A history of human progress and civilization, as Freud said, is a history of human repression. The progress of human society and the development of civilization are at the expense of human instinctive needs, that is, various desires. Human instinct advocates and pursues pleasure, and it follows the principle of pleasure. Dominated by the principle of hedonism, people have the desire to possess and try to satisfy their desires when they see something beautiful and beneficial to themselves. But people are "the sum of social relations" after all, and everyone can't exist independently without social groups. This determines that individual desires are impossible and not allowed to be fully satisfied. Because, if everyone indulges his instinct and satisfies his desire by any means, then this society will be chaotic and the civilized order will be destroyed. In other words, if a society wants to maintain its stability and harmony, it must have certain norms and laws to restrain everyone's behavior. The remarkable symbol of civilized society is the establishment and perfection of various norms and systems. These norms and systems are the so-called "taboos" of civilization, which include ethics, morality, law and so on. That's why Freud said: "Civilization just means the sum total of the results and systems caused by the defense of nature and the adjustment of interpersonal relationships." From this point of view, the full satisfaction of human instinct needs is incompatible with civilized society. People are always in the conflict between desire and taboo, and they can't get rid of the confusion and embarrassment caused by this conflict anyway. Personally, if we blindly follow the principle of hedonism and indulge our instinctive desires, the order of civilized society will be destroyed, and the destruction of this order will eventually endanger people's own existence; If you obey the civilized precepts of society too much, your instinctive desire will be suppressed, and it is also painful to be blocked. How to adjust the relationship between desire and taboo and solve the conflict between them is a philosophical proposition that countless philosophers think and explore. Dickinson's short poem presents and ponders this proposition in the form of poetry.
"There is a strawberry over there/I know, if I want/I can climb over it/Strawberry, it's so sweet". "Strawberry" refers to all beautiful things, and it can also be regarded as all irresistible temptations. The "sweet" "strawberry" undoubtedly aroused the possessiveness of "me", but it was separated by a fence. This "strawberry" across the fence is something that I can only dream of. Obviously, "fence" is what we call "taboo" of civilization, or "fence" is synonymous with "taboo" here. "I can climb if I want." But is it really that simple? The second section reads: "But, dirty apron/God must scold me! Oh, dear, I guess, if he was a child, he would climb/if he could climb! " Once I climb the fence, my apron will be dirty, and I will be scolded by God. In other words, if I ignore taboos, I will offend the rules of civilization and will be punished by God. Because "God" is the master of civilized order, the will of "God" cannot be disobeyed. Therefore, it is conceivable that "I" is extremely contradictory. Climb over or stop? Get or give up? Is it satisfying desire or suppressing desire? Here, the dilemma of "I" at a loss is actually a portrayal of the universal survival dilemma faced by mankind. Since "I" can't do anything about it, it suddenly occurred to me: What choice will the holy God make? The poet here intends to bring the supreme god back to the world, assuming that he is also an ordinary child. Therefore, the poet conjectures God from the psychological point of view of children, and thinks that God, as a child, will have instinctive needs and will certainly climb over. Poetry has undoubtedly revealed the poet's positive affirmation of people's normal desires. However, God is a God after all. Who knows if he will climb over? It can be seen that the conflict between desire and taboo is endless, and people will always be doomed to face this conflict, and God can do nothing about it. Only human beings can save themselves. So, how can human beings save themselves? This is the significance of this poem, which shows people this eternal and difficult proposition and forces them to think.
People have the right to pursue happiness and enjoy happiness, and their desires should be affirmed. Isn't social progress driven by people's desires? If we completely ignore desires and suppress people's instinctive needs, not only will society fail to progress. More seriously, it will also lead to various psychological diseases of people themselves; But if you completely indulge your desires, you will be punished by civilized precepts. This doomed the existence of human beings to be full of hardships, especially in today's society, on the one hand, the desire of human beings has expanded unprecedentedly, on the other hand, the precepts of civilization have become more and more numerous. The conflict between desire and taboo is more acute. How will people in modern society overcome this contradiction and survive better? This is the eternal thinking value left by this poem.
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