A Brief Analysis of the Root of Human Nature from Schindler's List

Deshaun 2022-01-25 08:01:15

I'm tired of the same commentaries on this movie: behind the narrative plot introduction is a thousand words of "greatness", "shock", "classic", etc., a tone of worship. Spielberg is just telling a story about salvation, a story about the Nazis saving the Jews. He didn't want to create a high-level hero to be worshipped. He was just talking about a person, who is human, but God does not.
What kind of person is Schindler? He is good at communication, is good at using informal methods, and his life is extravagant and corrupt. He is only profitable. Yes, he has always been such a person, first and last. He is not Jesus, nor Confucius, he is an authentic profiteer.
He was not a person who loved the Jewish people from beginning to end. At first, his only interest in Jews was cheap labor. He would also be angry at having a one-armed old man in his factory. After all, a healthy person can bring more wealth. . But what made him go on the road of saving the Jews instead of ruining his family? Of course, as everyone said, it is human nature.
But what is human nature?
Human nature should be a kind of collective cognition and behavioral guidance of social behavior that people who have lived together for a long time have passed on for a long time. In short, it is our moral code. Therefore, human nature is not just the unattainable principle in the movie, saving the orphans, punishing the evil and promoting the good, these are all human nature. Similarly, human nature is not the patent of some people, but everyone's subconscious.
However, human nature cannot be fully expressed in life. The reason is the contradiction between personal cognition and moral standards. For example, if you see something that deviates from your ethical code, you will also be very likely to choose the opposite approach to what you think is right, because you will consider some other factors more than just ethical code factors. And look forward and backward. The so-called difference in human nature is here. The greater the pressure you have to face, the longer it will last, and the greater the contrast between personal cognition and moral standards, the more brilliant human nature will be.
Everyone's human nature is different, because everyone's life is different. There may be no difference in basic principles, or it may be completely opposite in basic principles. In this respect, human nature can also be regarded as a worldview endorsed by the ontology.
To say so much in a mess, I just want to say that the recognition of Schindler’s human nature in us is a kind of betrayal in the fanatical Nazis. Therefore, in such a fanatical era, the chance of gaining recognition at the top of the ruling class is greater than we thought. Much less. So Schindler's risk is much greater than we can realize, very, very much. Therefore, Schindler can only be Schindler, and in the whole story, only he can do all of this, and the human brilliance that runs through the story should be a brilliance that has nothing to do with others and belongs only to Schindler.

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Extended Reading
  • Theron 2022-03-20 09:01:03

    It belongs to the kind that is excited when watching it, and the more I think about it, the more boring after reading it.

  • Maia 2022-03-24 09:01:03

    This is the greatest work of Spielberg's life. Just in front of the boundless obstructed or slaughtered Jews, in front of the vicissitudes of history, this is still a trivial stroke, but at the same time it is the reason why it triumphs over all works that praise humanity: like every invisible boundary and invisible crowd. The last shot is the same, good and evil are impermanent, and there is no end to it.

Schindler's List quotes

  • Amon Goeth: The truth, Helen, is always the right answer.

  • Itzhak Stern: How many cigarettes have you smoked tonight?

    Oskar Schindler: Too many.

    Itzhak Stern: For every one you smoke, I smoke half.