Mia Doreen George

Professor Meaks

ENGL 21001-R

CCNY: S-209

5/19/26

Introduction: For this extra assignment, I approached it with creativity and adventure as I got the chance to write about my own personal interests in a free manner. I wrote about May as I see her in the younger versions of myself. This in a way, was healing to write, as towards the end the positivity shines through when I speak of the lessons the May movie can teach its viewers. In the future I’d like to implement reviews of the movie from critiques to contrast my own opinion on it. I altered some wording for the purpose of my readers visualization, and incorporated a mention of how emotionally charged the film is.

                                                           Extra Blog Post #1:

Regarding the movie May (2002), directed by Lucky McKee, I wish to pose the question of “What’s the underlying desire behind loneliness?” 

In the movie, our main character May is shown to be a severely lonely person. She has been ostracized due to her lazy eye and weird interests, such as creepy dolls and gore. She wishes to build relationships of different variants throughout the film. We see her try to connect with a man she meets. They seem to both be fascinated by strange, gory things. 

He seems to like her for who she is, even saying “I like weird.” When she asks if he thinks she’s weird or strange.

However, as they get to know each other more, she is again ostracized by him for being ‘too weird’, as she continues to be her authentic self around the man who turns out to be a poser. May is heartbroken, turning to self verbal harm for, again, not being able to keep someone around.

We see this repeat throughout the movie. May looking to reach for anyone, believing she has found someone, only to later be betrayed by them in some way whether it be them degrading her, cheating on her, disregarding her, or running from her. After these encounters May degrades herself, and breaks the things in her apartment that she believes reinforces her weirdness, as well as the motive for people continuously leaving her. 

Even when May tries to get along with blind children in her small job as a worker at a children’s day care for the blind, her boundaries are still disregarded as she tries to gently guide the children away from touching her most prized possession. Her porcelain doll. Her doll represents her, sheltered in a glass box, weird to most, and fragile. The children push the box, break it, and due to their limits in vision – they touch their hands, bleeding all over May as May screams for them to stop. 

The doll breaking is the final drop of water to the breaking of Mays dam, as it represents her own mental split, and her descent into madness.

In the final few moments of the movie though, May kills all of the people who had hurt her and dismembers them, putting certain parts back together until she crafts a new fleshy doll to be by her side forever. She even carves out her own eye to give it, screaming over and over at it to “See” her. 

As I unfold this incredibly emotionally charged movie, I see the answer to my question underneath all of May’s anguish. She wishes to be seen and given care. She doesn’t just want people around, she wants to feel the connection of someone who truly understands her for who she is, no matter how weird. 

Humans are creatures that crave the intimacy of being truly seen and celebrated for who they are. Without this, not only does loneliness ensue, but also a worry that something wrong stirs beneath your surface. What is it about you that is driving people away? 

However, what May teaches us, and what it is important to remember, is that you being yourself won’t be an issue for the right people. Another thing May teaches us is that it is vital to give ourselves grace and the love we seek from others, lest we depend on getting it from other people. It is never safe to allow people to have such power over you, or to leave yourself wholly in their hands to do with what they wish. There must be the initiative to serve yourself how you want to be served. 

See yourself as worth it, and those who will see you for all that you are, will follow.

• Mia Doreen George