Thesis: The movie Wall-E is a great example of transcendentalism in contemporary society as it portrays many of the ideas stressed in transcendentalism such as nature, nonconformity, and self reliance.
Nature
"The world is emblematic. Parts of speech are metaphors because the whole of nature is a metaphor of the human mind" (Ralph Waldo Emerson. Nature)
Emerson's quote directly explains the unification between man and nature which is shown in Wall-E, as the plant in Wall-E is a symbolizes the importance of nature, as the entire plot of the movie revolves around this plant and the condition of the Earth due to the choices of mankind.
Nonconformity
"If a man does not keep pace with his
companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer" (Henry David Thoreau. Walden.)
Thoreau's quote explains that it is okay for one to separate themselves from the rest of society and that it is important to do what YOU want to do. Wall-E has a short circuit, which is what causes him to act different than how he "should" (or what causes his nonconformity) which leads to revolutionary change in the movie.
Self Reliance
"Envy is ignorance,
imitation is suicide" (Ralph Waldo Emerson. Self Reliance.)
Emerson's quote emphasizes the point that you lose yourself when you follow the rules of society, which is why it is important to be self reliant and to use your own intuition to make choices. In Wall-E, the people living on the ship have no self reliance as they are all robots of their own society- which almost leads to their downfall, until Wall-E, who is self reliant saves them from this fate.
No comments:
Post a Comment