Lars and the Real Girl by Craig Gillespie, is about Lars’ personal evolution; him becoming the greatest version of himself. The premise of this movie starts with socially inept Lars (about 25 years of age) who is still recoiling from his traumatic childhood. His childhood was very turbulent due to his mother’s death, which is the most catastrophic ordeal any kid can face. So that alone can elicit an expansive array of “strange” behaviors since, from the get go, his mother was absent from his life. Right from childbirth, Lars’ is playing with an unfair hand. Here’s the causality: due to his mother’s demise, Lars consequently has a void of love/nurturing in his life. After years of harboring, Lars fills that void of love with Bianca, a sex doll. The people in his community were all aware of Lars’ disadvantages, so when Lars introduced Bianca to everyone, she became an official member of the community. She was able to assimilate because the community respected and accepted Lars. After going through a rigmarole of pretending that Bianca was a real individual, she “died”. But her “death” paved way for, if you will, Lars’ rebirth. As Bianca was “”ailing” Lars was socially ameliorating to the point of her death. The ending of this movie has many implications, but all of them revolve around Lars’ moving on to the real girl and becoming his greatest version.
The world is rife with communities that treat individuals like Lars differently. In some other countries Lars would have been burnt at the stake. As long as inequality is in the picture, these communities are inhibiting our evolution….. Its also important to realize that normality is a mere construct that humans created to separate themselves from “peculiarity”.
Normality is determined by what behavior society (or group of people) finds palatable. So, conversely, delusions are determined by what society finds abnormal. Within each social group, there are a plethora of behaviors that the group finds taboo, in other groups, those same behaviors could be socially sanctioned. In a hypothetical scenario, if Lars were to be placed in a school around here, the surrounding peer group, for the most part, would find him and his mannerisms repugnant. This scenario really exposes the significance of the role the environment plays when you place an individual whose behavior is diametrically different the archetypal individuals of that environment. Inequality arises when a behavior deviates far enough from societies social standards. By this, for example, if Lars were to live in a larger and more un-symbiotic community, say, New York, he would be treated differently than everyone else. Behaviors/mannerisms tantamount to Lars’ are disliked because they, to the environment, are unprecedented. The methodology most people use to deal/coexist with such behavior is asinine. Those individuals like Lars would be treated unequally and unfairly (bullying, being ignored, false preconceptions). On this planet, symbiosis is disregarded chiefly because people (for whatever reason) cannot accept and respect differences, and as a result, we compartmentalize.
Communities, analogous to Lars’ are very symbiotic. Everyone releases their prejudices, preconceived notions, and differences in order to coexist and thrive. In reality, its survive in order to thrive, which is essentially correct, but that concept is greatly misinterpreted. Most survive from putting down a “beating” on other individuals, this is called competition. This intense competition runs amok in our world, and consequently, it has caused us to be less symbiotic. So, this competitive mentality that’s entrenched in most people’s minds has contributed to this enormous schism in society. The next contributing action goes back to the last paragraph; the inability to accept polarity (differences between them and someone else). If the differences are lofty enough, then, worst case, the judging individual will treat that individual unfairly which, in turn, they create a misconception about other people with reminiscent behavior. By creating such a misconception, they are also creating a dichotomy between them and other individuals. When we have an innumerable amount of people clinging onto prejudices and false dichotomies, serious issues consequently manifest (war and destruction).
On a macro level, division, or duality, is present everywhere on Earth. Countries are exemplary of this division. Now, nothing about having independent countries is erroneous. But, it becomes problematic when you have independent countries that are more fixated about being more militarily and more financially “powerful” than other countries. The procedure of existence is not what it was 100 million years ago. During that time, animals with genetic advantages survived and were able to successfully propagate their genes. Collaboration, since the dawn of our species, has always been a far better strategy for survival. Sure, then (2 million years ago) concepts like science, logic, and philosophy did not exist, so the most physically fit individual was the most valuable member. Those tribal units were able to effectively operate due to cooperation and collaboration. Other members would build fires, collect plants, and do other tasks that would aid the group’s survival. In this predatory world, collaboration and collective teamwork are essential for survival.
In present day Earth, most people operate under this massive simulacrum of cooperation and teamwork. Now, back to the inability to accept differences. The chief reason why countries are separate is because they don’t share the same ideals as other countries. So why not put our differences aside and work together? If all countries were to combine resources and peacefully work together, maybe we would know more about our universe. Independently, many countries have accomplished great things. But eventually this duality will reach a breaking point. By then, by seeing the results, we will finally understand the causality of separation. But let’s not get defeatist, more and more people every day are beginning to wake up. Once we put our differences aside and respect others’ ideas and perspectives, communities like Lars’ will exist everywhere.