Rubik’s Cube
Oskar gives Eli a Rubik’s Cube which she solves overnight, much to his amazement. The toy is a difficult-to-solve puzzle which symbolizes both the difficulty the puzzle of figuring out what is really going on with Eli as well as Oskar’s desire to solve the puzzle of Eli.
Morse Code
Oskar copies the Morse code from a book which enables him to communicate through the wall separating their apartments at night. Hakan, already jealous and feeling left out, is specifically made to suffer as a result of this secret language shared by the two. Thus, the Morse code symbolizes the growing distance between Eli and Hakan and the growing closeness between Eli and Oskar in a way that reflects their similarity of being “children” even though one is obviously not as much a child as she seems.
Oskar’s Scrapbook
Oskar keeps a scrapbook of notorious killers. While presented as an innocent victimized by bullying, the narrative is at the same time the story of a making of a serial killer. Oskar is doomed to become exactly like Hakan. The scrapbook symbolizes that Oskar the darkened interior of Oskar’s psyche which is not nearly as innocent as the outside makes him seem.
Eli
One reading of the subtext can interpret it as an allegory about American school shooters. Eli symbolizes the weapon of choice in these attacks—an assault rifle—that is much more efficient than the knife with which Oskar engages his fantasies of revenge throughout the first part of the film.
Adults
Two different sets of adults populate the narrative. There is the group of drunken, apparently unemployed friends who live in or near the apartment complex shared by Eli and Oskar. Then there are the parental figures—including Oskar’s actual biological and divorced parents, Hakan, the teachers at the school and even the cop that makes a classroom visit. The parental figures are portrayed as being estranged from care and responsibility of the children by virtue of being either intentionally or willfully oblivious of the bullying taking place there. The group of friends, by contrast, are presented as being far more aware of things taking place around then, but lacking the authority or ability to do anything about it. All the adults in the story are symbols of society’s failure to protect children.
