I'm assuming the fighting squid and whale represent the parents, but which animal represents which parent?
shareFrom the trivia :"The title refers to a prized display of a giant squid fighting a whale at the American Museum of Natural History, which appears in the final shot of the film."
If you're going to be a pest Taffy,I'll just have to ignore you!Marsha Dale
lol at above report...uh...no that's the impression I got too. I'm not sure how much to read into it, but we know from his conversation with the shrink that he was never able to look at the display. We also know that his Father wasn't around during these visits; do you think maybe he sensed that something was wrong with his parents' relationship way back then?
Both battles would seem pretty damn epic when you're little...maybe he unknowingly associated the two while being too young to really understand what was wrong between the folks? Otherwise I don't see the reasoning behind him going to the museum at the end of the movie.
Thoughts?
I think the title was the turning point for Walt. He realized his father was never around when he was a kid. The father didn't give a damn about Walt when Walt was too young to give him someone to "hang out" with. On the other hand, his mother was always there for him. She was there to raise him and did more than his father ever did, like help him through his fears. I think Walt is able to look through his mother's faults towards the end and the squid and the whale is just something he connects to her through.
shareIt's a fear. A fear of anything. Walt in the end confronts his "fear". So do almost all the characters in the end.
shareI think you are pretty close when you are zeroing in on "fear". Perhaps Walt has been afraid to look at his father's true character. He's been this big, mighty, impressive thing (like a whale) in his life. And just like the display at the museum, he never truly looked at him or experienced him. He just "heard" about him through his work as a writer, etc., similarly to the way he never actually looked at the museum display, but thought he knew it because of his mother's descriptions.
Walt's going to the museum and actually seeing the the squid & the whale exhibit with his own eyes was symbolic of his finally seeing who his father truly is.
I've always thought 'whale' had male relevance (as in sperm, I suppose), and 'squid' sounds female to me, like a perversion for feminine genitalia, so...
Going station to station is hunky dory but if the trip's low on creeps it can drive Alladin Sane.