Relationships

[drakkar]

While Oskar and Eli's relationship is the most interesting one, others were also ambiguous and complex. Hakan and Eli for example. Especially in the hospital scene. And her ambiguous (non) response to his request that she not see that boy again. And (more from the book) Hakan's relationship with someone who was both young and old.

If we take the book into account, I got this eerie feeling that Eli also had the caretakers because he wanted (needed?) company, and he took what he could get. When he starts to planning leaving Blackeberg, "start anew, finding someone who", it hits him forcefully that the consequences also will be to leave Oskar ("why can't i have anything? Because you should be dead (don't deserve it)"). In the beginning of the book Eli thinks he loves Håkan, that is all he knows about love.

[SJackson57]

What I like was to scene before, when Eli tell Oskar that she is rich. Oskar I can give you money. This scene is powerful for me. Eli think she have to buy back Oskar friendship now that Oskar know she vampire. We get see how Eli see herself in relationship to Oskar, where she must buy his friendship, because who could like vampire.

[drakkar]

because who could like vampire.

Or even tries to impress Oskar, for the same reason.
I get this impression that Eli - thanks to Oskar - now has rehumanized to the point that he is very ashamed of himself and his apartment when Oskar arrives.

[a_contemplative_life]

While Oskar and Eli's relationship is the most interesting one, others were also ambiguous and complex. Hakan and Eli for example. Especially in the hospital scene. And her ambiguous (non) response to his request that she not see that boy again. And (more from the book) Hakan's relationship with someone who was both young and old.

If we take the book into account, I got this eerie feeling that Eli also had the caretakers because he wanted (needed?) company, and he took what he could get. When he starts to planning leaving Blackeberg, "start anew, finding someone who", it hits him forcefully that the consequences also will be to leave Oskar ("why can't i have anything? Because you should be dead (don't deserve it)"). In the beginning of the book Eli thinks he loves Håkan, that is all he knows about love.

Or he knows about love, but lives in a mutually self-deceptive relationship masquerading as love.

[SJackson57]

I think we try to humanized Eli and think she change because of Oskar. Eli is little killing machine that have falling in love with Oskar. Eli, see Oskar as person and not food and starting to see other people in relationship to Oskar. If Oskar see as you good or bad, then Eli see that person the same way. I believe Eli was in her apartment feeling sorry for herself. The book gave you better state of mind that Eli was in before Oskar arrived.

[sauvin]

because who could like vampire.

Or even tries to impress Oskar, for the same reason.
I get this impression that Eli - thanks to Oskar - now has rehumanized to the point that he is very ashamed of himself and his apartment when Oskar arrives.

Of herself? Possibly. Very possibly. This would be one consequence of rehumanising, if that's what happened.

Ashamed of her apartment, though? Maybe not. It's been said the condition a man's apartment mirrors his predominant emotional state. This may not be strictly true as some people engage in cleaning activities as a desperate attempt to seize or regain control of some sort, but we've all known people whose apartments or cars usually look like they'd just been excavated from a landfill project. People who are depressed, people struggling with overwhelming feelings of inadequacy or inequality.

I'd suspect the process of "rehumanising", as so many other things do, would come in stages; Eli might be ashamed of herself as she has to come to terms (at a new level) with what she's forced to deal with, but with this process having only just begun literally a handful of days before, it'll still take a bit of time to understand that there's a lot more to it than merely showering up and putting on clean clothes before running out to the jungle gym for another encounter. Cleaning up her private world won't happen until her emotional weather clears up.

Eli might (or might not) have noted the cleanliness and orderliness of Oskar's bedroom. Just between you and me, it was too neat, too orderly; this isn't the bedroom of a typical twelve year old where I grew up, and one suspects that Oskar also has some "emotional weather" to clear up, at least for movie Oskar. I'll even go a bit further in this vein by suggesting that novel Oskar's petty thefts may not be so much an expression of antisocial sentiment as yet another example of a desperate attempt at seizing or regaining some sort of control.

In each case, Eli's apartment versus Oskar's bedroom, inner weather is being outwardly reflected, but Eli's seems much more "honest". She'd given up a very long time ago, and doesn't (yet) see the apartment for what it is because one presumes it's what she'd been seeing - what she'd been living in - for decades or centuries. Oskar's is an expression of desire, with every book in its place and all his little cars lined up in a precise row. What he wants more than anything else is for his life to be what his bedroom is, what it's beginning to seem his life cannot be: clean, quiet, comfortable and safe.

"You're gross, you know that?" Oskar says this more than once to novel Eli. In fact, in the movie, he comments indirectly on the state of Eli's apartment and ventures a conjecture on Eli's overall condition (including, possibly, emotionally) when he asks "Are you, like... poor?"

Quite apart from Oskar leaving his superficially Apollonian world of bright lights and clean streets to live with Eli's much franker Dionysian perdition, I have a suspicion there's fertile ground here to explore in fan fiction as Oskar's apparently abiding need for order clashes with Eli's essential listlessness. Once having survived understanding that Eli need blood to live, he's going to be up against the larger hurdle of coming to grips with the truth: Eli brings dissolution to whatever community she terrorises with her hunger because dissolution is what she is.

[drakkar]

Ashamed of her apartment, though? Maybe not.

Since this is the film topics, it was my impression when Oskar returned to Eli's flat, after he let him in - Oskars and Elis reaction.

Of herself? Possibly. Very possibly. This would be one consequence of rehumanising, if that's what happened.

Yes, possibly. But. Eli had visited Oskars bedroom, and was clearly getting a hang of how things "should" look like (dressing), so it still might be that Eli was a bit ashamed of the conditions he was living under.

[cx1138]

I also think Eli was ashamed. When Oskar asked her if she was poor I think it got to her so she showed him her most expensive thing to prove she isn't poor. Then Oskar said he had to distribute flyers tomorrow and she asked him if was to make money and he said yes. So maybe she thought he was poor and offered him some money. I think that's the only reason she offered him money.

When Oskar is leaving after not taking the money she looks at him, neither a happy or sad look on her face, but I think she feels a little sad. The very next scene that she sees Oskar is when he opens the door and she is standing there with a big smile on her face. It's the scene where he asks her what happens if he doesn't invite her in. I think Eli has such a big smile because she is genuinely happy to see him because she loves him, is that the meaning everyone else gets?

Then when she finally comes in and gets to the part where she asks him to be her for a little while she looks so sad and I think she said it because of her love for him. She wants Oskar to understand what she goes through to share what she is. That was the most powerful scene to me, in fact when asks him to be her and she turns old for second and then asks him again I almost had tears in my eyes. Very powerful.

[drakkar]

So maybe she thought he was poor and offered him some money. I think that's the only reason she offered him money.

It could even be because Eli wanted to be with Oskar. Perhaps he thought that if he gave him money, Oskar didn't have to go away to earn them.

When Oskar is leaving after not taking the money she looks at him, neither a happy or sad look on her face, but I think she feels a little sad.

There was a deleted scene right after this, where Eli and Oskar fought. Eli was stoping Oskar from leaving, and Oskar hit him hard. Then they reconciled, which probably was the reason they deleted it - it had put Oskar in a very bad light not inviting Eli in after that.

[cx1138]

So maybe she thought he was poor and offered him some money. I think that's the only reason she offered him money.

It could even be because Eli wanted to be with Oskar. Perhaps he thought that if he gave him money, Oskar didn't have to go away to earn them.

When Oskar is leaving after not taking the money she looks at him, neither a happy or sad look on her face, but I think she feels a little sad.

There was a deleted scene right after this, where Eli and Oskar fought. Eli was stoping Oskar from leaving, and Oskar hit him hard. Then they reconciled, which probably was the reason they deleted it - it had put Oskar in a very bad light not inviting Eli in after that.

Thanks for bringing that up about the deleted scene. I saw it and forgot about it. It's weird, she forgave him for slapping her and then showed up at his house with a smile on her face. Eli truly loves Oskar.