{"id":260651,"date":"2021-05-27T20:16:17","date_gmt":"2021-05-27T17:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/the-tree-of-life-teaches-us-how-to-live\/"},"modified":"2021-05-27T20:16:17","modified_gmt":"2021-05-27T17:16:17","slug":"the-tree-of-life-teaches-us-how-to-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-tree-of-life-teaches-us-how-to-live\/","title":{"rendered":"#&#8217;The Tree of Life&#8217; Teaches Us How to Live"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;<strong>#&#8217;The Tree of Life&#8217; Teaches Us How to Live<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\">\n                <\/aside>\n<p><!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 3.7.9--><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When <strong>Terrence Malick<\/strong>\u2018s <em><strong>The Tree of Life<\/strong><\/em> premiered at Cannes in 2011<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the film was called out for its Christian sensibilities, as if it was a near-three-hour stint of religious propaganda. \u201cPeople would repeatedly reproach me for my own laudatory notice; this film, they said, was pretentious, boring and \u2014 most culpably of all \u2014 Christian,\u201d <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/film\/2011\/jul\/07\/the-tree-of-life-review\">wrote Peter Bradshaw in <em>The Guardian <\/em><\/a>a couple of months later while also predicting that<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0\u201c<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Tree of Life <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">may well come to be seen as this decade\u2019s great Christian artwork.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bradshaw was correct, though not merely because <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Tree of Life<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is a great Christian artwork. Rather, it is because the film <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>roaches its subject in a nuanced and often self-critical manner. History has no shortage of great Christian artworks, but the most memorable among them make us question our values. Theological authors such as Fyodor Dostoevsky and S\u00f8ren Kierkegaard offer a multitude of succinct atheistic perspectives, for example, while Renaissance painters, including Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Caravaggio, set Christological scenes in their own era to confuse our concept of the biblical timeline.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Tree of Life<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> also disrupts our sense of time while questioning the Christian viewpoint. The film follows architect Jack O\u2019Brien (<strong>Sean Penn<\/strong>) in the present, on the anniversary of his brother\u2019s death, as he recalls his upbringing in a Texas suburb in the 1950s. In flashbacks, Jack <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is depicted as an adolescent boy (played by <strong>Hunter McCracken<\/strong>), reared alongside his two brothers by the stubbornly conservative and religious Mr. O\u2019Brien (<strong>Brad Pitt<\/strong>) and Mrs. O\u2019Brien (<strong>Jessica Chastain<\/strong>). Moving seamlessly between the narrative sequences and abstract shots of nature and the flickering cosmos, the film\u2019s unconventional structure conveys Jack\u2019s conflicting feelings as he recalls both his traumatic childhood and the death of his brother.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The bigger issue for Jack, though, is the tension between nature and grace. At the beginning of <em>The Tree of Life<\/em>, Mrs. O\u2019Brien tells Jack and his brothers that there are two ways to go through life: the way of nature; and the way of grace. And that they must choose one or the other. But how can Jack follow the latter path and believe in God when he suffered traumatic abuse during his childhood, at the hands of his cruel father, and when he lost someone dear to him seemingly at random?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This conflict is rooted in Jack\u2019s fundamental lack of understanding. Children are expected to accept everything without question. This is especially the case for a child such as Jack, who grew up in an authoritarian household. When Mr. O\u2019Brien has violent outbursts at the dinner table, for example, the consensus is that Jack and his brothers should accept this treatment. They are children, and he is an adult. That\u2019s just the way things are.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And the same goes for Mr. and Mrs. O\u2019Brien\u2019s hopes that Jack and his brothers will succumb to blind faith in God \u2014 even in the wake of torment and tragedy. But how does one understand God without first understanding creation? <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Tree of Life<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> opens with this quote from the Book of Job: \u201cWhere were you when I laid the foundations of the Earth?\u2026 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?\u201d (38:4-7). This is God\u2019s response when Job wonders why he is treated unfairly, despite his faith, and it implies that Job should not question something he does not understand.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But older Jack rejects that notion. He wants to understand, and he will not be satisfied until he does. He starts his process by imagining the beginning: the Big Bang and the inception of the Milky Way and the formation of the solar system. Then, he moves to the construction of life on Earth. First, the fish appear, then the plants, then the dinosaurs. And then Jack himself.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Perhaps most notable in Jack\u2019s reimagining of Genesis is its profound scientific accuracy. In Jack\u2019s visions, he does not assume that the creations of the Earth merely materialized at God\u2019s command. Rather, he envisions the forming of molecules and the magnificent twisting of the cosmos. He does not deny <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/sciencee\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"5\" title=\"Science\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">science<\/a>, but rather embraces it. Perhaps in order to properly walk on the path of grace, one must first understand why things are the way they are. Mrs. O\u2019Brien was right when she said there are two ways through life, the way of nature and the way of grace, but rather than choose one or the other, you must take both, together.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jack\u2019s scientific understanding of the world does not dissuade him from a Christian perspective. In fact, it helps him embrace it for the first time in his life. This makes sense, as the titular biblical reference reads, \u201cIn the middle of the garden [God] placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil\u201d (Gen 2:9). Ultimately, it is knowledge that ensnares us, knowledge that frees us, and knowledge that makes us human. For Jack, it is knowledge that allows him to fully understand the Christian perspective.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the final sequence of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Tree of Life<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Jack winds up on a surreal sandbar that represents Heaven. There, he sees his family and loved ones, including, most significantly, the brother who died. A serene-looking Mrs. O\u2019Brien gazes into the sky and whispers, \u201cI give him to you. I give you my son.\u201d <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jack finally has a vision of Heaven \u2014 the ultimate Christian symbol \u2014 because he endeavored to understand creation. On the sandbar, he greets his father lovingly. He also is able to say a proper goodbye to his brother. His inner turmoil is finally resolved.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But <em>The Tree of Life<\/em> doesn\u2019t end there. A final shot, which acts almost as a coda, reprises the flickering, mysterious light of the cosmos as if to say: you have found the way of grace. Just don\u2019t forget how you found it.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. 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