Wadsworth- The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories

Robot Boy just an innocent "boy" that was born in a world that he doesn't really fit in with. Just like Tim Burton himself, Robot Boy doesn't fit in with his parents or society. Tim Burton shows that he feels like he was the problem child in his family and does the same in this poem. In the poem it says that Mr. and Mrs.Smith (the most common/normal name) were " a normal, happy husband and wife." Then one day they found out they were going to have a baby and this brought them joy. But then when Ms. Smith had their son, he wasn't normal. He wasn't human. He was a robot! Mr. Smith looked to blame someone for this "thing" that his wife had given birth to, but the doctor told him that his wife had been unfaithful to him and had sexual relations with a microwave blender. In the poem it then states that "the Smiths' lives were filled with misery and strife." Robot Boy was the cause for their misery and this is how Tim Burton relates to this poem. The Smith's were a happy family until Robot Boy came along and ruined all of this and this is how Tim Burton feels towards his family.
The last stanza says that Robot Boy grew to be a man and was often mistaken for a garbage can. This shows how Robot Boy never fit in with society. This is how Burton feels about himself. Burton reflects a lot of himself into the things he writes.

Jung opened our eyes to many different archetypes. Some of these are the shadow, the great mother, the wicked stepmother, the witch, the wise man, sage sorcerer or magician, the hero, the devil or monster, the warrior, the barbarian, the jester and the trickster. One that Burton uses all the time (even though he doesn't in this poem) is the trickster. Another is the separation from parents or abandonment. This archetype hits home for both Jung and Burton because at a young age they were separated from or abandoned by their parents, either mentally or physically. Jung lost his mother at a young age and never had a connection with his father. While Burton never felt close to his parents and moved out from their home to go live with his grandmother.
The most crucial archetype in this poem is the separation from parents or abandonment because Robot Boy's parents abandoned him because of his difference. Robot Boy was abandoned by his parents and never got to feel like a real boy, more like a garbage can. He was an outsider from the day he was born and he couldn't control that in any way. This poem and most of the poems in the book relies on Jung's archetypes to be what it is. Burton in general relies on these archetypes for his work. In the image below shows all the characters in the book. All of them in one way or another have an archetype.