The Babadook!

Summary

    In the text “It’s Alive, I’m Afraid”, it says how all monsters are symbols of the birth process. In a way, the experimentation with human recreation in films inspired what became birth control pills. This lead to a sexual revolution because now women could be free to have sex with whoever they wanted without worrying about getting pregnant. This really helped to reshape female sexuality, but there were drawbacks. An untested drug called Thalidomide was released as something to help with morning sickness. This drug caused awful, monstrous birth defects in children, some being born with no arms or legs. People were scared of what was happening, and were killing the babies because they didn’t want defective kids. This led to the begining of people seeing women giving birth as a monsterous event. This mindset eventually developed into childrens toys, like the Cabbage Patch Kids, who aren’t born, but are from the cabbage patch, getting rid of the idea of childbirth. 

Analysis

    In the film The Babadook, Amelia’s husband died while he was driving her to the hospital to give birth to their son, Samuel. This is where Amelia’s life begins to spiral. In the text, it’s stated that the womb became, “the new graveyard from which the horror mavens would take their raw materials for the new put-together monsters”, which is true especially for Amelia. In giving birth to her son, she lost the man she loved, and gave birth to what some people would call a monster. Samuel is called a freak by kids and adults alike, because of the way that he acts. He makes weapons and brings them to school, and he doesn’t seem to have a verbal filter. All these things make Samuel a freak in the eyes of the people, and leads to him and his mother becoming more and more isolated. Amelia gives birth to Samuel, and her own sister won’t allow him to play with her daughter. Samuel is the monster to Amelia’s sister and the administration at school. Instead of working with Samuel and trying to get him help, the principal at the school assigns him a minder so he won’t get into any more trouble. Sameul is a prime example as the “fetus-as-bogeyman” that the text refers to, only he has grown into a child-monster in the eyes of his aunt and peers. When Samuel pushes his cousin out of the treehouse, it’s the final straw that his aunt can handle. She tells Amelia that she wants nothing to do with the family anymore, and nothing to do with the freak of a son that she’d had.

    In a way, the Babadook was also birthed by Amelia, though unintentionally. When she read the book to Samuel, she unknowingly gave the Babadook what it needed to start attacking them. The reading of the book in this case was the equivalent of its “birth”, and it follows the theme that birth is monstrous. In the text, it is stated that, “reproduction was a kind of death.” The Babadook caused the death of the family dog, and nearly killed both Amelia and Samuel. Once the Babadook appeared, it made Amelia see visions of her dead husband, which nearly drove her mad enough to end the lives of herself and Samuel. The Babadook caused their lives to become worse and worse until Amelia eventually almost killed Samuel in a car crash, and then by strangling him.