Terrifying Texts by Cynthia J. Miller

Author:Cynthia J. Miller
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McFarland
Published: 2018-08-27T16:00:00+00:00

Fight? Flight? A Third (Female) Way

When an animal is challenged, it reacts in one of two ways: fight the challenge, or flee from it. Perhaps, however, there is a third way.

In The Mother of All Questions, Solnit notes that the “common sense” fight-or-flight duality was derived from studies of male mice, and male humans, only. A 2000 UCLA study, on the other hand, identified a “tend-and-befriend” urge among female test subjects. Solnit writes that “much of this is done through speech, through telling one’s plight, through being heard, through hearing compassion and understanding in response to the people you tend to, whom you befriend.”13 This is precisely the approach that Amelia takes to dealing with the Babadook.

Prior to the monster’s arrival, prior to reading the book, Amelia is fleeing from her trauma, her responsibilities, and her son. She is fleeing into dreams, attempting to send Samuel into dreams, and diving deeply into television narratives. When the Babadook fully manifests itself, however, Amelia doesn’t flee—she fights, at least for a brief time. She screams at the Babadook, and it flees into the cellar.

At this point in The Babadook, it is easy to imagine an ending in which a final “fight” is staged in the cellar, or one in which Amelia flees the house, leaving it to be haunted forever. Instead, however, we get something else: Solnit’s third way. “Mister Babadook” has made the demons within Amelia manifest. But instead of fleeing from them, or fighting them, she tends to them—in some ways, she befriends them. In the final coda of The Babadook, Kent alludes to a new cycle for Amelia—digging in a garden, calmly listening to Samuel, and bringing a dish of worms into basement. Amelia descends into the dark murk of the basement, where we last saw the Babadook flee. And as the camera rushes towards Amelia out of the shadows, for brief moment, it seems she is attacked by the Babadook again. It rushes out of the shadows at her. But she doesn’t run, and she doesn’t fight. She calms the creature. She gives it food. She knows this process may have to continue for as long as she lives (Samuel seems to know this too), but Amelia appears at peace with it.

Above ground, she is at peace with her new life as well. There is no more running from Child Services, no more mediated stories for them to disbelieve. There is just the truth, as hard as it may be. And in the garden, stories are back where they belong. Samuel dazzles her with a magic trick, a story of amazing ability and infinite possibility for the boy. Amelia may even, for a brief moment, believe Samuel’s innocent story that he is “the world is not what it seems.” But for her, finally, the stories have been shed—sloughed off like a brittle snakeskin. All that is left is the present, immediate truth: her caring, loving, and tending for her son.

There is, of course, a final paradox. By tending to the Babadook, she has both freed herself and also chained herself to this problem.

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