Christopher Nolan's Inception

Mind Society
Humans frequently succumb to the standards of society in an attempt to conform and be accepted, but when the mind refuses acquiescence, society becomes callous. Within Christopher Nolan’s Inception, dreams and reality become interchangeable, but societal standards are rigid and shun the unruly. These societal standards are apparent when Mal traverses between her two realities of Limbo and life in America since her dreams as well as the legitimate world contrast in principles; however, her response to these renditions of reality make her into polar opposite characters. In her dreams, Mal has full control －down to the most fundamental touch－ on what lives in her world which means she makes societal standards, allowing her to be a
composed mother and wife whereas when she is restored to reality she is scrutinized along with everyone else by a holistic standard made by society. The drastic power struggle over her own ideals makes Mal ultimately believe that her dream state is the physical world and her mind restricts her from a chaotic free will that exists with real societal standards making her character vulnerable and incapacitated.
Therefore, the character Mal from Inception represents the dependency between mind and society upon sanity which is ultimately influenced by her capability to conform and to accept
perceptions of reality. Essentially, sanity from the cohesiveness of one’s mind and society is apparent when Mal is still in her dreams as she is capable of conforming and accepting this biased perception of reality. Inside the depths of the subconscious, Mal fundamentally reigns in every aspect of this world which means societal ideals centers around her own beliefs. This theory of ultimate control is proven as Cobb recounts that any disturbance or threat from the exterior of a specific person’s subconscious that provokes change is subsequently annihilated. In essence, Mal is effectively shielded from harm and lives unrealistically in her dream as nothing including societal ideals, opposes her. Thus, Mal easily allows her mind to roam as she accepts this uncomplicated life where she is almost Godly, a perfected human, and no threats could harm her; however, to prolong her happiness, she is willing to destroy even her own physical world to remain in a state of seemingly perpetual joy. Consequently, this leads to the question of the existence of morality within Mal’s subconscious society. Societal standards can only reign when there is a community of individuals to conclude what decisions are generally accepted, but Mal did not experience the constraints of morality influencing her actions since her standards were purely egotistic and biased as people tend to not contradict their own subconscious. Although little is known of the years when Mal grew old with Cobb within Limbo, it is definite that the main goal in this distorted reality is to be happy and eventually, that becomes the only focus that matters to Mal. Evidently, Mal chooses rationally to connect her mind to a distorted society as she is influenced by the ease of making Limbo her own biased reality. In contrast to the biased reality of Limbo, Mal has frustrations with rationality as she tries to connect her mind to societal standards set by people holistically instead of being influenced solely by her own merit. In addition, within Mal’s subconscious, everything －including other characters－obeys her every command; however, in reality people have free will which develops into a foreign concept to Mal. Thus, when awoken back to her physical world, Mal could not assimilate to societal rules since her mind repudiates concepts that have become alien in her imagination and society is known to be cruel and unforgiving, therefore, Mal slips slowly away. As Mal starts to believe her real children are mere projections, that Cobb is the mad one, and that everything around her is convoluted and chaotic, it is clear that Mal went insane in the real fictional society. Hence, it is valid that the change in power and sudden standards that society deems necessary for Mal to uphold likely could have been the cause of her mental hysteria; the imagined relationships, exterior world, and family must have all been a stark change once in the physical world moreover that Mal is Godly in her dreams, but a mere human when on Earth. Simple standards such as to be a morally honest human and to take account for her actions represents what Mal averts whilst in Limbo. Furthermore, when Mal takes her life, one can see how much she suffered from these societal criteria. Society pins and cages her as sane which only catalyzes her suicide as others confirm her belief that what she experiences in the real world is pure imagination. Cobb’s perception is not geared by the stereotype that a diagnosis is always correct, but by personal interactions, thus Mal’s viewpoint even leading up to her suicide is criticized and undermined by Cobb since only he can compare the sane Mal he knew in Limbo to the one who is unable to decipher reality from imagination. In a way, she is chained to rocks that are destined to make her fail in a judgmental reality for all she knows is the ease of imagination. Therefore, Mal evidently depicts how the co-dependency of the mind and society are needed for stability which is influenced by her own ability to decipher reality from imagination. Evidently, Mal represents how stability is dependent on the cohesiveness between mind and society which is ultimately influenced by her own ability to recognize what is real.
In Inception the two states of consciousness, dream and reality, depict two dissimilar characters of Mal as her reaction to societal standards form her essence. When in Limbo, Mal is a dictator of her own mind and society as she exerts her will which consequently implies that she can never be wrong from every moral to philosophical sense. Thus, real societal guidelines are made by the general public stuns Mal as she grows accustomed to what she engraves as rules, moreover her transition back to reality is riddled with insanity. Mal subsequently spurns the standards people uphold which are things Cobb as well as many others quickly embrace and belittles those who negate them. While Mal could see only chaos in the real world, the world is, in fact, an intricate and ordered entropy that reigns supreme. These societal criteria that can seem rigid, cold, and unemotional make the base of morality, trust, and stable relationships as there is a universally understood sense of what is accepted and what is not. Thus, societal standards are not mere chaos, but instead are a much needed solace to equilibrate the insanity of the
mind.