Children Of Men Symbolism

In: “Children of Men”, the 2006 film directed by Alfonso Cuaron, symbolism is used throughout the film to subtly convey what the characters are feeling, thinking and doing. Cuaron has used symbolism to help us as the audience to further understand the film, deepening how we apprehend the visual and oral text. Cuaron uses lighting, and colouring in many of the scenes to symbolize what the characters are feeling. Cuaron uses the same techniques with sounds, including non-diegetic sounds like music, which he uses to give the film suspense and to keep the audience on their toes.

Colour symbolism is something Cuaron uses widely throughout the movie to deepen the audience's understanding of the character's emotions, in one scene, the colours used

In most movies, music is used to provoke a certain emotion in the viewers. After Julian is shot, the camera pans onto Theo, forcing viewers to concentrate on his emotions. Right after she is shot everything goes quiet and the dialogue in the background turns to an indistinctive murmur. The use of this is to signify to the audience the numbness Theo is feeling during the scene, the few seconds where he doesn't know what to do or how to act. These swift few seconds show the audience a side of Theo that we haven't seen yet. The symbolism used during that scene is significant to Theo’s character as we get put into his shoes, this makes us sympathize with him more as individuals because we feel as if we are him, this could also be the lack of non-diegetic sound. Instead of putting sad music over the scene, Cuaron has decided to place the audience in Theo’s place. Another use of music in Children of Men is the “Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima”, composed by Krzysztof Penderecki. It is said that this piece of music provokes terror in the listener and reminds them of a “wailing ode of mourning for the victims’ suffering or death”. The use of the music in the movie symbolically is there to provoke terror and anxiety in us as viewers and heightens our emotions, making us think more deeply about what is going on during the

Kie is nine months pregnant and is due to have her baby any day. As viewers, we can see (due to the excessive use of tracking shots to show us our surroundings) what the world has deteriorated to as the human race no longer has any hope that the infertility issue can be solved. The mise-en-scene shows us the poverty Britain is facing- even though they should have more resources due to the lack of people. Streets are covered in thick layers of dirt and I doubt anyone would be able to hear themselves speak over the deafening sounds of vehicles and yelling. When Kie’s baby is born, and once everyone in Bexhill sees the baby, everything immediately becomes peaceful and the world is once silent. Kie’s baby symbolizes the world's hope as now that the human race can be continued, everyone begins to have hope for the future. Kies Baby serves as a beacon of hope in the now-broken world. This symbolism is used to deepen us as the viewer's understanding of the text because it shows us how out of balance and chaotic the world can become without hope, Kies baby is now the world's emblem for