do People Read Dostoevsky?"
German writer Hermann Hesse commented on Dostoevsky: "We must read Dostoevsky only when we are suffering and misfortune, and our ability to bear suffering tends to the limit. only when our whole life feels like a burning, painful wound, only when we are full of despair and experience an inconsolable death. When we face life alone and numb, when we do not When we can understand the crazy and beautiful cruelty of life and ask for nothing from it, we will open our hearts to the music of this astonishing and brilliant poet. Then we will no longer be bystanders, no longer Appreciators and judges, but brothers who share the same fate of all those who suffer in Dostoevsky's works, we bear their sufferings and with them we are obsessively and engrossed in the vortex of life , plunged into the eternal grind of death. Only when we experience the wonderful meaning of Dostoevsky's terrifying, often hellish world can we hear his music and the comforting and Love."
Everything in the world has two poles, and there is joy and suffering. "Life is already so hard, why should I embarrass myself watching such a painful movie." This view is untenable in my opinion. Just as Dostoevsky's works are the saviors of the victims, it is precisely because of the difficulties of life that we can better appreciate this heart-wrenching film. The world needs not only Tolstoy but also Dostoevsky; just as the world needs not only the warm sunshine of California, but also the freezing snow of Manchester by the sea.
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