With these words Kate welcomes Juliet into the community of the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815, in the episode titled "Left Behind." The line serves more than one purpose though, as do many things in Lost. In a show in which the writers love to play with ideas of "us vs. them" and our concepts of Self and Other, Juliet has begun a very uneasy transition from one of "them" to "One of Us" (which is, conveniently, the title of the very next episode, which deals more extensively with this transition). Becoming "One of Us" does not simply refer to being a member of the 815 community, but also being part of the community of Lost viewers, who share in the Losties' desperate quest to discover an explanation for the bizarre happenings on the island.
I find many parallels between Lost and the Biblical tale of the Fall of Man. When Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit, from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God says, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3:22, New American Standard, italics mine). Here we see the same kind of "Us and Them" theme played out in the Bible as we do in Lost. In the Genesis account, the distinction between the two is a good one: for God's perfect plan to work, he needed man to not be like him, at least in the aspect of knowing good and evil. Thus, the cause of the Fall is man's decision that he will judge for himself what is good and what is bad, rather than letting God be judge of those things. The problem with this decision is that man does not share in God's omniscience nor in his wisdom. Therefore, all of our problems and our pain are the results of our attempts to make judgments that are based on partial knowledge and faulty perceptions. We reject God's will for us because, in our near-sightedness, we do not perceive the full scope of it. In addition, we lack the faith to simply trust God in the face of our insufficient understanding.
From what we can tell so far, it appears that the Lost crew are suffering the same fate, especially with the way things appear from the Season 3 finale. Apparently, there are many things about the island that the Losties are not supposed to know, i. e., forbidden knowledge. They want to get off the island because they are ignorant of their purpose for being there. As Locke, Ben, and future-Jack all tell us, they are not supposed to get off the island. Future-Jack's life is in shambles, primarily because he, despite several warnings, took matters into his own hands and made a decision based on partial knowledge. He thought what he was doing a good thing, but obviously in this case he needed faith, in order to trust that what was happening to him was all for a reason.
Our ability to reason and use sound logic is a good thing; however, given the limited nature of our knowledge, we need faith to supplement it. The Losties, all of the them but Locke that is, are using sound human reasoning: "My plane crashed on an island; there's weird stuff going on and it's dangerous, therefore I need to be rescued." Though perfectly logical, there is apparently something problematic with this. The Losties need to have some type of faith that is willing to cope with the evidence that there is some greater purpose for what they are enduring. Unfortunately, future-Jack seems to have found this faith a little too late. Or maybe it's not too late. I'm guessing that whatever/whomever it is that is bringing this purpose about (Jacob? The Island? God?) and brought the Losties to the island in the first place, is probably capable of getting those who left back on the island.
I've heard some fans of the show say that there will be understandable scientific explanations for all of Lost's mysteries. Dare we make the same mistake as Jack, whose seemingly-good, logical judgments have led to obviously unwanted consequences? Let's keep our eyes open.
1 comment:
This is very interesting! Yes, too bad for mankind that Adam didn't know that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. :-) And that "...with much wisdom comes much sorrow..." I like your thoughts about why Adam and Eve could not handle the responsibility of having the knowledge of good and evil.
I also like your comments about their purpose on the island and whether to stay there. I've often wondered since the series started, if it would be possible for people like that to choose remaining on the island and not going back to civilization. Granted, this is not the average ordinary isolated island. But that creates even more reasons, the more the Losties experience on the island, to consider if they could have a purpose there. Although after all the trouble they have seen, and will see, it would be difficult to not want to get as far away as possible from all the craziness of the island, the Others, the stations, Smokey, etc.
And that's an intersting speculation about whether or not the people that might have brought them to the island, can get them back again. Why, in the flash-forwards, does Jack not figure out that they could help him get back? Perhaps they have gone back into secrecy (if they are Dharma)and he can't contact them?
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