Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

fluency t1_iwga66g wrote

Reply to comment by Bronsteins-Panzerzug in "Babadook"Leather Bookmark, me by kswades

Unprocessed grief and trauma are not the same as mental illness, and calling them the cause of mental illness is a gross oversimplification. They can be a cause, but rarely on their own.

10

JohnnyBlaize420 t1_iwh0ztq wrote

It’s about both in a way, her grief turned to hatred of her own child so much so that it developed into her hating regretting and despising her child because he’s all that is left after the loss of her husband, this is why the kid appears extra annoying to us it’s because we see what she sees. At the end she realizes that it’s apart of her for she’ll always miss her husband so she feeds it and keeps it at bay and controls her hate and anger and sadness. Very impactful and beautiful film tbh.

7

Bronsteins-Panzerzug t1_iwgaf39 wrote

They suffer from extreme paranoid delusions lol

1

fluency t1_iwgapkm wrote

Thats one interpretation. Another, perhaps more powerful one, is to view it as a metaphor.

2

Bronsteins-Panzerzug t1_iwgawn1 wrote

…for mental illness

5

fluency t1_iwgb7er wrote

No, a metaphor for unprocessed trauma. The ending where she accepts the Babadook, keeps it in the basement and feeds it, the line «you can’t get rid of the Babadook,» all of it presents as a metaphor for the process of working through trauma and grief. In the end, she accepts the darkness of her trauma as a part of herself.

2

GoddamnJiveTurkey t1_iwgechw wrote

You can’t get rid of it, but you can learn to tame it. And it’ll flare up, act angry, try to take over your life again, but you learn to put it back in that basement time after time.

1