Monster Symbolism ?

[vampiress]

Yeah, he definitely is. When you wake up after coming through the portal he's hunched over the stomach of the Patient on the bed and the sounds indicate that he's rummaging around in its body and eating it. Then when he notices you he turns around and there's blood all over his face. It's pretty disgusting which is no doubt why it stuck in my mind.

I passed that part last night, he's not eating it. Not once does it go to his mouth. Yes he's got blood on his face, but only in a way suggesting that he wiped sweat from it, or the like. And to agree with a previous post, rummaging does not indicate eating.

[lain of the wired]

Easy way to solve this: Does someone know if that clip is available on YouTube.com? I'm gonna go look and edit here when I find one.
Edit: Ok, not exactly that clip in particular, but.... It's still got that clip in it. He's not eating her. The blood is pretty clearly just on his face because he's touched his face, or perhaps blood squirted onto him as he did "surgery".

[Nurse Babz]

I agree lain. Ever see Sleepy Hollow? When he goes to operate on the corpse the blood squirts all over his face.

[lain of the wired]

Heh- or Dracula Dead and Loving it? Mel Brooks is classic...

[Anonymous]

Patient - Being sewn-together to form a female image they likely respresent Walter's attempts to patch together an idea and a reality of his mother

i like this theory very much, i never though about it like that before

[ShiningSugar14]

To expand on the Patient theories, what's with the burping noise? Is there any symbolism or did Team Silent throw that in for fun?

[lain of the wired]

A dead body with air trapped inside it is unlikely to release it until pressure is applied to the area containing it, upon which point it will emit a burp-like noise as the gases force their way through the stiffened tissues of the cadaver's closed throat.
Thank you, Sam, of my 5th grade science class. That was something I never wanted to hear from a dead kitty. Or smell.

[Xigz]

[quote="The Necronoir"]Now you've struck upon my favourite subject! Here's how I see them:

Tremors - Like the Hummers, difficult to pin down. Perhaps a simple reflection of the slugs that infested the water prison, and which Walter was exposed to as a child. More generally they have a primordial, undeveloped quality, like an embryo in the first stages of development. One step above the primordial ooze that we all evolve from. There are two distinct varieties, red and blue, again probably male and female.[quote]

No, they're Walter's memory of as a child of being Forced to drink water with slugs in them.

[AuraTwilight]

Yea. That's what he said.

[Mits_Giotix]

Walter is not feeding on the patient-like creature. I think he sewns its belly.

[LaraeGunn]

Without Masahiro Ito on creature design, you're not going to get much as far as symbolism goes.

[Arthemesic]

Proof of this is the clock, or the chair... Why would they have a meaning?

I don't know about the chair, but the time could refer to just what the "introducting prophecy" said.
It said about Walter's world entwining into the real world. Walter's world is in complete chaos.
Although, this also is a long shot. Just a mere thought.

[Doo-glas]

I thought that the "gumheads" were supposed to be monkeys from the petshop(I also think that's where the dogs came from), but the adult theory makes sense too

[ww_andi]

You don't need Ito to have monster symbolism plus he designs them that doesn't necessarily mean he came up with the ideas

[Axel_98]

where was the symbolism in that nurse?

[AuraTwilight]

What nurse?

[Axel_98]

i figured those giant amazon women at the hospital were nurses?

[ww_andi]

Didnt a post on this same thread already cover that

[AuraTwilight]

Those are Patients, not Nurses.

[Chrysaor]

I don't know why everyone insists on calling the Patients 'Nurses'. And yes, it was already covered, but I'll go ahead and reiterate.

They're a symbol of Walter's view of motherhood. Since their uterus has been forcefully removed, it's an obvious reflection of how he doesn't think his own mother was fit to bring a child into the world. Also, due to their patchwork appearance, you can also assume that this is indicative of Walter's struggle to build his own mother figure from what little he was left. Their huge size, in my opinion, denotes the importance of a mother in Walter's eyes.