Grace Ingebretsen
Siewers
ENLS 250
21 May 2021
A Microcosmic Example of Totalitarianism in Seraphima’s Extraordinary Adventures
“You are ascending.”
––Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
By attempting to exert ultimate control over Seraphima’s most intimate spiritual life, the orphanage in Seraphima’s Extraordinary Adventures acts as a microcosmic example of a totalitarian regime. More specifically, the orphanage, by expelling religiosity, attempts to erase that which sets Seraphima apart from her peers. This erasure is a hallmark of totalitarian regimes which always seek to render the individual bereft of identity and superfluous. Under this sort of regime, one’s inner-world is subject to scrutiny by the ruling entity. This is because the enemy of a totalitarian regime is independent, private thoughts and beliefs because their existences counteract the idea that the individual is expendable. What is more, when one has this inner-world of private individualism, one that stands beyond the confines of the totalitarian structure, and the project of totalitarianism is not achieved. It is for this reason that the matriarch of the orphanage is so unrelenting in pursuing the confiscation of Seraphima’s cross––a blatant symbol of her private, inner-world. The other way in which the orphanage acts as a microcosmic example of a totalitarian regime is by its operations being in accordance with the totalitarian principle that only material results matter. Seraphima’s Great Adventures poses the question of spiritual health versus material survival. This analysis of meaning and value ultimately coalesces with the conversation about religiosity because, at the foundation of both, is the individual and her ability to transcend ultimate control.
Under totalitarian regimes, individuality poses the ultimate threat because it eludes ultimate control. This is the antithesis of totalitarianism because “it is in the very nature of totalitarian regimes to demand unlimited power. Such power can only be secured if literally all men, without a single exception, are reliably dominated in every aspect of their life” (Arendt 456). By expressly saying “in every aspect of their life,” Arendt gestures towards one of the more insidious features of totalitarianism. With the domination of the physical world in hand, the regime must manage invading the private, inner-world of the individual. That which differentiates one person from the next, or the one from the many, cannot be pointed at or touched, nor can it be understood in a categorical, formulaic way. This nebulous thing is spontaneity. Spontaneity “with its incalculability, is the greatest of all obstacles to total domination over man” because it is unpredictable and the product of one’s inner-world (Arendt 456). The whims that are borne of spontaneity are also unique to the individual who produces them––they are uncontrollable and unpredictable. In this way, in totalitarian studies, individuality and spontaneity become effectively synonymous. “For to destroy individuality is to destroy spontaneity, man’s power to begin something new out of his own resources, something that cannot be explained on the basis of reactions to environment and events” (Arendt 455). Spontaneity is not just a visceral reaction to external stimuli, but a soulpower of the human being to create, to think and to set oneself apart.
Individuality is diametrically-opposed to subjugation because individuality and independent thought resists domination. It follows that the totalitarian project is about erasure. This is because “the system which succeeds in destroying its victim before he mounts the scaffold…is incomparably the best for keeping a whole people in slavery. In submission” (Arendt 455). Through the erasure of one’s identity, one becomes symbolically formless, and therefore the perfect candidate for subjugation. Seraphima’s religious identity becomes the object of the orphanage’s displeasure because it represents her ability to develop private, independent thoughts and resist subjugation. At minute 40 of Seraphima’s Extraordinary Adventures, the matriarch of Seraphima’s orphanage displays the totalitarian reaction to Seraphima’s showing of individualism. As she chases Seraphima, the matriarch eventually achieves her goal of confiscating the cross. However, as she reaches for it, Seraphima falls from the edge of the railing. This scene demonstrates a crucial parallel between the orphanage and a totalitarian regime. Seraphima identifies strongly with her religious identity, but “men insofar as they are more than animal reaction and fulfillment of functions are entirely superfluous to totalitarian regimes. Totalitarianism strives not toward despotic rule over men, but toward a system in which men are superfluous” (Arendt 457). By letting her fall, the matriarch sought to affirm Seraphima’s superfluousness. In doing so, the orphanage performs a symbolic murder of Seraphima’s power of independent thought.
Independent thought separates the one from the many and the individual from the masses. The end result is variance. This is why totalitarian regimes seek to snuff out any embers of individuality. In his book The Gulag Archipelago, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn recounts the freedom to be found in private thought. Speaking about the Samarka Camp, Solzhenitsyn writes that “while they openly use your labor and your body, to the point of exhaustion and even death, the camp keepers do not encroach at all on your thoughts. (…) And this results in a sensation of freedom of much greater magnitude than the freedom of one’s feet to run along on the level” (305-306). In the camp, the greatest, the only, freedom is that of thought, which the oppressors leave in the possession of the prisoners. However, in a true totalitarian regime, the freedom that resides in independent thought is extinguished. When it has finally been eradicated, the regime has succeeded in manipulating human nature to such an extent that one’s sole self-purpose is to serve the needs of the regime and of the masses.
The ability of totalitarian regimes to manipulate the humanity out of someone rests in their ability to destroy any sense of individuality. Once one is convinced that all they are worth, all they are, is their physical body and material reality, they become infinitely more easy to manipulate. “It is chiefly for the sake of this supersense, for the sake of complete consistency, that it is necessary for totalitarianism to destroy every trace of what we commonly call human dignity. For respect for human dignity implies the recognition of my fellow-men or our fellow-nations as subjects, as builders of worlds or cobuilders of a common world. No ideology which aims at the explanation of all historical events of the past and at mapping out the course of all events of the future can bear the unpredictability which springs from the fact that men are creative, that they can bring forward something so new that nobody ever foresaw it” (Arendt 458). Individuality, which is the dignity of the human being, is exactly that which destabilizes the totalitarian structure. “What totalitarian ideologies therefore aim at is not the transformation of the outside world or the revolutionizing transmutation or society, but the transformation of human nature itself” (Arendt 458). It follows that the principal goal of totalitarian rule is not solely to rule the body or command the mind, but to transfigure the dignity of the human being.
Seraphima’s human dignity resides in her religiosity. In this sense, much of her identity is wrapped up in her inner spiritual life. She has retained what Hannah Arendt calls “the moral person.” She writes, “once the moral person has been killed, the one thing that still prevents men from being made into living corpses is the differentiation of the individual, his unique identity” (Arendt 453). It follows that, by virtue of her religious identity, Seraphima differentiates herself from an anonymous, superfluous cog in a greater totalitarian machine. In doing so, Seraphima refuses to bend to the totalitarian principles of superfluousness and non-identity.
The exchange between the landowner and Seraphima’s grandfather at minute 26 of the film best personifies the totalitarian principle that “only material results matter.” When the landowner advises the grandfather to visit Seraphim, the grandfather immediately bristles and claims that “since childhood, [he believes] in nothing. [He does] everything [by himself].” At this moment, the grandfather identifies himself as a non-believer in God, but a believer in the idea that his life is squarely under his control. This is emblematic of the ultimate goal of totalitarian rule which is “to make the world consistent, to prove that its respective supersense has been right” (Arendt 458). Essentially, totalitarianism seeks to make the world consistent with its ideology in order to justify that very same way of thought. The grandfather’s belief that he is the ultimate master over his fate rejects any sense of divinity.
The rejection of divinity is only further established by the grandfather’s recounting of an exchange between an old military friend and himself. He says, “my comrade believed very strongly in God––he kept saying I don’t live properly. And where is he now? He was killed! And where is his God?” At this moment, the grandfather attempts to prove the non-existence of God and the preposterousness of faith. The grandfather then goes on to say, “I am alive, well and in need of nothing.” When he says this, he is conflating material, worldly wealth with a deeper, fuller sense of fulfillment. This emphasis on material possessions harkens back to the totalitarian principle that only material results matter. In a literal sense, this idea is meant to be a push towards survival, always to maintain the physical body. Survival, in this sense, is meant in a purely animalistic way. This emphasis on pure survival, however, lacks the spiritual complexity that is housed in human nature. “Surviving at any price” implies that there is something inherently more valuable in survival than in the soul’s spiritual health. Speaking about this principle, Solzhenitsyn writes, “Since he had a belly full of chow, and twenty suits, and two country homes, and an automobile, and an airplane, and fame––what more could he want?!! Millions of our compatriots find it unthinkable to imagine that a human being (and I am not speaking here of this particular trio) might have been motivated by something other than material gain!” (307). Totalitarianism manipulates the individual’s nature in such a way, that the only sort of relationship one has is with her material surroundings, and feels no inner pull to seek out something more.
Seraphima’s religious identity allows her to ascend beyond the bounds of the orphanage’s control. Having placed greater value on her spiritual well-being, Seraphima rejects the idea that the continuance of the physical body is synonymous with survival. “And as soon as you have renounced that aim of ‘surviving at any price,’and gone where the calm and simple people go––then imprisonment begins to transform your former character in an astonishing way. To transform it in a direction most unexpected to you” (Solzhenitsyn 308). There is an apparent link between the renunciation of the idea that “only material results matter” and that of Christian ascension. When materiality loses its symbolic, and then literal, significance, there is a certain freeing or lifting of the soul towards a place of greater spiritual enlightenment. Solzhenitsyn writes:
Once upon a time you were sharply intolerant. You were constantly in a rush. And you were constantly short of time. And now you have time with interest. You are surfeited with it, with its months and its years, behind you and ahead of you––and a beneficial calming fluid pours through your blood vessels––patience. (Solzhenitsyn 308)
He describes this process as a sort of “ascension” beyond the bounds of materiality and towards the freedom that blossoms from spiritual consciousness. When Saint Seraphim heals the ailing landowner around minute 25 in the film, he asks the man if he believes in Jesus Christ, son of God. The man proclaims that yes, with all his heart, he believes in God. Suddenly, the arms and legs that were once ravaged with paralyzing sickness become animated, and he is cured. This scene of the movie is a reference to the power of faith, and its ability to transcend beyond the physical.
By attempting to exert ultimate control over Seraphima’s religious identity and, by proxy, her independent thought, and adhering to the totalitarian principle that only material results matter, the orphanage acts as a microcosmic example of a totalitarian regime. The character of Seraphima represents the spiritual resistance to such materiality and symbolic anonymity. By refusing to acquiesce to this overarching, totalizing structure of subjugation and manipulation, Seraphima maintains the integrity of her inner-world of spirituality, privacy and individuality. This film acts as a gentle call to spiritual revolution, and a propping up of religiosity as a vehicle to that revolution. To a modern audience, this film serves as a poignant reminder that spiritual resistance is of supreme value, while worldly reality is transient. To invest in spiritual health is to recognize that survival extends beyond the confines of the physical body and material world.
Works Cited
Arendt, H. (1968). The Origins of Totalitarianism. Harcourt, Brace & World. Solženicyn Aleksandr, & Willetts, H. T. (1978). The Gulag Archipelago. Harper & Row. Transfigure Media. (n.d.). Seraphima’s Extraordinary Adventures.