Back to the Future and Recognizing Your Own Denial
The moral case for understanding you're in denial.
Author’s Note: This piece was requested by a user a while back and I held onto it for some reason before actually publishing it. So it’s written a bit differently than the others. Not sure how I feel about the piece. Let me know how you like it or don’t.
What do you fail to recognize about yourself?
People have all kinds of ideas about who they are and what they want. Some of them are actually true while others are things people think about themselves regardless of whether or not it's true. They like to believe that they are something they're not because it gives them comfort or helps them achieve something. Maybe even strive to better themselves. While other times they simply refuse to acknowledge parts of themselves they don't like.
Marty McFly from the Back to the Future franchise exemplifies the way in which people find ways to ignore what's true about himself. He has an idea of who he is and what he wants, even if it doesn't necessarily reflect the truth. Marty wants to be successful at music and believes if he only has a chance to perform, that people would reinforce these ideas he has and make them actually true. But until then he's in fundamental denial about what he actually thinks about himself.
“Jesus I'm starting to sound like my father.”
This line perhaps most strongly puts forward this reality. The fact that he's unaware how like his father he is. Despite his dislike for his father and the way he does things, he has the same insecurities. But he can't recognize this fact in himself because he believes he's somehow different. He wants to be different and so he tries to separate out those aspects of himself and only really acknowledges these specific ideas.
That is until he is forced to confront those aspects of himself he doesn't want to acknowledge. Mainly by going back in time and confronting how much his father mirrors his own self-deceptions. Like Marty, George has certain ideas about himself and who he wants to be. Yet he can't get beyond the fact that he's only going to get there if he starts to see those aspects as part of who he is, rather than believe that they hold no real sway over him. By accepting that they are both in denial about themselves, they learn how to be a better person.
To achieve the things they want.
They come to this realization both in the climax of the film. For Marty it's in his willingness to play in front of a crowd and achieve the recognition for his talent that he's craved. With George, it's how when Biff is trying to hurt Loraine and his desire to fight back, which he does. It transforms them from the people in denial, to someone who sees themselves fully.
A complete person.
One of the most interesting parts of Back to the Future is the way in which it disrupts the characters' understanding of the past. At first through leaving out details and aspects when telling stories about the past, and by repeating similar patterns of behaviour from the past. Behaviour you can't necessarily get out of. Then it affects how characters feel about each other, primarily through Marty McFly, brilliantly played by Michael J Fox. By meeting his parents as they were when they were his age, he learns that many of the same problems and insecurities he has right now, his parents struggled with before they had him.
And finally, it allows Marty himself to change who he is, both in his relationship to his parents, his friendship with Doc Brown and ultimately how he sees himself.
Check out Back to the Future is available on Amazon in many places, Netflix in others.