Introduction
The significance of life is an existential question that many people find troubling through the course of their lives. People engage in different activities in the pursuit of what is significant in their lives; the meaning of life; the one thing that surpasses all. The subject has been explored extensively in many scholarly and works of film. The subject of the significant in one’s life has been explored extensively in the Woman in the Dunes, a film directed by Teshigahara, The Plague, a novel authored by Camus, Ikiru, a film by Kurosawa, and A Doll House, a play written by Ibsen.
These creative works offer different perspectives on what is significant in life. This paper will explore the manner in which the creative works pose a challenge to the readers to lead a significant life. The paper will also dissect the challenge posed to the reader in terms of the significance of the challenge on an individual level and a level that is greater beyond the person. The paper will also offer a personal opinion of the challenges that the authors present in each of the creative works. Finally, the paper will present a reflection upon the personal pursuit to significance in life and how the experiences in the pursuit compare or contrast with the perspectives held by the authors of the creative works.
The Analysis of Woman in the Dunes
Teshigahara poses a challenge to the reader to lead a life that is significance. The teacher (Eiji Okada) who joins the woman in the sand pit is an entomologist, whose motivation for the pursuit of new beetle is the immortality to be gained by finding, sorting, inspecting, dissecting and classifying a new beetle (Shatnoff 43). This challenge speaks to many people, especially on a professional level. It relates to the need to make professional achievements that are relevant beyond persona aspirations. These are the kind of achievements that contribute to the professional community; the kind of professional achievements for which one is remembered for eternity.
Despite the belief by an individual that a certain life is meaningful and significant, there is the need to continually search for more meaning as the dynamics of life keep changing. When Eiji Okada finds himself in the pit with the woman, he finds himself with a new opportunity to contribute even further, by that finding more meaning in his life. On a larger scope, life is equated with diggings sand. The lack of progress is signified by the fact that the fluidity of sand, that with absolute disregard of the effort taken in digging, it flows back from where it was previously dug.
Through his creativity, Eiji Okada achieves further significance at the individual level by redeeming his dignity. Through perseverance and hope, Eiji Okada uses the sand that has been used to signify the futility of life to create a natural pump through which pure water, a scarce resource in the village, can be found. The woman trapped in the sandpit was also starved of companionship, value, and intimacy (Shatnoff 45). Eiji Okada forms a relationship with the woman; a relationship that led to the rescue of the woman from the pit, the sexual intimacy she lacked, and the companionship she craved (Shatnoff 45). In this way, Eiji Okada finds what is significant in his life and also contributes to the larger community.
Analysis of a Doll House by Ibsen
The play by Ibsen contains various themes, most of which relate to the modern society. One of the predominant themes is gender (Rosenberg and Marvin and Templeton 894). This relates to the socialization between men and women in a society that is largely patriarchal. Men are socialized to believe they are superior to the women; and as such are to lead while the women should submit to be led (Moi 257). The challenge of the play is for women to find meaning in their lives even though the patriarchal society in which they live offers stumbling blocks. Templeton (35) finds that conflict exist between the law regarding the position of a woman and love, the role of the man as the head of the family and the heart and the aspects of masculinity and femininity.
The creative work poses a challenge of either gender. The patriarchal the society erects challenges for the members of the female gender to find meaning in their lives. Under the current definitions, the women are supposed to find what is significant in a world that is constrained by the definitions of the patriarchal society (Yuehua 79). If the women are to find the real meaning in their lives, the definitions of what is possible should be limited by their imagination and not the dictates of the male-dominate society in which they leave. While the men are supposed to create such a society for the women, the answer for the women does not lie in absconding their responsibilities.
Analysis of The Plague by Camus
The Plague offers the reader an opportunity for existential reflection through the life of Voltaire as seen through the eyes of Pascal. The main character in the book, Bernard Rieux, offers a challenge to the reader in the book to finding meaning in their lives. He takes the position that one can find meaning in their life; find the significant in life by performing one’s professional duties to the best of their abilities (Jagger 125). The position of the protagonist regarding the manner in which people can achieve what is significant in life is understandable given his profession in the face of the raging plague that faces the town in which his practice is based. In his analysis Jagger (125) offers contrasting perspectives held by other groups of people against the simplicity in the view taken by the protagonist.
The difference in the dissenting perspectives with that taken by the protagonist is the protagonist takes proactive measures even when faced with stumbling blocks while the holders of the dissenting perspectives hold on to the past even when it offers no prospects. However, and in keeping with the perspectives in the film, Woman in the Dunes, the position of an individual is tested adversely by the dynamics of the prevailing conditions. The protagonist position that performing one’s professional duties to the best of one’s ability offers meaning to one’s life is adversely tested when the advancing plague causes the suffering and death of a child (Loose 207). These conditions cause the protagonist to doubt the adequacy of his initial position, and the belief in a supreme God who rules over all. His belief in this position is challenged by the suffering of children.
The initial challenge offered by the protagonist does no lose meaning even in the face of the suffering of the children and the other members of the community due to the effects of the plague. As a doctor in the community, the protagonist has an opportunity to help the others believe in his approach to finding the significant in life. This is achieved by helping the community members fight the plague as a united unit. Paneloux offers reassurance in the midst of waning belief in the doctor of the existence of a just God (Loose 207). The doctor is best served in accepting that not all in the universe can be understood; and that which is not understood is not to be hated. Through this approach, the protagonist can take the opportunity to stand above that which he fails to understand and help his fellow community members, thereby achieving the significant in life.
The analysis of this creative work contributes to the belief that what is significant in life changes with the change in the prevailing circumstances. In leading my life this far, I have found various things to be bring out the meaning in life. Some of things have occurred successively after the completion of one activity. This succession of events has been enabled by keeping an open mind and perceiving the new circumstances as another opportunity to find a new meaning in life.
Analysis of Ikiru by Kurosawa
At what point is it futile to look for meaning in one’s life? This is a question that lingers in the minds of those who are yet to find the significant in their lives even with the advanced years. The advancement in years may not jus signify the increasing in age but also the imminent end of one’s tenure in his professional life. In this creative work, the protagonist is a government official in his middle ages. Kanji has a few months remaining due to the advancement of his cancer ((Gordon 143). The medical condition of the protagonist causes him to reflect upon his life, on what it is based. It is from this reflection that the protagonist finds clarity, something he has no achieved in the many years leading to this moment. He challenges the reader to perceive a reality that is different from what we know. This would allow one to perceive the possibilities we have not known previously due to the constrained outlook on life.
For instance, the protagonist has looked at every day as interchangeable with the last because he led a repetitious life. He could rectify the errors he made yesterday in the following day (Gordon 145). The withdrawal from our definitions of reality and embracing the possibility that there could be other constructions of life allows one to determine what is important, thereby determining the significant in life. The protagonist challenges the reader that even in the face of imminent death; one can still find meaning in one’s life. The protagonist challenges the reader that the impediment to achieving this feat is the despair that is a common characteristic when one is faced with this fate (Gordon 146).
Even when Watanabe is faced with the despairing knowledge that he has a limited time before he faces his imminent death, he is concerned with leaving a legacy behind. This is something the he has not managed in the ordinary life he has lead this far. The protagonist settles on an action that not only helps find significance in the last days of his life but also leaves a legacy to the community through a park where children and adults alike can play. His persistence in beating the government bureaucracy, his endurance in the face of unending refusal by the concerned government officials to approve of the plan, and his beaming attitude even in the context of his diagnosis and prognosis also infects his workers with optimism (Gordon 146).
The analysis of this creative work fills one with belief even in the face of an imminent fate, one can achieve much more than he has in his entire life. Watanabe led a life as a government official that is shadowed by the achievements he made since leaving the hospital. The heroism of the protagonist is life affirming and challenges the reader who thinks it is too late in life to look for the significant. It reaffirms the resolve of those people, even in the midst of a bleak outcome still maintain a vivacity and positive outlook; that even in the last moments before death, one can find meaning in life in a manner that not only fulfils their individual aspirations but also benefits the society unendingly.
Conclusion
What is significant in one’s life is determined by various realizations. These realizations are fruit of the occurrence of various events. The ever-changing nature of the dynamics in life means that it the occurrence of a succession of events that influence the determination of what is significant in one’s life in different ways is a possibility. In the light of these dynamics as evidenced in the analysis of the creative works, there is a need to open one up to the possibilities of new meanings in life. Individuals have a responsibility to purse the significant as it is influenced by the changing dynamics in life. This finding discourages against the practice of branding a certain achievement the ultimate significance and therefore ending the pursuit of new meanings in life. As long as life continues in a dynamic world, there are opportunities from which we can proffer benefits to the individual and the society. The pursuit of these opportunities offers a chance to develop new meaning in life.
Works Cited
Gordon, Jeffrey. Kurosawa’s existential masterpiece: A meditation on the meaning of life. Human Studies. 20.2(1997): 137-151.
Jagger, George. Camus’s la Peste. Yale French Studies, 1(1948): 124-127.
Loose, John. The Christian as Casmus’s Absurd Man. The Journal of Religion, 42.3(1962): 203- 214.
Moi, Toril. First and foremost a human being: Idealism, theatre, and gender in a doll’s house. Modern Drama. 49.3(2006): 256-284.
Rosenberg, Marvin and Templeton, Joan. Ibsen’s Nora. PMLA. 104.5(1985): 894-896.
Shatnoff, Judith. Film reviews: Woman in the dunes. Film Quarterly. 18.2(1964):43-46
Templeton, Joan. The doll House Backlash: Criticism, Feminism, and Ibsen. PMLA. 104.1(1989). 28-40.
Yuehua, Guo. Gender Struggle over Ideological Power in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. Canadian Social Science. 5.1(2009): 79-87.
