him simple, honest answers, never once referring to an afterlife or anything in line with the town's religious principles. And that's it. All other events seem to be coated with a layer of ulterior motivation, or suspicion. For example, just within the opening minutes, we see one child scorn another for accidentally behaving rudely towards an adult. Already, these children are self-governing each other, even without the authoritative parental figure. If the adults aren't beating or nitpicking them, then it's they who will be inflicting the punishment on each other. Their oppression is not limited to a purely psychological form, with one boy coming of age being physically bound to his bed at night to prevent him from masturbating. There is a great irony in the doctrine of sexual abstinence being imposed upon the children by a puritanical pastor when, just a short while away, the seemingly innocent doctor uses his midwife who he despises for sex and abuses his daughter; it's the exact kind of sexual repression the adult population of the town oversees that has turned him into a monster. This kind of deviance, in this town, appears to go unnoticed -- rather appropriately, things are seen in black and white. His daughter later kills his bird in revenge. What does this all mean? Regardless of their own liberty, they are shaped and wired to protect the continuity of the communal lifestyle. They react to this in aggressive outbursts not unlike the chaotic city riots today's youth resort