04 September 2006

Cleanup on aisle 9

See it here.

Burl's insecurity and loneliness bubble to the surface and we find him expressing a desire to be mothered though the desire is cleverly disguised as a puerile prank.

The fate of Burl's own mother is not known (perhaps it has been dealt with at some point in the panel's history, but it is not a part of what I know) and he usually has a fairly hostile relationship with his mother-in-law. But, deep-down, he yearns for a time when his needs (be they T-Bone steaks, Moose Tracks Ice, Dum Dums, or a Cell Phone from AT&T) were taken care of and were not his responsibility.

He longs for a mother's love.

He can't actually have expected to get away with stuffing these items into Ma's shopping cart. It would strain credulity to an absurd level to ask the reader to believe that Burl expected to get away with this prank. So the act must bespeak a deeper truth. Burl wants to be caught. He wants Ma to find the items. He wants Ma to recognize the act as an expression of Burl's desire to be smothered with the affection he can no longer get from his own mother.

Closed-off as Burl is, not only is he incapable of expressing those emotions overtly, but, once caught, he cannot even face up to it. Instead he sneaks into the parking lot, the little boy running away from home. Even more tragic is the realization that Burl will now get into his car and abandon Ma at the store.

What started as Burl's desire for love will end up by further strengthening Ma's belief that her family is trying to abandon her in her old age.

Secretly longing for a mother's marginalia:
  • The best part about today's panel is that we get a rare chance to see what it looks like when Burl swivels his head around from the opposite side.
  • Crust Foods sign on the inside?
  • AT&T merged with Cingular. Try to keep up.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It's really hard to comprehend the kind of world Ms. Larson lives in. Does she live in a world where single steaks are labelled in HUGE lettering? I sure don't. Perhaps Burl is shopping for the Bunker foods in Lost?

I understand: the people in the comic are ridiculous, their worlds are ridiculous, but to set the worlds up as unbelievably ridiculous is enough of a straw man to detract from the actions of the characters. If I lived in a world that included marginalia and paraphernalia of that nature, maybe I'd stuff food in my mother-in-law's cart as well. Who knows?