Upon meeting Jabberwock the boy was not quite sure what to expect of it. Just the title itself evoked fantasies around unimaginable creatures and bizarre lands, however what did not occur to him is how well he would connect with the film. 18 Years and he was always looking for stories which were deeper than the skin, where life, fear, and courage were more than in an action or fantasy movie. Jabberwock was rather more than just another story about a legendary monster; it raised questions on the nature of courage, the void, and the battles within.
The plot portrayed a young man called Elias who lived through the fear of the Jabberwock in a small village. Right from the onset, the boy identified with Elias- he was like a normal young man who however constantly battled with dread of the future. As was to be expected Elias did not cut the figure of a conventional champion. There was neither indisputable heroism nor inborn talent in him. In reality most of the plot was centered on his attempts to evade the annoyance of confronting the Jabberwock. As appealing as that angle may seem, however, this is what made him easy for the boy to identify with and appealing as well. It was not about showing courage as most people expect – it was about being courageous even when you are scared.
As time went by in Elias’s journey, the boy began musing over the subject of fear. The Jabberwock was a terrible beast physically, it was also an embodiment of what is termed fear – that ‘thing’ which life brings unexpectedly and unrealistically when one is not prepared. The boy had his share of “Jabberwocks” too in his life – the depression of maturing, the confusion of identity, the decision about the future etc. Seeing Elias grappling with fright of the monster brought back to him that everyone was allowed to be scared. What mattered was what one did when scared.
One interesting feature of the film is its unsystematic way of distinguishing between the real world and the surreal one. The Jabberwock itself was not only an external threat, but also a representation of the dread that the people had within. Each actor in the picture appeared to encroach the beast, inflating it with self-doubt till it becomes even more monstrous than it probably is. The son got an insight out of this. How many times he pondered, do people depict fears on much larger scales than what actually exists? How many times are people irrationally fearful of things that they do not know because that’s where the real battle lays: their imagination of what will come next.
The boy’s teacher had a huge impact in cultivating the correct proportion of fear in the boy when it came to courage, particularly evident in the character of Elias’s mentor an old warrior named Karlen. Karlen was not the fearless knight, that Elias, let alone the boy, had surmised. He was battle-weary, old, tired and full of ‘what ifs’. There are many fears in combat, and yet, for some reason, he lived. It wasn’t that he was fearless – quite the opposite – but that he had learned to deal with it. The boy liked to listen to what Karlen had to say. He educated Elias, and at the same time the boy through him, that being brave wasn’t about being without fear but about anticipation of the action regardless of it.
The boy kept remembering Karlen’s instruction, especially a phrase the old warrior kept repeating during the film: ‘It is not about killing the beast, it is facing it’.
Now that the boy was about to face the Jabberwock, he could not help but feel an even more heightened sense of expectation from within. It was not just about the entire action. It was about being able to witness someone coming to grips with their own limitations and fears. The movie was not about Establishing a superhero bearing an extraordinary power. It showed what common people can do beyond their own expectations, even if at first, they do not have faith in themselves. The boy’s internal confession, where he fought his doubts and insecurities with persistence, was the same as Elias’s inner struggle. He saw the same discussions with himself, about whether he was good enough, strong enough, and brave enough in Elias.
The eventful fight that marked the climax of the confrontation between Elias and the Jabberwock in the third part was not many movies style, epic and heroic which alas one expects. Rather, it was not clean or clear as most people would picture it. There were also many times when Elias came close to quitting. But that is what felt so much true to the boy. The most difficult objectives in life rarely have clear resolutions or happy endings. Some days, simply putting one foot in front of the other, or standing one’s ground, is all that needs to be done. The more they resisted for the most part, however, the more and more Elias found himself filled with fury motivated to kill the beast. And at that instant, the boy knew that courage was not about how you are supposed to engage the enemy but that only the fact remains that you did.
When the film came to an end and Elias went back to his village, he was a little different but not unlike himself at all, the boy was still not over the film he had seen. Jabberwock was more than just a slay the dragon story, it tackled the monsters from within each and every individual, their burden of the unknown and their resolve to overcome it. Elias did not come back as the victorious champion of his people, he came back as a person who adjusted to his fear and that meant a lot more to the boy than any of the impressive successes.
In the days immediately after watching the movie, the boy surprised himself with looking back at his life like that, even for a while. He went over the fears he had been running away from, the fights he had been too chicken to engage in. However, the Jabberwock demonstrated that it was okay to feel such feelings. The fear is an essence, all the children around the world have it as they learn and grow up. The biggest task is not to get rid of fear. The biggest task is to go through it, to do that first movement even if everything in you says run away.
The boy loved the Jabberwock, but not because of its action or its fantasy themes, rather its moral. The boy remembered that everyone has their individual monsters to slay, their own Jabberwocks, and the most important thing is not whether one wins or loses but that they gather the strength to stand up and meet the challenge.
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