Suarez- Anchor, anchor, Baby

The poem/story Anchor Baby depicts a beautiful woman who would emerge from the sea because she wanted to be with the man she “loved”, Walker. After several attempt to try and keep him with her, she came to the conclusion that the only solution to this predicament was the get him to impregnate her. This occurs, and she then gives birth to a brand new baby anchor. Her plan then backfires because walker wants nothing to do with her, or the metal baby she gave birth to, so he flees. In response, she drowns herself. The women character depicted fits the archetype of the helpless women. This archetype is a woman who needs the love and approval of a man in order to survive, without this, she feels no point to life and usually kills herself.  A women of this kind is illustrated to be weak and feeble and unconfident, solely depending on others (especially a man) to take care of her, because she is not able to. Another characteristic of this archetype is that the women is usually beautiful, and not very intelligent. All of these characteristics are conveyed through this women character in Anchor Baby; she is dependent on the love of Walker so much so that she gets him to get her pregnant, and when her love goes unrequited, she kills herself. She is assumed to be unintelligent because she is unable to attract Walker’s attention with anything else but her body.

As a child, Tim Burton felt abandoned by his parents, and these feelings from his childhood are transferred into almost all of his works as an adult. The baby that is birthed in Anchor Baby out of the lust a women has for a man who lives on land whom she wants to anchor down, is ultimately abandoned. There is no reveal in this poem/story of either of the parents ever taking a second to consider what affects their decisions would have on their baby. The parents are illustrated to be very conceited in this way. This is very much how Tim Burton felt about his parents. He felt he was the outcome of two people who decided to procreate out of “love”, and he, the outcome, a baby, who they did not care much for, a made decisions that did not take him into consideration. Just as the anchor baby was born different from the rest of society, Burton felt similar; he always felt outcasted because of his different ideas and interests.

The self-interested parents are another archetype in this poem. Characteristics of this archetype are similar to what Burtons parents were described as above. This poem depends on these archetypes in the sense that, in order for readers to relate to the characters, they must be able to relate the characters to people in their own lives. Whether it is their own parents, or the parents of a friend, this connection is what allows readers to truly grasp the concept that the poem/story is trying to elucidate.