Jump - The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories

"The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy" expresses Tim Burton's classic themes of abandonment and outsiderness. Sam is clearly an outsider; he is often referred to as "that thing that looks like a clam" which dramatically dehumanizes him. He is tormented by the other children, and his parents are horrified by his appearance. In one scene, Sam is left in the rain and just watches the water go down the drain. It is a clear portrayal of the classic image in our head of an abandoned child. He causes so much trouble in their lives that his father is incapable of intimacy with his wife. The doctor advises him to eat Sam because oysters have been proven to "improve your sexual powers." Sam's parents emotionally abandoned him from his birth, and they executed the ultimate act of abandonment and killed their child. Burton has a lot of resentment towards his parents, for he feels they pushed him into the outside world and made him an outsider. As a child/young adult he very much felt abandoned by his parents, and that is why these two concepts are such common themes in Burton’s movies and stories.

Carl Jung’s concept of archetypes is so important in Burton’s films because it often humanizes and redeems many of the more devious or villainous characters. The idea of archetypes says that everyone has a negative/dark side or a shadow. For example, the good mother’s shadow is the wicked stepmother or a witch, the wise man/sage’s shadow is a sorcerer, etc, a hero’s shadow is a monster/devil, etc. An example of an archetype in one of Tim Burton’s films is Batman. Batman is believed to be a hero, but not all his motivations are pure. His hopes to better the city of Gotham are mixed with desire to take vengeance on those like the man who killed his parents. Batman’s shadow is a monster, but in a way it is his dark side that makes Batman a hero. It is the darkness within us that pushes us to constantly doubt ourselves and motivate us to be a better person. Everyone makes bad decisions, behaves cruelly towards another person, or acts selfishly, but it is these mistakes that make us human and make us learn and grow. Understanding our shadows also make us more forgiving towards others because seeing the darkness within ourselves often exposes the light in others. We all have our demons that haunt us, and some characters, like the Joker or Penguin, seem to be losing the fight; their shadows are taking over, but that does not me the goodness within them has disappeared. For this reason, the concept of archetypes humanizes characters like Penguin, who we may see as a monster, because while he may seem evil, his whole being may not be; Penguin’s shadow may just be covering the lightness within him, but it can still exposed. If we can find the goodness in others we can often forgive the darkness within them.

If we look at the archetypes and shadows in “The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy,” the concept of abandonment is lightened. Sam’s father, the good father/wicked stepfather, acted on his selfishness and his lack of compassion for Sam. It is very difficult to forgive a character for killing their own son, but if we understand he is human and is filled with imperfections then forgiveness comes easier. Sam’s father is described to have been very much in love with his wife, and I am sure he would have been a great father in “ideal” circumstances. The surprise and stress of the birth of his child, however, pushed his wickedness to the surface.