The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories , written by Tim Burton, is a true inside look into the creative mind of Burton. The stories throughout the book are morbid, gruesome, and strange. In today's society, we believe these characteristics are inappropriate. A child should not be exposed to the horrors of society at such a young age, even at all. Yet, we allow children to read fairy tales. Fairy tales once were also morbid, gruesome, and strange. Now, they are just happy stories where the character's are all safe and sound in the end. The short stories throughout The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories remind one of old fairy tales, this leads to the question, was Tim Burton writing modern fairy tales in this collection of stories?
Each story surrounds at least one character. This character is either an outcast due to a strange deformity, or a character who has a strange occurrence happen to her. The stories do no offer a character who is a hero. This links the fact that Burton can relate to the deeper characters, as opposed to the heroes. The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories presents the reoccurring theme of Tim Burton's works of being misunderstood. Personally, I can see Burton in some way throughout the book.
The children who are born mutant, especially represent Burton. These characters, such as, Robot Boy, Stain Boy, Roy the Toxic Boy and Char Boy, are all extremely misunderstood. For instance, Roy enjoys toxicity and things that other's tell him are not good. This is the environment in which he thrives. Once he is put into a "healthy" environment, he dies. Much like Burton, people misunderstood him. They believed they knew best for him, and they placed him in the "best situation" which was to force him outside. The idea that they had forgotten was not everyone is the same. People all thrive in different environments. Burton grew up in suburbia, a place where many believe is safe, and the perfect place for a child. This was not the case, just like Roy, Burton hated living in other people's idea of perfection. He felt depressed and confined in suburbia. Not until he left his parent's house, and moved into his grandparent's house, did he get his first dose of freedom. Roy did not feel freedom until he had died, which if Burton hadn't moved in with his Grandparent's, that could have been his fate.
Although it may seem far fetched for individuals to see this collection of poems and short stories as fairy tales, the definitely mirror original fairy tales. The only difference in these stories, are there are no heroes. It is as if the stories are a prequel to how a monster from a fairy tale, became a monster. Each child, or person, in this collection, has some abnormality. Instead of seeing them as monsters though, they appear to be innocent. Could these characters eventually be monsters? Or are they just misunderstood? 
Becca Jump:
ReplyDeleteThat is a really interesting idea that the stories are prequels to how a monster from a fairy tale becomes a monster. I find all of the characters in The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy to be greatly misunderstand which makes them outcasts. If we look at Beauty and the Beast, the Beast is considered a monster and at first he is. He keeps Belle locked in his house, he has violent and aggressive tendencies, and he seems to only think about himself. As the movie goes on, however, we realize after years of living alone as an outcast he has become that way. I think that is why Tim Burton relates with villains rather than heros because he sees beyond their evil behavior. He understands why the way they are and that they are not purely evil, for it is society who transformed them.