Lijing Zhang (Lee) * Qiya Liu (Chris) * Gabe Alexander * Chris Oswalt
LOST TEAM ESSAY: FINDING THE LOST THING
Shaun Tan’s The Lost Thing is an Oscar-winning short film about a boy who discovers a Lost Thing, and in doing so he discovers himself. Our collaborative group is named “The Lost Team”, with members Lijing Zhang (Lee), Qiya Liu (Chris), Gabe Alexander and Chris Oswalt. We have combined our literary analyses of Tan’s film into the following essay.
In the film, a boy named Shaun is collecting bottle caps when he discovers a strange creature, the Lost Thing. The Lost Thing is best described as a hybrid cross between a crab and an octopus inside a red metallic shell that resembles an industrial boiler. Shaun befriends the creature and begins a journey to help the Lost Thing find where it belongs, but that proves to be a challenging task. They travel around Shaun’s city with no luck. Shaun even takes the Lost Thing home but quickly learns it doesn’t fit in well. They visit the Federal Department of Odd and Ends but learn it is an undesirable place for the Lost Thing. Before leaving, they receive a friendly bit of advice about a place where Lost Things go. After more searching, Shaun eventually finds the place where several other similar creatures have gathered, which is an ideal place where the Lost Thing fits in. Shaun leaves the Lost Thing in this new place and returns to his normal life, but often thinks of his lost friend.
The film is rich with symbolic art and creativity, which offers a vast canvas for one’s imagination. Our team’s literary analyses shared many common observances as well as some unique interpretations. Lee observed that Shaun is lonely and unhappy in an aimless life, as if his soul is lost living in the city, traveling with no destination. In spite of being lost himself, Shaun helps the Lost Thing. Lee notes the symbolism that we often help others find their way but either don’t or can’t do the same for ourselves, stressing the importance of finding our own goals for our life journey. Chris (Qiya Liu) sees that, with kindness, good things can happen in an ugly world. An indifferent world did not notice the Lost Thing, but Shaun did because he had the heart to observe the beauty around him. Gabe picked up on the uniform assimilation of a dystopian city that stifled creativity and imagination, and felt the Lost Thing represented uniqueness. The Lost Things were cast out of society because they were just too different, too strong in their uniqueness and could not be assimilated. Chris (Oswalt) described a dark, dreary industrial world, a dull existence void of personality, too numb and too busy to care, and the Lost Thing isn’t really lost, but it is the world that is lost.
Through our team members’ individual summations and interpretations of the film’s meaning and symbolism, it is clear there is a search for something lost. The beauty of the film is its uncanny ability to relate to its viewers in so many ways, both similar and wildly different. Whether lost or found, we are all in search of something in our lives.