The Poem in 'I'm Thinking of Ending Things' Explained

June 2024 · 3 minute read

'I'm Thinking of Ending Things' is out on Netflix now, and one of the movie's strangest elements is a poem called 'Bonedog' by means of Eva H.D.

The motion pictures that Netflix makes run the gamut from conventional to outlandish and atypical, and I'm Thinking of Ending Things from creator and director Charlie Kaufman lands firmly in the 2d category. 

The movie, which tells the strange tale of one woman's journey to satisfy her boyfriend's parents, is perplexing in every sense and comprises the long recitation of a poem that many viewers had questions about. 

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What is 'Bonedog', the poem in 'I'm Thinking of Ending Things', about?

The poem that is featured in the film is called "Bonedog", and it is by way of a poet named Eva H.D. Jessie Buckley's feminine protagonist recites the poem in the film, claiming that she's written it herself. 

Later on in the story, regardless that, we find that the poem is in reality part of a guide of poetry that her boyfriend Jake owns. Like much of the film, the poem specializes in how it feels to be lonely. 

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"Bonedog" features lines like "Coming home is terribly lonely so that you think of the oppressive barometric pressure back where you have just come from with fondness because everything’s worse once you’re home." It describes the feeling of being by myself, whether there are other people around you or no longer. In its means, the poem illuminates the loneliness of dwelling with best your personal ideas. 

'I'm Thinking of Ending Things' is about understanding people.

The poem reinforces the perception at the middle of the movie that it is inconceivable to know another person the approach you already know yourself. As the film suggests, it's unimaginable to grasp someone else's ideas, and so even supposing you may think any person, you by no means really can. "Bonedog" is set that loneliness, and about how dreary it can be to are living with the repetition of a standard existence. 

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Although there is lots of attractiveness in I'm Thinking of Ending Things, the film is also deliberately confusing. It's a puzzle the place you are feeling like you will have to be missing a couple of pieces. In spite of the film's general inscrutability, although, it is conceivable to snatch the ideas the movie performs with, including the loneliness described in "Bonedog." 

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'Bonedog' isn't the handiest thing referenced in 'I'm Thinking of Ending Things'.

In addition to "Bonedog", Charlie Kaufman additionally packs in a bunch of other references to a wide range of art forms. Jessie Buckley's character recites massive sections from Pauline Kael's overview of A Woman Under the Influence, and there are also a number of references to Oklahoma! scattered during the movie. All of those mix to make the viewer really feel delirious and the impact could also be off-putting to some other people looking for something more typical. 

I'm Thinking of Ending Things has already been interpreted in a bunch of ways, but one of the maximum commonplace interpretations is that like the guide it's in line with, this tale takes position inside of the head of a lonely janitor who we see during the movie. If that is the case, then "Bonedog" best reinforces that guy's loneliness and his feelings of hopelessness as he goes about his life. 

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Like the other references in the movie, the poem is solely one thing that the janitor learn and enjoyed. It's trapped in his head, identical to each different personality in the film. 

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