{"id":86310,"date":"2024-05-15T17:33:33","date_gmt":"2024-05-15T22:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/?p=86310"},"modified":"2024-11-19T22:23:11","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T04:23:11","slug":"egoism-and-exhaustion-in-the-babadook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/egoism-and-exhaustion-in-the-babadook\/","title":{"rendered":"Egoism and Exhaustion in &#8220;The Babadook&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Why can\u2019t you just be normal!?<\/p>\n<p>This contains spoilers for the 2014 film <em>The Babadook<\/em>. If you haven\u2019t seen it yet, go watch it. It\u2019s only 90 mins and very entertaining. Then come back to read this. I\u2019ve only seen the film twice and it\u2019s left a major impression on me. It\u2019s about a troubled six year old boy, Samuel, and his widowed mother Amelia. Frustration grows between the two as Samuel&#8217;s behavior leads to problems with work and family. As Samuel&#8217;s birthday approaches it reminds Amelia of the anniversary of her husband&#8217;s death who died in a violent car accident on the way to the hospital when she was giving birth. The pain and exhaustion grows to monstrous proportions until it is manifests as a demonic spirit possessing their house.<\/p>\n<p>Samuel is a great character. He represents everything that is typical of an energetic autistic male. He scares his cousin with gory monster stories, builds homemade weapons that launch projectiles around the house, has a collection of giant insects, buys firecrackers on the internet, does magic tricks, doesn\u2019t like socializing in big groups, repeatedly screams for his mother\u2019s attention, and he constantly gets in trouble for saying whatever is on his mind. He is a form of pure male egoism.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-86320\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T200234.224.png?resize=640%2C275&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"275\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T200234.224.png?resize=300%2C129&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T200234.224.png?resize=1024%2C440&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T200234.224.png?resize=768%2C330&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T200234.224.png?resize=1536%2C661&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T200234.224.png?w=1795&amp;ssl=1 1795w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T200234.224.png?w=1280&amp;ssl=1 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Amelia tries to calmly correct Samuel as he gets more destructive. What\u2019s remarkable about this film is that during the first hour the audience is tricked into thinking that Samuel represents the typical demonic little boy character that you often see in horror movies like <em>The Omen<\/em> and <em>The Shining<\/em>. We see Samuel as a sinister and even abusive figure. Amelia loves Samuel and is bothered by the way his school and relatives try to dehumanize him and see him only as a problem. She fiercely stands up for him when he gets in trouble for bringing one of his weapons to class. In today&#8217;s world a boy like that would be seen as a potential school shooter that needs a \u201cmonitor\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-86321\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T201022.791.png?resize=640%2C282&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"282\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T201022.791.png?resize=300%2C132&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T201022.791.png?resize=1024%2C451&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T201022.791.png?resize=768%2C339&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T201022.791.png?resize=1536%2C677&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T201022.791.png?w=1760&amp;ssl=1 1760w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T201022.791.png?w=1280&amp;ssl=1 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Samuel has no filter. He says things that at first seem creepy and sinister to the audience, but he just honestly expresses what\u2019s on his mind. He brings up the death of his father to strangers and draws attention to an old lady\u2019s Parkinson\u2019s symptoms, to the pain and embarrassment of Amelia.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-86323\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T215641.357.png?resize=640%2C275&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"275\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T215641.357.png?resize=300%2C129&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T215641.357.png?resize=1024%2C439&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T215641.357.png?resize=768%2C329&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T215641.357.png?resize=1536%2C659&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T215641.357.png?w=1789&amp;ssl=1 1789w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T215641.357.png?w=1280&amp;ssl=1 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Amelia often appears like a slave to Samuel, constantly exhausted and absorbed in his issues. She\u2019s a very unegoistic person. When her unsympathetic sister screws her over she says \u201cI don\u2019t want you to feel awful.\u201d After a day of hard work she throws the trash for her elderly neighbor. You feel how alone she is as the two quietly sit and eat dinner together- the father noticeably absent. She goes through a tedious process of comforting Samuel by checking under his bed and in his closet with him every night.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-86322\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T191347.153.png?resize=640%2C446&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"446\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T191347.153.png?resize=300%2C209&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T191347.153.png?resize=768%2C534&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T191347.153.png?w=1130&amp;ssl=1 1130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Her dreams are haunted by the brutal death of her husband. Samuel\u2019s nightmares leave her with no sleep during her exhausting and boring work week. She feels alone, sexually dissatisfied, and looked down on by people in her life. She also has a toothache that gives her a sharp pain at inconvenient moments. We see her become frustrated by Samuel&#8217;s constant hugs and tight grip. The situation leads to insanity manifesting as The Babadook. \u201cDon\u2019t let it in\u201d.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;If it&#8217;s in a word or it&#8217;s in a look- you can\u2019t get rid of the Babadook<\/p>\n<p>..see him in your room at night and you won&#8217;t sleep a wink<\/p>\n<p>and once you see what&#8217;s underneath&#8230; you\u2019re going to wish you were dead&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-86332\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T202642.530.png?resize=640%2C277&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"277\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T202642.530.png?resize=300%2C130&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T202642.530.png?resize=1024%2C443&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T202642.530.png?resize=768%2C333&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T202642.530.png?resize=1536%2C665&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T202642.530.png?w=1778&amp;ssl=1 1778w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T202642.530.png?w=1280&amp;ssl=1 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Babadook represents the growing anger and frustration within Amelia. Despite all of her love for her son and her attempts to be a good person, something evil grows just beneath the surface. The Babadook will often appear wearing a distinct coat and hat. Samuel discovers his father&#8217;s clothes and pins them on the wall, pretending it\u2019s him. Amelia doesn\u2019t want him to even go in the same room with his father&#8217;s old belongings. Samuel\u2019s desire for a father becomes a constant reminder of the memory that she wants to forget. When given a few moments to herself she sits down and eats an ice cream cone like a child. His childish egoistic needs are coming into conflict with her childish egoistic needs. At a family party Amelia\u2019s snobby sister blurts out \u201cI can\u2019t stand being around your son&#8230; you can\u2019t stand being around him yourself\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-86325\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T211745.881.png?resize=640%2C271&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"271\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T211745.881.png?resize=300%2C127&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T211745.881.png?resize=1024%2C434&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T211745.881.png?resize=768%2C326&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T211745.881.png?resize=1536%2C651&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T211745.881.png?w=1809&amp;ssl=1 1809w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T211745.881.png?w=1280&amp;ssl=1 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The pain of her past, her relentless exhaustion, and the constant physical pain of her life causes Amelia to become abusive toward Samuel- lashing out at him, giving him dangerous sleeping pills, and not feeding him properly. You see this pattern in many people who abuse their children. Samuel wants to love her but his love has always been a source of pain for her. She starts to hallucinate bugs crawling out of the walls and obsessively cleans the whole house. At one point she finally manages to get the sleep she needs but then the \u201cMister Babadook\u201d book returns to her doorstep.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;I\u2019ll wager with you, I\u2019ll make you a bet. The more you deny, the stronger I get.<\/p>\n<p>You start to change when I get in. The Babadook growing right under your skin.<\/p>\n<p>Oh come. Come see what\u2019s underneath.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Amelia starts to image herself killing her dog, her son, and herself. She is noticing something murderous growing inside her- right beneath her skin. She starts lashing out at her neighbor, seeing her kindness also as a source of pain. Her paranoia, sleep deprivation, violent hallucinations, and toothache continues to grow. She transitions back and forth from her regular loving self to an angry abuser.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-86327\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T215055.036.png?resize=640%2C273&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"273\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T215055.036.png?resize=300%2C128&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T215055.036.png?resize=1024%2C437&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T215055.036.png?resize=768%2C328&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T215055.036.png?resize=1536%2C655&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T215055.036.png?w=1803&amp;ssl=1 1803w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T215055.036.png?w=1280&amp;ssl=1 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Samuel begins to recognize that there is something very wrong with his mother. He\u2019s no longer fearful and erratic but rather concerned. He sees that she\u2019s losing herself and is becoming a danger to herself and others. One night Amelia becomes completely consumed by the memory of her dead husband and convinces herself that she must kill Samuel and herself to join him. This is also similar to the mentality of mothers who end up killing their children. In her possessed stupor she kills her dog and violently rips out the tooth causing her pain. This is metaphorical for how she now sees Samuel- a constant source of pain that must be violently removed.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-86328\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T222213.509.png?resize=640%2C277&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"277\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T222213.509.png?resize=300%2C130&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T222213.509.png?resize=1024%2C443&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T222213.509.png?resize=768%2C332&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T222213.509.png?resize=1536%2C665&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T222213.509.png?w=1784&amp;ssl=1 1784w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T222213.509.png?w=1280&amp;ssl=1 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Before he went to sleep, Samuel used a slight-of-hand magician trick on the sleeping pill his mom gave him, knowing something bad was going to happen that night. He wets himself with fear as his vicious mother approaches to murder him, curling back her fingers like the Babadook (common body language of abusive women). She tells him that she wished he was the one who died all those years ago. At this moment it seems like Samuel should break down in sadness and internalize the hatred that he suspected everyone felt toward him, but instead something switches in his mind. He gets angry and defense. \u201cYou\u2019re not my mother!\u201d he shouts scornfully. He tosses some firecrackers at her feet and escapes, shoots her with his little homemade crossbow and catapult, and managers to tie her up in the basement. \u201cI know you don\u2019t love me. The Babadook won\u2019t let you. But I love you mum. And I always will.\u201d The demon begins convulsing insider of her. Her hand gets loose and she grabs Samuel but he caresses her face, causing her to push him away from the pain of his affection. She vomits black sludge all over the floor. In a moment of convalescence her old self returns. But the Babadook is still there. It still haunts her. She resolves to defeat it. She confronts the pain of her past again. \u201cIf you touch my son again I\u2019ll fucking kill you!\u201d She unleashes a mighty primal scream and the Babadook crawls back into the basement forever.<\/p>\n<p>The movie ends with them celebrating Samuel\u2019s birthday for the first time on the day. His birth can finally be fully affirmed and celebrated. When Samuel once again brings up his Dad\u2019s death to strangers, Amelia is at peace with it, full accepting her sons eccentricity. \u201cSam is just like his dad was. Always speaks his mind.\u201d Mysteriously, the Babadook remains. Amelia goes to feed it a bowl of dirt and worms and is almost attacked by it again, but she\u2019s able to withstand it.<\/p>\n<p>In the final scene Samuel does a magic trick, making a white dove appear. Amelia is genuinely impressed and hugs him tight.<\/p>\n<p>This is a very beautiful Nietzschean film. Amelia feels guilty for the pain and murderous feelings she generates towards her son. But we see how the film doesn\u2019t moralize about Amelia. It\u2019s not her fault that the birth of her son was associated with crippling trauma. We see how a perfectly loving mother can succumb to emotional and physiological forces outside of her control. The fear, the boredom, the loneliness, and something as simple as lack of sleep can pile up the irritation and let in the Babadook. Letting him in means letting in the lie that others were telling her about her son. She rejected their moralizing- the kind of moralizing that could\u2019ve justified her in killing her son. Amelia is disgusted when the school administrators refer to him as \u201cthe boy\u201d. Perhaps this could be applied to situations involving abortion. We have a society that has so much hatred for male egoism to a murderous degree. When doing this, Amelia doesn\u2019t need to deny her own egoistic needs. \u201cThe more you deny, the stronger I get\u201d. By denying the pain, she made it worse. Guilt prevented her from acknowleing the pain that Samuel gave her. But by doing that, the frustration only mounts and the Babadook within becomes stronger.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cWhat is there that destroys a man more speedily than to work, think, feel, as an automaton of \u201cduty,\u201d without internal promptings, without a profound personal predilection, without joy?\u201d &#8211; <em>Twilight of the Idols<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNever yet has a man done anything solely for others and entirely without reference to a personal motive; indeed how could he possibly do anything that had no reference to himself, that is without inward compulsion (which must always have its basis in a personal need)? How could the ego act without ego?&#8230;whence one is reminded of a reflection of Lichtenberg&#8217;s which is, in truth, taken from a lower sphere: &#8220;We cannot possibly feel for others, as the expression goes; we feel only for ourselves. The assertion sounds hard, but it is not, if rightly understood. A man loves neither his father nor his mother nor his wife nor his child, but simply the feelings which they inspire.&#8221; Or, as La Rochefoucauld says: &#8220;If you think you love your mistress for the mere love of her, you are very much mistaken.&#8221;- <em>Human All Too Human<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Nietzsche correctly points out that nobody can live as a purely self sacrificial automaton. You have to be egoistic and self interested in order to have any kind of health or power to help others.<\/p>\n<p>Amelia confronts her pain she sees the Babadook for what it is. \u201cYou are nothing.\u201d The Babadook was a problem she created for herself. A pain associated with a memory that was trying to parasitically destroy other good things in her life. The pain only exists because she once had something so good. It\u2019s absurd to let something that was good take away other good things. The version of herself that wallowed in pain was robbing the version of herself that loved and affirmed her son. She taps into primitive survival instincts and forces her love to cancel out the pain. \u201cI\u2019ll fucking kill you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-86324\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T201128.924.png?resize=640%2C280&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T201128.924.png?resize=300%2C131&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T201128.924.png?resize=1024%2C447&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T201128.924.png?resize=768%2C335&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T201128.924.png?resize=1536%2C671&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T201128.924.png?w=1773&amp;ssl=1 1773w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-14T201128.924.png?w=1280&amp;ssl=1 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Samuel affirms his own instincts throughout the film. He doesn\u2019t let the school administrators, or social workers, or any of his relative brow beat him into submission. Even though he\u2019s six years old he takes on a large degree of masculine responsibility. He grabs his weapons and defends his mother with force when the time is needed.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s nice to see film like this and the <em>Dune<\/em> franchise that depict these remarkably affirmative mother-son relationships. This film could be symbolic of the general fear that women have of losing their sexual potential and their egoistic interests and becoming exhausted after child birth. A lot of the social anxiety and subsequent mental issues and criminality can be traced to these questions of egoism and exhaustion. How we deal with those things can seem counter intuitive. Ultimately the problem came down to the weakness of everyone else in the world and their inability to withstand Samuel&#8217;s energy. Amelia demonstrates true strength as a woman and mother by choosing to affirm him.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-86326\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-10T224033.194.png?resize=640%2C267&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"267\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-10T224033.194.png?resize=300%2C125&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-10T224033.194.png?resize=1024%2C426&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-10T224033.194.png?resize=768%2C319&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-10T224033.194.png?w=1407&amp;ssl=1 1407w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-10T224033.194.png?w=1280&amp;ssl=1 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why can\u2019t you just be normal!? This contains spoilers for the 2014 film The Babadook.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":86311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1023,21],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[815],"class_list":["post-86310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive","category-thephoenixandthemonarch"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v20.6 (Yoast SEO v27.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Egoism and Exhaustion in &quot;The Babadook&quot; ~ Mind&#039;s Eye 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