In the short film "Be Right Back," we meet our two main characters Ash and Martha. Ash dies, and Martha, of course, takes this loss pretty hard. It gets even harder when she finds out she's pregnant. After she receives this news, she decides to try out an online service that takes everything that Ash has ever done online and combines it to bring "Ash" back. After a while, Martha gets attached to Ash 2 and eventually acquires an android that is almost an exact replica of the original Ash. While Martha is somewhat happy with this for a while, she starts to realize that this new Ash is not the same Ash that she fell in love with.
Now, we are brought to the question that everyone has been asking. Are Ash 1 and Ash 2 the same person? In my opinion, they are not the same person. Even though Ash 2 may share some characteristics with Ash 1, he does not have an emotional connection to the information that was used to make him. He just reacts to different situations based on what digital information that he has on what Ash 1 decided to post, text, tweet, and so on. I also believe that when we post on social media, we don't show every single thing that happens in our lives. In fact, some of us may only show the good things and not the bad things. Due to this, I feel like Ash 2 cannot be considered as the same person as Ash 1.
To continue, Martha actually cheated herself by letting such an unhealthy thing rule her life. In my opinion, this is not the right way to grieve. I believe that Martha actually took the easy way out in order for her to completely get over Ash 1. She failed to understand that in order for a person to properly grieve and come to accept that these type of things happen, she needed to actually attempt to take the time to grieve and move on with her life. Most of us have lost someone close to us and wish they were still with us now. However, does one ever think about if maybe these emotionally unfortunate events are actually meant to happen? I think that the dead should stay dead. Instead of holding onto a person that one knows isn't coming back, they should learn the importance of gradual release.
2 comments:
Teskyler,
You bring up some compelling points about Ash 1 and Ash 2 not being the same person. I agree that they are not the same and that it was unhealthy for Martha to bring Ash 2 into her life. She should have ended the program after she said goodbye to him or not even start the program at all. The question I want to raise to you is do you think Ash 2 is more of Ash 1 than Ash 1 is? Ash 1, to me, was more of a robot than Ash 2 was. Like I said, I agree that they are not the same, but who do you think the real Ash is? The human one or the online/android one?
I believe that human Ash is the real Ash. He actually has the human anatomy that actually makes him a human being.
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