O'Doherty - The Mummy Boy

The Mummy Boy is the story of an abnormal child who is the "result of an old pharaoh's curse." Because of his condition, he is rejected by his parents as well as other children (which is a fate similar to many other characters in Tim Burton's works). Other characters who have experienced the same hostility and rejection include the Penguin (who was abandoned by his parents because he was ugly and different), Catwoman (who was a disappointment to her parents because she could not live up to their expectations), Robot Boy (who was rejected by his parents because he was living proof that his mother had an affair with a kitchen appliance...), and Brie Boy (who was ignored by other children because he had a round head made of cheese). All of these children mirror the way Tim Burton felt while he was growing up as a child. He (like all the "little monsters" he created) was different. Although he was fully human and was born without any physical abnormalities, he did enjoy things that many others thought were strange and unusual. He liked dark, mysterious, creepy things like monsters and aliens which his parents and peers thought was rather odd. Their lack of support and friendship made him feel rejected and alienated from society. These negative emotions are what fueled his strange and unusual creative works.
At the end of the novel, Mummy Boy is killed by a group of children who think that he is a pinata. I find it ironic how he is killed by children. Children are perceived as innocent beings, but if you watch them at play you may be surprised to see that they can actually be very mean. Maybe it is because they do not know any better, but children do not have a filter and therefore they can be brutally honest. Children also judge more harshly than adults because they have not lived long enough to experience many things, and so (seeing that it is human nature to fear the unknown) if they see someone that is strange they might not want to play with them. This may have been the case for Tim Burton, which would explain why he had "innocent" children kill Mummy Boy.
And what should become of these innocent children? Should they be charged for murder? Or should they not? The answer to these questions depends on the answer to a couple others: Is Mummy Boy even alive? If he is alive, is he human? And is it justifiable to kill him if he is already "dead"?
We see from the poem that even though Mummy Boy is built differently, he still has feelings, emotions, and he thinks complex thoughts. One could argue that this is enough to make murdering him immoral. But we as humans slaughter animals everyday and use them for research even though they share these similarities with us. So what makes it okay for us to kill living beings? Is is because they are "less than" us? And if so, who is to say what makes them less than us? I think Mummy Boy