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| "I'm not human. I'm an animal!" - Penguin In Burton’s Batman Returns, Batman himself and the Penguin live very similar lives. When Bruce Wayne is first presented to us, we see a flashback that illustrates his watching of his parents’ gruesome murder. In the opening of the movie, we see a child born around Christmas time. Sounds cheery, right? Wrong! Everything spirals down from there. Oswald Cobblepot, the mystery child, did not receive the proper reaction from his parents that typical parents would give; they were mortified. So they took matters into their own hands and disposed of him by throwing his carriage over a bridge into sewer water. More than thirty years later, the Penguin emerges, and he was not alone. He brought all of his issues with him. Both Batman and the Penguin were subjected to abandonment at young ages; both had similar beginnings. However, the way in which they handle their problems differ greatly. This opposition adds a great amount of depth to the story. Bruce Wayne copes with the death of his parents by becoming Batman. The drive of the “dark knight” is to protect the city of Gotham by fighting evil. Penguin, on the other hand, deals with the loss of his parents in a negative manner. He is now very aggressive. His vision is to rid the city of its first-born sons as a way to be truly happy. This sums up the “beef” between Batman and the Penguin; Batman attempts to overthrow the villain he once felt compassion for. Another parallel that these characters have is their aspiration to understand who they are or what they are here for. Batman/Bruce Wayne seems to be at ease because he recognizes that he has a split personality, but Penguin appeared to be struggling with his identity. This struggle stems from the fact his parents did not want him, so he was raised by penguins instead. The Penguin just wants to fit in, but after the humans did away with him, the penguins were the only things that gave him endless love. Ultimately, he is disconnected from the human side of himself, which only furthers the plot. |
