break free

Mercedes 2022-09-25 22:51:04

(1) Snakes, crows,
dark green snakes roamed the pale skin, climbed, coiled around the neck, tightened, and slowly squeezed into the girl's mouth.
The snake in the movie appears many times, all related to Anya. Thelma likes Anya, so Anya's appearance represents desire, so the snake-anya-desire is connected. In Christian civilization, snakes are often used to refer to desires, which can be traced back to the Bible. The serpent lured Eve to steal the forbidden fruit, and human ancestors were expelled from the Garden of Eden by God. Since then, the snake has become the embodiment of desire and evil. Thelma's desire for Anya is not only about sex, but also a spiritual thirst and a search for herself. Living in a strict Christian family since she was a child, Thelma is accustomed to suppressing her id and shaping herself into a standard good girl: no drinking, no smoking, no makeup, no falling in love, and reporting to her parents on the phone every day. Everything that has been suppressed will eventually explode, just waiting for an opportunity, and Anya is that opportunity. Almost the exact opposite of Thelma, Anya drinks, smokes, falls in love, and goes clubbing at night. From a traditional point of view, she is considered a bad girl. Good girls and bad girls meet, they are attracted to each other, what they see in each other is another possibility, the self in their dreams.
The crows swarmed into a black cloud, one by one, slamming against the glass windows fiercely.
Coincidentally, the many appearances of the crow are also related to Anya. Thelma is repressed, born in a Christian family, but the harmony of the family is only a false illusion, broken at a touch, God is not a ubiquitous redemption for her, but a ubiquitous surveillance, and I do not know when it will come. Judgment and Punishment. So, as soon as the desire appears, a crow descends, causing a thrilling convulsion. Without it, the crow is the messenger of God's punishment, the eyes and ears of the parents, and the defender of orthodoxy.
At the end of the film, Thelma finally spit out the crow, she finally no longer felt guilty for being herself, that was the last trace of guilt dissipated, the release of the id, and the reconciliation with the self.

(2) Convulsions
There are two reasons for Thelma's many convulsions: one is the desire for Anya, and the other is the repression of this desire. Reflected in the film, the images used are snakes and crows. Freud believed that consciousness is only the tip of the iceberg. Below the surface of consciousness, there is also the subconscious, and there is a censorship mechanism in between. The subconscious contains desires and instincts that are not tolerated by the world, and they often cannot reach the conscious level through the self-censorship mechanism. But the suppressed subconscious must be released, otherwise it will lead to mental illness. Thelma was completely repressed by desire, and the id could not reconcile with the ego, so the inner contradictions externalized into convulsions.

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Extended Reading

Thelma quotes

  • Thelma: I feel angry with you, God. Why are you doing this to me? What do you want?

  • Trond: A little knowledge doesn't make us better than others.