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| Oyster Boy Steps Out |
Tim Burton himself had a very unfavorable childhood.
His parents had nothing to do with him because he was very odd, and the suburbia
he lived in sucked the creativity out of everything. Through his poetry, stories,
and films, Burton would usually have children depicted as monsters, hinting
back to his childhood. This allowed him to re-explore his years of isolation
and abandonment. The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories is
Burton’s way of crying out to be heard. Similar to Burton, the children in the
stories are denied love from their parents. They have no friends. They are also
growing up in societies that shun them because they are different. We all can definitely
relate to these children in some ways because we have all experienced a form of
abandonment or misunderstanding. Carl Jung posed the theory that all children
need a mother, and he expounded upon his theories through the use of archetypes
and shadow-sides. For instance, there is an archetype of the "Great
Mother" whose counterpart is the step-mother. Children require mothers in
order to begin their process of individuation. This process starts with the youth
years, and the process ends with death, the entrance into the spiritual world.
Carl argues that without a mother, a child's development becomes inhibited. That
is a crucial aspect one should keep in mind when reading and examining Tim
Burton's The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories. I have chosen to analyze Oyster
Boy Steps Out: "For Halloween, Oyster Boy decided to go as a
Human." Oyster boy's parents were horrified at his appearance/existence.
As a result, he received no parental love as a child. He had no friends; other
children would tease him when they saw him. In this short story, Oyster Boy is
trying to hide his differences from the world. He does this by putting on a
mask of a human face. He simply wants to look like a normal child. Without the
love and acceptance, Oyster Boy will not be able to develop properly. One may
also say that Oyster Boy has finally accepted his defects, which means he has
now advanced to the adolescent stage of life, by rebelling against societal
norms. This story resembles Burton's preference to relate to monsters and his
knowledge that the monstrous must be hidden away from society.
I was really freaked out by this book when I first read it. The stories are appallingly dark, and the illustrations are quite gruesome and gory. But what is really messed up is Burton’s attitude of presenting them. He simply presents his bizarre stories and illustrations to his readers in a manner so casual that I am seriously starting to believe something is really messed up in his head. For example, the Oyster Boy’s dad simply eats his son without showing much guilt or hesitation, which is just freaky. I think such stories are autobiographical reflections of Burton’s unhappy childhood, where his perception of his parents and his home was quite different from ours. I also noticed many of his stories do not conform to the Jungian archetypes. Most of the times, his stories in the book lack the traditional archetypes, especially the positive ones, such as the Great Mother, Hero, King or the Wise men. All I see most of the time is just shadows of characters, maybe even devils. Makes me wonder what’s really going on in his head…
ReplyDeleteJae Yun Choi