When most people think of M. Night Shyamalan’s 1999 film The Sixth Sense, the first image that comes to mind is a nine year-old Haley Joel Osment telling a younger and less bald Bruce Willis, “I see dead people.” One of the great things that this movie does is to show the idea of identity by demonstrating how it persists after death. *Spoilers ahead*
One of the major aspects of this movie is that the ghosts who visit Cole do not know they are dead, and they see what they want to see. The biggest description we see of this is Malcolm’s discovery that he is in fact dead after being shot at the beginning of the movie. Even as a ghost, Malcolm has maintained most of his memories from his life, except when he died, causing him to not realize that nobody but Cole can actually see him. His identity as a psychologist is so engrained into his being that even as a ghost he has convinced himself that he is Cole’s psychologist.
In John Locke’s Of Identity and Diversity, he states: “Nothing but consciousness can unite remote existences into the same person: the identity of substance will not do it; for whatever substance there is, however framed, without consciousness there is no person: and a carcass may be a person, as well as any sort of substance be so, without consciousness.” Locke’s interpretation of identity is very relevant in The Sixth Sense. It is the fact that Malcolm and the other ghosts have maintained their consciousnesses that they still have the same identity. In this sense, the ghosts are the embodiment of their consciousness after they have left their material body behind.
Another aspect that the movie presents for how engrained identity is in the ghosts, is how they arrive at different occasions. Because they do not know that they are dead, their minds fill in the blanks. This is how Malcolm, and ultimately the audience, go through the entire film not realizing he was dead even though all of the signs are there. We never actually see Malcolm going to different locations or actively deciding where to go. When he tries to go to the basement and the door is locked, he is suddenly in the basement after the scene changes. When he wants to see his wife, he suddenly arrives where she is.
On the surface, The Sixth Sense is about a boy who can see ghosts and a psychologist who helps him cope with his ability. Underneath that, this film is a great representation of the role that identity plays into a person’s being and how it can persist after the material body dies.
I love your ending sentence that identity "can persist after the material body dies." I very much agree with this, as a person's identity (their personality, interests, etc.) is remembered by the living even after that person dies. While the person is not physically there, the memory of that person is. I think this displays that it is the person's identity that makes them a part of reality. It is not their physical, living body but the unique characteristics of the person that make that person who he or she is. While it is true, as Locke says, that after a person dies they are not physically part of reality, I think their identity still is. While the physical body does not last, the memories of who a person was can remain present in reality for centuries.
ReplyDeleteI thought this perspective was very interesting. I have never seen The Sixth Sense and admittedly thought it was just about a boy who can see dead people. I think it is very interesting that you related Locke's writing to this movie because I never would have thought of dead people having consciousness. However, by Locke's definition they do in fact have consciousness and the same identity. They simply do not know their own fate. I agree with Teresa as well that you last sentence was a beautiful way to the reading in relation to the movie.
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