How do you read the final scene in Children of Men? Are we witnessing a symbolic re-birth? Why does Cuaron choose Theo and Kee as the “key” figures for potential renewal? How might the story be changed, for example, if the fountainhead of the human race was imagined as a white woman from a Western nation? What does Kee’s pregnancy (and the rest of the movie) tell us about the power and limits of science and technology?
6 thoughts on “Children of Men–Group 4”
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I echo that portrayal of Kee as a black character rather than the typical whiteness associated with western depictions of the Virgin Mary is Cuaron’s embracing of diversity as a necessity in, as Chase puts it, the healing of the world. And not only diversity of race, but of gender. I find it interesting that several people, including Luke, assume baby Dylan to be a boy and that Theo goes about correcting them that she is indeed a baby girl. The focus not just on the blackness of Kee and Dylan, but on the womanhood of the mother/daughter pair to me suggests a hopeful ending. They represent the restoration of fertility and of humanity’s biological capabilities, but they also represent a restored meaning to life itself. Without the promise of birth (and, symbolically, rebirth), all that humans have in this dystopic world is violence and the promise of inevitable death, both of themselves as individuals and of collective humanity. The sight and presence of a baby, the first in eighteen years, is the first sight of pure, undefiled life that any other human would have seen during this time. This is what makes the pause in fighting such a striking scene to me. All the British soldiers who look upon Dylan know is destruction and the inevitable crawl towards death, such that to see a newborn child that represents life and the potential for life allows for a brief respite of peace.
Children of Men is similar to others we have read in that it is dystopian but it is easy to see how humanity could have gotten to this point given our current circumstances. They give a variety of reasons why humans might not be fertile but do not land on one thing specifically. I see the final scene as a potential for rebirth both biologically and socially. With the birth of a new baby, there is hope that scientific research can reciprocate what happened in Kee’s case and save the human from extinction for a little while longer. This is highly questionable though because this could just be one miracle where the baby may not even survive. Also, this baby may eventually have to deal with the pressure of being the youngest in the world which, as we saw at the start of the movie with baby Diego can be detrimental. Do humans even deserve to be saved in this world if all they have done is destroy the environment and fight amongst each other?
If Kee was imagined as a white woman the meaning of the story would shift. The narrative through most of the story is that British citizens are racially and culturally superior to foreigners and deserve to be separated. When Kee, a black woman, is the first person to have a baby, the main objective of society, conceptions of foreigners in dystopian Britain are changed. This raises the point that while we all may look different we are all somewhat equal biologically and a British citizen is just and likely to get pregnant as a foreigner. If it were a British white woman these nativist ideas would have only been reinforced and the woman would have received much better care than Kee. The story also reminds us that our scientific innovation is no match for the power of environmental change if we continue to treat the earth as we do.
There is an optimism in the ending–a slim sense of hope in the incredibly bleak setting of the film. Like Parable, Children of Men somehow threads the needle of presenting a hauntingly dystopic future, while ending on a positive note. The common thread is a reinforced dependence on humanity–whether in the form of religion or childbirth. What distinguishes the dystopia seen in Children of Men is that its society has not been depleted of resources like oil or water; rather, the depletion is of fertility–a biological process. Their human bodies are being depleted of their resources. Unlike oil, its utilization is unpolitical/inarguable; everyone yearns for fertility in this world. Thusly, its return unifies all of humanity. When Theo guides Kee through the battle, the hostilities halt because of the power of that one baby–the promise of humanity restored. Humanity trumps technology. Indeed, it is timeless in that way too. When Theo teaches Kee how to burp her baby, he is relying on wisdom from his pre-dystopic youth. Not all dystopian literature stresses a return to tradition, but when it comes to an issue as timeless as childcare, an old fogey can definitely be of assistance. In terms of Kee’s race, I agree with Chase that there is an embrace of diversity at play. The choice stresses this unification through humanity; there are no racial politics in this race towards fertility–such divisions are irrelevant.
I think that I had a lot of the same questions as Chase at the end of the film. Kee’s successful yet bloody and terrifying journey to the Tomorrow and the film ending the sound of children laughing and playing suggest something hopeful. However, I couldn’t help but think about the future that awaits her and her daughter. Something that I found myself thinking over the course of the movie was “Would it necessarily be a bad thing if humanity went extinct?” There are points in the movie where Theo muses about the futility of all that everyone is doing, since in 100 years, nothing will remain. What sort of rebirth could the Earth go through without the pollutive presence of people sucking the life from it? I don’t really know where I landed on that question by the end of the movie.
I would like to note that the choice of Kee as the new “Mary” figure certainly undermines whatever manufactured superiority the British were trying to impose on the rest of the world. In this world, babies and the ability to have babies should be the most important thing. I think of the scene where Kee is walking with crying Dylan through the hallway crowded with refugees and the sort of awed looks that were on all of their faces and all the tender gestures they made towards the baby. Afterwards, when she sees all of the British soldiers, they ceasefire for a moment to notice the baby before immediately returning to their warfare. The British were not the ones to restart humanity, nor were they the ones who had the ability to cherish it. Even if a white British woman did birth a child, there is very little hope for the London in the movie to progress past the fighting to focus on the miracle. Babies may be born, but still the more pressing issue would be keeping refugees under subjugation.
I viewed the final scene as a symbolic rebirth in the sense that Kee was destined for greater things and so was her baby Dylan. Even after Theo dies and the scene fades out into the credits you hear a baby laughing in the background. Kee was chosen as the source of rebirth in creating the new boundaries of the human race. Like Chase said below, it is a symbol more of hope that they can make it through just about anything. She is not the symbol of the political indoctrination of what fertility and child birth means, but rather exemplifies a new chance at life away from the barriers of race and borders. If Kee had been a white woman from one of the Western nations she would most likely have been applauded and donned after and would have been the literal figureheads of the human race. It would have given them more of a reason to have separations between refugees and the “civilized” west. I also agree with Chase that it was a chance for Cuaron to show that to embrace humanity you need to embrace your differences and embracing diversity. It also shows the harsh reality of what refugees and immigrants face on a daily basis. I think Cuaron using Kee as the “mother” of the human race makes the viewer question racism. There will always be limitations of science, but it shows again the innate differences in care and treatment that individuals get. It also shows a hyper focus on specific health problems and that like Chase said if science is so advanced how did women become infertile? Is because men are the controllers of science? Is it only because they were focused on white women? How can science help or hinder an individual? Cuaron had us think through these questions throughout the film.
I read the last scene not as a symbolic rebirth of humanity, but more so as hope that humanity can survive through the harshest of conditions. In this reality though, Kee is just the beginning of the process of rebuilding the human race, she symbolizes hope rather than an individual who might have a significant effect on politics. The movie echos the consequence of immigration policies, and choosing Kee as a representative of hope for humanity, I think, is Cuaron’s attempt to show that embracing diversity is a step in healing our world. I think the journey Kee partakes gives viewers insight to the poor conditions that immigrants face no mater their age, nationality, or mental/physical condition. We all connect and feel terrified as she is pregnant and giving birth and bombs are going off on the floor beneath them.
I was actually terrified for her for being the chosen one, she did not ask for it, because it sounds like a nightmare. My questions are what happens next? Does the child survive? Can the child also reproduce when she comes to age? Is humanity actually saved, we can only assume since the ship “tomorrow” sailed to the rescue. What would science do to help this baby? I think science has a fine line on how much it can intervene on this process. This movie sheds light on the limits of scientific advancements. For science to be so advanced how did women become infertile? This proves that if we ignore human beings and our connection with the world itself then there can be no more advances to be made because no one will be here! The connections from this movie to our own reality is absurdly to close to accuracy. especially coming out of a pandemic now. It also points out that science is biased, since it is the women who can no longer get pregnant while men are the controllers of what science technologies should be created. Literally scary accurate.