Fitting the Mold

     “The Lost Thing,” a short film about a futuristic, dystopian society addresses the age old relationship between growing up and becoming more monotonous. The creature and his world, despite being ostracized by the ‘normal society,’ is a personification of innocence, individuality, and its benefits. Ultimately, the thing that is lost in this film isn’t the creature itself, but individualism and originality.

     The moment the movie began, calm sounds in the background transfer viewers into a gray, dusty, and simple world where everyone looks and acts the same. The people seem to have a never changing daily routine. People are oblivious to the world around them, not able to see or just don’t want to notice something that differs from them. On the beach, when the work day was over, all people packed up and left the beach at the exact same time, not even noticing the boy and the “thing” playing right beside them. Society in the gray futuristic world wants to eliminate oddness and uniqueness from the world.

     On the other hand, the creature’s world is vibrant and thriving. The radiant colors, bright lights, and lack of straight lines implies a much more relaxed and enjoyable environment. Despite these creatures being ostracized and regarded by society as ‘lost,’ it appears as if they are enjoying their lives a lot more than the normal world.

     Ultimately, juxtaposing the main character and his world with that of the creature exposes the innocence and creativity that comes with youth. The narrator, a teenager who is in the intermediate stage between childhood and adulthood, is about to transition into the grownup world, yet isn’t quite there yet. He, unlike the adults on the beach, acknowledges the creature, and is able to sympathize him. When he takes the creature back to his own world, he notes that he, like the adults in the normal world, no longer pays any attention to the ‘lost’ creatures. The creature itself is a personification of childhood innocence and individuality. It is unlike anything else, but is still able to have fun and enjoy its life, proving that it is unnecessary to fit a specific mold in order to live a good life. Ultimately, “The Lost Thing” makes an overarching point about the desire to fit a particular mold and how, in an attempt to fit into said mold, people lose their personalities and ultimately the thing that makes society unique as a whole.

In my quiz I was talking about how people are becoming indifferent to everything that is different or unusual compared to their routine lives. I said that people focus more on themselves and their daily routine and avoid whatever seems odd or strange and what can interrupt their regular path of life.

There are two distinct worlds that film direct shows through color: gray one, probably our future world, where all people are same and are not prone to accept whatever is different from them, and the second, colorful world, hidden in the dark spot somewhere deep in the city, where everyone is unique and happy.  The Boy is a part of a gray world but he could find The Lost Thing on the beach I understand it. He helped the lost thing to find place where it belongs to. I think that this film is about how the modern (or probably future) society tries to eliminate anything that goes out of order, doesn’t follow the established path of life. But, those, who are different still exist and they need to find a place where they will be accepted as who they are,

I think that this film is about how the modern (or probably future) society tries to eliminate anything that goes out of order, doesn’t follow the established path of life. But, those, who are different still exist and they need to find a place where they will be accepted as who they are, place where they belong to. Otherwise, they will be vanished from people’s memories and disappear. We should look more around us and notice what surround us, don’t stay indifferent to others.

I wrote about what I believed to be the meaning of the film. The world seemed to be set in a future industrial society. Almost all sense of individuality and creativity had been lost. The world is dull and gray. Everyone looks and acts the same. Nobody stands out in the crowd. When the man in the film finds the “thing” on the beach he is surprised that nobody else has noticed it. He spends days searching for a place the “thing” belongs. When this place is finally found it is like a whole new world. It is bright and colorful. Everyone is unique and different and thriving. The part that struck me as being the main point of this film is the very end. The man talks about how as he continues through the day to day shuffles of life he sees less “things”. He isn’t sure if there are less out there or if he just doesn’t notice them anymore. What I interpreted from that line is as you progress through life you lose your individuality. You start to fall into the norms of society. You have to keep noticing or risk losing yourself. 

I discussed one of the meanings behind “The Lost Thing,” which is growing up and ultimately losing your innocence and individuality. The narrator is in the in-between stage of life, not yet an adult, seen by the fact that he is free to go to the beach, play, and collect bottle caps, but not quite a child, as he is given the responsibility of filling out paperwork. As a teenager, he is getting ready to leave his youth behind and entering the adult world. On the beach, his opportunity to be young for the last time, presents itself when he finds the strange creature. Unlike the other people at the beach, the narrator notices the creature, and befriends it. I think that the creature symbolizes youth and child-like innocence. Compared to the dull and colorless world, the creature is bright and full of light. The film juxtaposes the colorful creature and his lively world to that of the narrator’s due and boring one. At the end of the film, when the narrator drops the creature off, he is leaving his youth and innocence behind and becoming an adult. As he grows older, he notes that he no longer notices different things in the world anymore, just like the adults at the beach initially didn’t notice the creature. Ultimately, the “lost thing” is lost childhood and individuality which is personified by the strange creature, who, in a child-like manner, doesn’t fit in with the adult word and is seen as an abnormal outlier.