O'Doherty - Anchor Baby

In Tim Burton's poem, Anchor Baby, we see a couple of archetypes being used. For example, the woman in Anchor Baby best fits Jung's description of a shadow. She has one and only one desire (which is also her weakness): Walker, and she wants nothing more than to be with him. Thus, she acts on her id and tries many different methods in the hopes of tying him down. Astral projecting, sex, and black magic are just a few of the things she tries, but eventually she comes to the conclusion that the only way to ensure that he'll stay with her is if they have a baby together. Unfortunately, her plan backfires when she gives birth to Anchor Baby - a heavy, grey, gloomy, ugly ball of metal that could hardly be called a child. Since he is made of metal, the umbilical cord is also made of metal and therefore it is almost impossible to break. One would think that her lover would come back with something solid (like a crane) to break the chain...but he doesn't. Instead he returns to the land where he picks up right where he left off (playing music with his band)! What's worse it that he never looks back, he just leaves the woman to sink and raise the ungodly child on her own. One may argue that he fits Jung's description of a trickster because he is a deceiver, a liar, and a troublemaker. He is also very selfish and we see that he used the woman for his own selfish desires such as sex. He does not really love her nor his child, and he does not feel guilty about leaving either of them to sink to the bottom of the ocean, which makes us question if he is capable of loving. The themes of abandonment and loss are clearly present in this poem, and they both appear when Walker walks (or rather swims) out of the woman's life forever.