Meaning of Life - Amelie vs Watanabe - Essay Example

Amelie vs. Watanabe Meaning of life is an issue that has been discussed and considered since ancient times. It was a matter of concern for Greek philosophers, eastern men of wisdom and the representatives of various philosophic schools up to nowadays. There are many questions concerning the meaning of life, and the most popular and discussed are: What is the meaning of life? Who are we? Whats it all about? (Nozick). Numerous hypothesizes, theories and suggestions have been made to explain and expand on this philosophical category. One of the approaches is focused on the idea that life itself is meaningless and its meaning can arise within life. This idea was suggested by the representatives of positivism, namely Ludwig Wittgenstein, who stated that things and events in a certain life can have meaning but life itself is meaningless. Simply stated, such context implies that the life of a person has certain meaning for itself and for others in the shape of events happening within it and the results of this very life embodied by achievements, heritage and ancestors. This theory, to my mind, has reason, as it is rather fare to define meaningfulness of a person’s life based on the actions and achievements. I think that the meaning of life based on such theory could be estimated both in positive and negative way: for instance, a person who devotes his or her life to crimes and destruction also therefore grants the meaning to it – evil proves to be the meaning of life, but it actually exists, even such life is meaningful. On the other hand, there are people whose lives acquire meaning through positive actions and events (at least, the positive dominates). For the second type we could provide two movies as an example. They are Amelie and Ikiru. The first one is Amelie, the French movie telling the life story of a girl working as a waitress and living in modern Paris. Amelie felt that something important was about to happen in her life, that’s why, being encouraged and inspired by this premonition, she gladly helped people to add joy and color to their lives. Once she found toys in the cache of her bathroom, they belonged to a “boy” who used to live in that apartment in 1950s – she found him and brought the toys back to him (he was already an elderly man). There were many things she did for others like writing a love letter to a neighbor on behalf of her husband, readjusting the alarm clock of a wicked greengrocer, substitution of shoes and toothpaste etc. Amelie lives with an open heart ready to lend a helping hand, to give last memories of the past and show the beauty of the present to people, to help them regain self-confidence and believe in miracles and love. It fact, this movie is all about kindness, brightness and childhood, the key character looks at life with children’s eyes, she preserved a child in herself, maybe because he had no normal happy childhood. Thus, finding the magnificence and beauty of life in small joys and details usually unnoticed by people, Amelie gradually pieces together the puzzle of life in its perfected and full shape. To my mind, Amelie finds the meaning of her life in altruism, in making other people’s lives happier. She herself first found her happiness in small everyday pleasures understandable only for her, and as she found the cache she decided to carry on with making people happy. Her actions give sense to lives of surrounding people as well as fill her life with meaning and understanding the importance of what she does. At the same time, Amelie’s altruism leads her to find her personal big happiness: she meets her love. The second movie for contrast is Ikiru, the work of the famous Akira Kurosawa. This movie shows the life of a man called Kanji Watanabe. Though the ideas of the two compared movies are generally similar, there are certain differences. Watanabe heads the administrative board of the city where he has been working for 30 years. When he learns that he has stomach cancer he revalues his life. As he looks at it from the outside he realizes it to have been empty, dull and meaningless, spent for no purpose on the fatuous job. He suddenly understands that he is lonely and alienated: he even failed to tell his son about the disease. There is only one year left to live for Watanabe, and he decides t spending it meaningfully. Inspired by the girl working on the toy factory he decides to change his life fundamentally and fill it with sense making something good for others. Trying to resist the whole bureaucratic system in which he had worked for ages, Watanabe does his best to make all the needed documents to build a children’s playground. He hurries to finish this affair before he dies. Unlike Amelie, the character of Ikiru acquires meaningfulness of his life at the edge of death. So the period to arise the meaning of his life within it is measured only with one year. Nevertheless, Watanabe chooses to devote this year to a very kind and generous affair. Having achieved his goal he finds peace and sense of content. Thus, his willing to do something good and useful for others and leave at least some legacy behind him also proves to bring him joy and content. He finally found the meaning of his life in actions and – finally – achievement of his goal. Though rather different in contents and shape, these two contrasted movies imply the same general idea. Both Amelie and Watanabe find sense of living not in satisfaction of their selfish needs but in pure and selfless altruism. They approach their goals in different ways but move in one direction literally living and acting for the sake of others and taking delight and meaningfulness in it. I think that – based on Watanabe story – the meaning found by him within life that filled and enriched his existence was living for others and leaving some trace in this world. The main difference between these two people, to my mind, was the fact that Watanabe was rather late in acquiring the sense of living and that he was actually “pushed” to understand this necessity. But, nevertheless, both characters illustrate the virtuous way of filling the life with sense. Work Cited: Nozick, Robert (1981). Philosophical Explanations, from: http://books.google.com.ua/books?id=N4zH86WogYwC&printsec=frontcover&hl=ru#v=onepage&q&f=false Read More