Chestertonian Philosophy in "Tree of Life" Film

Mrs. O’Brian embodies Chesterton’s ideology of total wonder and awe of creation. She does not see any aspect of the environment around her as predictable. She is enchanted with the world, taking nothing for granted. Mrs. O’Brian is a willing observer of beauty in the world and all her encounters.
At one point in the scenes exploring the mischief of their boyhood, the children come across a small creature in the backyard. In the curiosity and unguided peer pressure, one of the boys decides they should strap the animal to a homemade rocket. When Jack’s mother finds out, she is heartbroken. She makes Jack swear to never do it again. The emphasis is not her anger or harshness; those are more characteristic of the father. This scene is unique because it is the only scene in which the mother is portrayed as the disciplinarian. Still, she does not punish him, or express herself with the virulent outbursts like the father. Her reaction is out of concern for her son’s respect toward other living beings. The implications of her intensity are that they serve to show her value for all things that breathe, and she wants to train her son in this way of living as well. Mr. O’Brian, on the other hand, is portrayed as a more tense and anxious man, so concerned with his career and the comforts of money that he becomes greedy and easily angered. In the end, he confesses that he wished to have spent more time in his life devoted to the truly important things. Mrs. O’Brian being the primary portrayal of what the ideal characteristics are, it is clear that he ought to have spent more time basking in the wonder in creation. Perhaps if he had done so, as Mrs. O’Brian had, he would have stayed grounded, and humbled. Chesterton’s view of nature teaches us a humble planetary existence. When we take it for granted that the sun will rise, we become entitled to its beauty, and even numb ourselves to the miracle that it actually is. We attribute the predictability of the changing seasons and the blooming of the flowers to a dull, monotonous cosmological schedule. The repetition is depressing, in this light. As Chesterton said, it is we who have grown dull and repetitive in our expectations and reaction to the world around us. He says that God is younger than us, in that he is not so easily bored by repetition. He is ever appreciative of the sacred way of nature

Chesterton teaches us to fight this mindset, and awaken each morning to a world of wonder with awe. This makes us grateful creatures, who search out a sunset to savor and thank it for its beauty. After all, as Chesterton wrote:

"The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical encore.”

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