Beasts of the Southern Wild: Let’s talk about this movie…
While there are many connecting themes between Beyoncé’s visual album; Lemonade, and Toni Morrison’s novel; Beloved, I have also noticed thematic similarities to the 2012 film; Beasts of the Southern Wild. While I could connect this movie to many themes in Lemonade and Beloved such as manhood, poverty, systemic oppression, southern gothic, misrepresentation of black people in America, and feminism, I plan to only focus on a few.
Beasts of the Southern Wild takes place in Louisiana, in a bayou community called “The Bathtub” that seems completely separate from the rest of America. (Similar to the film, Daughters of the Dust) The six-year-old protagonist, Hushpuppy, played by Quvenzhané Wallis, lives in complete squalor with her father, Wink. Hushpuppy fends for herself while her dying father is in and out of the hospital. A storm then devistates The Bathtub and residents are forced to evacuate to the mainland. Hushpuppy and friends search for Hushpuppy’s absent mother and come across a brothel/bar on a boat. They meet a woman who might be Hushpuppy’s mother and the group returns home. Throughout the movie, we see images of ice caps melting and thawed-out beasts are released. A beast confronts Hushpuppy in a scene that we see as Hushpuppy’s imagination. The movie ends with the death of Hushpuppy’s father, Wink. She and the residents of the bathtub set his funeral pyre ablaze and send him out to sea.
When brainstorming a topic for this blog, there are a couple reasons why Beasts of the Southern Wild first came to mind. The first being that Quvenzhané Wallis, the actress who played Hushpuppy and became the youngest person ever nominated for best actress, is also in Beyoncé’s Lemonade.
Other non-thematic reasons I thought of this movie was because of its symbolism and similar artistic qualities to Lemonade and Beloved. In Beasts, there are plenty of symbolic moments and cinematic visuals that vaguely remind me of a visual album, such as Lemonade. Even though Beloved is a book, there is a strong sense of artistry, poeticism, and symbolism in Morrison’s writing. In both Beasts of the Southern Wild and Beloved, the audience/reader questions if things are really happening or if they are abstract, or a figment of a character’s imagination. I saw these similar artistic choices as a connection through these pieces, even though they are cinematic versus literary.
One of the biggest themes between Beasts of the Southern Wild, Lemonade, and Beloved is the theme of parenthood. In all of these pieces, either the audience or a character questions parenthood, the struggles of parenthood, or what is “good” parenting. In Beasts, we see a dying father who is often absent or drunk, but at the same time teaches his daughter about survival and toughness as a sign of love. In Lemonade, Beyoncé talks about being a mother (also through Warsan Shire poetry), but also about her own parents. In Beloved, we see evolving and complex parent-child dynamics and tragedy through a mother’s love.
Another theme throughout all three pieces is systemic oppression of black people in America. In Beloved, we see traumatic and blatant racism and oppression that occured during the period directly after slavery. In Lemonade, Beyoncé discusses many forms of oppression through policies and current events such as police brutality, cyclical poverty, and domestic violence. In Beasts of the Southern Wild, we see similar issues of cyclical poverty and black communities that are often “forgotten”, especially in the wake of natural disasters.
Another connection I see between these three pieces is the topic of misrepresentation of black people in America and overall racism. Both Beyoncé and Morrison clearly address several threads of this topic. Beyoncé especially addresses the topic of black representation through Lemonade’s cast and creators. Yes, Beasts of the Southern Wild focuses on a diverse community with its main characters being black but here’s the real difference between this movie and the other works. Beasts of the Southern Wild was directed by a white man.
While Lemonade and Beloved were produced by black women, Beasts of The Southern Wild director, Benh Zeitlin, is white. This raises questions of; who’s story is this to tell? Can a white man accurately tell this story of black people in poverty? Beasts of the Southern Wild received many awards and recognition, but at the same time received scathing reviews that claimed the movie to be utterly racist, completely offensive, and culturally pretentious. Critics say that Beasts of the Southern Wild “deploys a casual racism, vilifies public health workers, and romanticizes poverty”. Critic Thomas Hackett says, “This is the film’s ugly operating assumption: if you are already poor (being black doesn’t hurt either), you are uniquely suited to thrive in squalor. It doesn’t matter how young or neglected you are…That’s just your natural habitat.” Hackett’s valid argument to the racism within Beasts of the Southern Wild reminds me of the topic of misrepresentation of black people in America that Beyoncé is trying to teach us about with Lemonade.
Surface-level similarities between Beasts, Lemonade, and Beloved such as the setting, artistic choices, and depicting black America are clear. After taking a closer look, topics such as parenthood, systemic oppression, and misrepresentation are also connecting themes within these pieces. The circumstances of how Beasts of the Southern Wild was produced also raise unique questions of misrepresentation and racism. The complexity of this film, along with the problematic elements and mixed reviews it received make it an interesting comparison to the topics and works we have discussed in this class.
Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) — The Village Voice
Wallis in Lemonade (2016) — The Fader
