ENG 356 May 15, 2007 The Role of violence in the movie The Village Wilter Prez Barrera

There is nothing to fear except the persistent refusal to find out the truth, the persistent refusal to analyze the causes of happenings. (Dorothy Thompson.)

The movie presents us with a unique anatomy of violence in the way of fear. In the movie, we are transported into a world, at first, believable; and then surrealistic. Fear is so ingrained in the minds and lives of the inhabitants of the village that for them it is utterly difficult to distinguish or even question the veracity of their belief system (which reminds of a quote by Einstein, Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.) But, as it usually occurs, necessity or powerlessness supersede traditionto put in the words of Lucius, It is usually the most fearless who find love in its truest form and then their fear is limited to something bad happening to the person the love and little else. But, the manifestations of fear dwell on the vicinitynever too far, but never too close; the darkened woods and the inexpugnable night are the only places where fear can flourish. As the process of instilling progresses in the movie, we see how children are victimized and stigmatized by the fears their parents are trying to escape from. The Elders of the village faultily seek to transfer to the next generation the utopian belief system based on engendering fear in the members of the community; and discouraging them of ever attempting to venture beyond the borders of their secluded world. Finally, the Elders of the village find it impossible to live without, occasionally, catching a glimpse of the truth while living a life based on deception and misconception. They conceptualize life as a process by which they are to bestow upon their children a set of deceptive tools which dehumanize themtools that seek to protect the innocence of

their children but they are , inherently, more violent and destructive than the reality of life the parents are trying to escape from. In this framework, death, such as that of Noah Percy, becomes a way of preserving the illusory lifestyle of such a utopian village where ignorance is bliss; and any attempt to challenge tradition is seditious and subversive so much so that those who do opt to challenge are deemed as outcasts. How long are parents or society itself to wait before taking its children back to the forbidden shed to tell us that there is not greater fear than that fear itself?