Theme Of Cultural Anxiety In M. Night Shyamalan's The Village

Carson Delany
Mr. Manser
English 11H
16 March 2033
Cultural Anxiety in M. Night Shyamalan's The Village In M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village, the village elders unsuccessfully escape their cultural anxiety about the loss of innocence. They all met in group grief counseling for trauma relating to losing loved ones to violence. Edward Walker then proposed the creation of Covington Woods to protect their children from having their innocence taken by violence as theirs was. However, despite their best efforts, they fail to protect both themselves and their children from this. We most clearly see this failure in the elders themselves, along with the cases of Ivy Walker and Noah Percy, both of whom ironically would have fared better in the modern

They separate themselves and their children from the outside world in an attempt to shield them from the perceived evils of modern society however, in doing so, they further lost their own innocence and failed to protect their children such as Ivy and Noah, from losing theirs as well. This fear of losing innocence is an incredibly strong theme in Christianity. Eve biting the forbidden fruit represents her and humanity as a whole losing our innocence and falling from the grace of God. Yet it also preaches forgiveness. Jesus, who represents the ultimate innocence and purity, also sacrificed himself to allow humanity a chance to reenter the light of God and regain our innocence. Due to Christianity’s immense influence on our culture, the fear of losing innocence translates over. I’m sure just about every parent understands the elders’ desire to protect their children from losing their childlike innocence to the violence that is all too prevalent in our society. The rise of social media only exacerbates this fear as there are always new ways a stranger can snatch the innocence of a young and impressionable mind. It has also been a large factor in the recent mental health epidemic, largely affecting youth who have lost their innocence to the world of likes and shares. They see people who seem to have everything, the perfect body, perfect hair, perfect house, and perfect life, and wonder why they don’t have that. It damages young minds in ways we’re just beginning to understand but if a 12-year-old girl starving herself because she doesn’t have the same body as Bella Hadid and Kim Kardashian doesn’t show her losing her childlike innocence too soon I don’t know what