Seeing Through The Eyes of a Child, Part I: Wonders, Horrors & Monsters

       This year is offering us a number of reasons to revisit the theme of "Seeing Through the Eyes of a Child."  We explored this previously, while considering Stranger Things (Season One), especially in light of how both fear and wonder are seen acutely in the eyes of a child, as well as the relationships of children to their parents and/or mentors.  We continued the topic at the beginning of this year, as we considered Glass, the latest from M. Night Shyamalan, who has done wonders with this theme a number of times over the years.  This summer, I will offer another multi-part series on this topic, looking at some current or more recent examples.  Unlike the last couple of series, the entries will not all be weekly.  Part II will come within the week, while Parts III and IV might be a bit more spread out.

Spoilers Ahead for Godzilla (2014) and Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)

       For this first entry, we will briefly take note of how the themes of fear and wonder through the eyes of a child and of children's relationship to their parents is seen in the recent Godzilla movies in Legendary Entertainment's new Monster-Verse.

Godzilla (2014):

       While the imagery might have been under-utilized, the importance of children and their fathers was obviously intentionally being evoked from the beginning of the movie.  The parallel drawn between the relationship between Joe and young Ford and that between adult Ford and his son Sam is not subtle, even down to the banners both sons make for their fathers.   Of course, we see the fear in young Ford's eyes at seeing the disaster taking place while he was still a child, as we will later see wonder in his son's eyes in seeing a "dinosaur" on the news.  Even more significantly, as a son, we see the simplicity with which Ford desires his father's time and attention.  This extends into his adulthood, as his father's grief and determine to uncover the truth behind his wife's death, clearly resulted in his relationship with Ford being even more strained.  While Ford is clearly devoted to his own family as an adult, when he receives news of his father's arrest, he responds with a kind of bitterness and resentment.  As everything unfolds with his father's arrest and the awakening of the monsters, we see how Ford is torn between his role as a son and as a father.  He desires to get back home to be with his family, yet his concern for his father initially keeps him away.  On some level, it seems as if Ford is still the boy who desires the time and attention of his father, even though it is not without bitterness and resentment.  As the situation with the monsters continues to unfold, we see him somewhat imitating the behavior of his own father, as he continually puts off his reunion with his family.  We even see him taking time to care for a strange child on a train, attending to his fear and to his safety.  This sequence emphasizes both his protective, fatherly instincts and also his distance from his own family.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019):

       The childlike perspective in relation to both parents is a bit more thoroughly explored in the sequel through Madi, the young teenage daughter of both Emma and Mark.  We meet this family in grief, after losing a child in connection with the disasters of the first movie and see how both parents have dealt with it in different, but equally unhealthy ways.  We see how Madi is torn between her parents and concerned about both.  Very early on, we see her reaching out to her dad in an email, including beginning to express her concern about her mother.  While Emma does not know the content of the email, the fact that Madi is writing it already becomes a source of tension and conflict.  All along, we see her wanting to go to her father, while also not wanting to abandon her mother.

Man, rough childhood!  First, she has the demigorgon to face,
then, a whole "MosterVerse"?!
What? Same actress, different character?  Oh. Never mind.

Meanwhile, it is notable that we see more wonder than fear in Madi.  The wonder comes across clearly at the birth of Mothra, and carries her throughout the film, even when fear enters in, even until the arrival of Godzilla in Boston.  This is indeed one of the stories which shows the child as the one who seems to have the most healthy balance of the two.  The sequence which shows her on the catwalk, as her father calls her to himself and her mother calls her back, is especially striking.  That catwalk can be seen as a kind of spectrum between wonder and fear, in which she is pulled in both directions, but ultimately moves daringly toward wonder.  At one end, her mother stands at the extreme end of wonder, as she is so enamored with the idea that the "titans" (monsters) might be the key to the earth's salvation, that she is recklessly willing to throw away countless human lives.  Among other things, she lacks the needed fear to understand the incredible power that she is unleashing, which Mark reminds her she "can't control."  Yet, her reply to Mark shows how he stands on the opposite extreme of fear, as she tells him he "can't run away from" everything.  Meanwhile, as Madi is torn between the two, she has just enough fear at watching everything come undone to be able to recognize when her mother has lost touch with reality and unleashed havoc on the world.  The point is not very subtle: Emma just might be the "real monster."  Meanwhile, as she sees everything spin out of control, Emma is finally able to regain some of her reason and concoct a plan that Madi overhears and is daring enough to put into action.  Meanwhile, the surprising revelation of Mothra's role as "Queen of the Monsters," who has a symbiotic relationship with Godzilla seems to be instrumental in reawakening a bit of wonder in Mark, which enables him to play his own part in working toward the resolution.

The image this all leaves us with with is rather striking.  The drama unfolds in such a way as to awaken enough fear in Emma and enough wonder in Mark to move them both toward the center, to move them back toward their child.  The more their view of reality and willingness to engage the whole of reality, rather than simply the extreme which they have chosen in dealing with their grief, matures and evolves, the more they are drawn together once more.  Fear and wonder are both important lenses which we need, in order to properly view different aspects of reality.  Both come naturally to children.  As we learn to process and deal with different traumas and trials, we might run to the extreme of one or the other.  These extremes might become what divide us, but when we are able to move back toward a more complete view of reality, walls are torn down, bridges are built and we can move back toward one another.  This husband and wife dealing with the loss of their son had been pulled apart by their respective retreats into fear and wonder.  Between them, their child stood, hoping for the sanity and wellness of her parents, but also for the reunion of her family.  We all have our own ways of coping with the painful parts of reality and can retreat into our own preferred perspective on reality.  These safe retreats from reality in its fullness can isolate and divide us from one another.  The child's natural desire for unity, peace and harmony - for family - becomes a sign of the fact that it is the truth that unites us.                   

Part II>>>

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