Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) mentions in the beginning, “There’s no Christmas trees in Florida.” He cannot image Christmas without the staple of a Christmas tree. If this did not hint to the importance of this symbol in this movie, I hope the kids singing in the pageant about Christmas trees made you think twice. This specific type of tree is a metaphor for the storyline of this film.
So I want to think about this symbol from base to tip. When Kevin lands in New York City, he is thrown into a giant city with no one to help him, just like being at the broad bottom of an Evergreen tree.
In order to make it to the top of the tree, he has to meet people and learn about himself. He figures out his mission in this wide city: to save Duncan’s Toy Chest from Harry (Joe Pesci) and Marv (Daniel Stern). This becomes the point at the top of his tree.
When thinking about trees, it is natural to think about them all together in a forest. This is a “scary” place for anyone. However, this is not the image that arises when thinking about parks. Usually parks are a happy place with children laughing and playing. However, Central Park becomes a place of nightmare for Kevin setting up situational irony for the audience.
A metaphor about a Christmas tree would not be complete without “a toy store”. Any kid in a major city alone would want to go immediately to the local toy store. Duh!
So the star on top of the tree would be the fireworks shining in the sky to lead the cops to the bad guys. Kevin saves the day and saves Christmas.
If you had any confusion over whether Marv and Harry would have died in these movies, a genius YouTube video walks your through every injury and determines life or death.
Tropes and idioms for this film are available if you scroll towards the bottom and click “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York”.
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Thanks for reading! See you next week for more Christmas fun!!!