"When I grow up and get married, I’m living alone!"
“This house is so full of people it makes me sick! When I grow up and get married, I’m living alone! Did you hear me? I’m living alone!” Kevin says jumping up and down in frustration (4:45).
Shortly after this, Kevin, his brother Buzz (Devin D. Ratray), and his cousin look out the window at Old Man Marley (Roberts Scott Blossom). Buzz tells them this man is the “South Bend Shovel Slayer.” Buzz says “He walks up and down the street every night, salting the sidewalks,” with a sinister tone in his voice (6:22).
It might seem like a simple laugh line – a child talking about being married and living alone. However, this is, in fact, the initial set up to one of the central themes of the movie. It speaks to Kevin’s errant belief that he can exist without family, connection, and community. Kevin will, however, soon find out exactly what it’s like to be ‘home alone.’
From the very beginning, Home Alone abounds with symbolism. Note that literally almost everything in the movie is red and green in color down to the smallest detail: the wallpaper, the flowers, the clothing, the bedspreads, the pots and pans, the curtains.
While this is no doubt intended to add to the festive visuals and cheer, these colors also have deep religious significance. Green represents everlasting life. Red represents Christ’s blood (1). Both themes are critical to a fuller understanding of Home Alone. Similarly, there are deeper meanings to the images and scenes shown throughout the movie than it appears.
“I don’t want any family. Families suck!”
Marley’s character throughout the movie alternately represents God and salvation. In this initial scene, Old Man Marley is doing community work, salting the sidewalks every night. As in the bible, here salt represents loyalty, fidelity, and purification (2). Old Man Marley is literally purifying the streets. In telling this story about Old Man Marley, Buzz, about as base a character as there is to be found in Home Alone, is trying to scare Kevin away from God.
Shortly thereafter, a family squabble ensues. Kevin is banished to the attic for the night by his mother. Here Kevin again rejects his family.
“I don’t want a new family. I don’t want any family. Families suck!” he says, continuing, “I don’t want to see you again for the rest of my whole life, and I don’t want to see anybody else either!” (12:06).
The result of this tantrum is that Kevin becomes separated – physically, emotionally, and spiritually – from his family when they leave for their trip the next day. They forget that Kevin was sent to the attic for the evening.
This estrangement is the driving theme of the movie. However, it represents many things: an individual’s coming of age and leaving family as one achieves adulthood; one individual’s estrangement from himself, his family, his community, and his faith as he matures; the eventual death of family members; one’s own death; and ultimately the possibility of salvation through Jesus Christ.
What follows throughout the course of the movie is one individual’s attempt to understand his own place in the world. It is a search for meaning and salvation.