The Gun (Symbol)
The gun that Abdullah buys from Hassan, which Hassan was given by Chieko's father, is perhaps the most important symbol in the film. The gun is first a symbol of protection for Abdullah's herd of goats, which is his livelihood. It then becomes a symbol of responsibility for Ahmed and Yussef, Abdullah's two sons who are charged with shooting the jackals in the desert. Soon enough, however, it becomes a game to them and they shoot at the passing tourist bus. When Yussef shoots the bus, the gun becomes a symbol for the destruction that instruments of the adult world can create. The interpretation of the event is complicated, as people come to think that the shot that Yussef fired was an intentional act of terror. We know that the shooting was just a child's game, but in the moment that Yussef hits an American tourist, the gun becomes a symbol for terrorist aggression. Most generally, the gun symbolizes globalization: the ways that products and instruments of the modern world such as weapons can circulate throughout the globe, but take on different meanings in different hands.
Chieko's Provocative Behavior (Motif)
Chieko, the Japanese teenager, is at a stage in her life where she wants to experiment sexually and connect with boys her age. In the wake of her mother's suicide, however, she feels abandoned by her family and connect to her father in her grief. This has led her to begin acting out in sexually aggressive ways. She flashes a group of boys at a restaurant, kisses her dentist while he is examining her teeth, and comes on to a detective investigating her father's gun. Chieko's sexual aggression becomes a kind of motif, a cry for help and a desperate plea for connection that stems from her intense sorrow and feelings of isolation.
The Tower of Babel (Allegory)
The title of the film, Babel, is never referenced in the script of the film, but a little research indicates that it refers to the Tower of Babel, which is referenced in the book of Genesis in the Old Testament. The story is an origin myth that explains why people in different parts of the world speak different languages. Iñárritu's film examines the ways that people from all over the world are alternately connected and alienated from one another: the unlikely similarities between them, as well as the things that get lost in translation, often to deadly effect. Thus, the film's plot can seem like a kind of allegorical retelling of the myth of the Tower of Babel.
Loss (Motif)
Throughout the film we see that various characters are dealing with loss. Richard and Susan are dealing (or rather, not dealing) with the loss of their baby, who died from sudden infant death syndrome. Chieko is dealing with the loss of her mother and also the emotional withdrawal of her father. Her father is also dealing with the loss of the daughter he once knew. Yussef is frightened of loss when he sees his brother Ahmed get shot, and it is this event that leads him to speak up and confess to his crime. Amelia loses her life in America and her connection to Debbie and Mike when she gets deported. Loss is a recurring theme in the film.
The Chicken (Symbol)
In Tijuana, Mike and Debbie quickly begin to enjoy the fun of Mexican country life, running around a small pen with other children. In the middle of their playing, Santiago takes a chicken and breaks its neck, and blood spurts everywhere. Mike and Debbie suddenly look horrified as they register the death. The death of the chicken symbolizes a brutality that the two American children have been sheltered from, a less sentimental or gentle relationship between life and death.
