Identify the theme of Hugo (2011). Discuss how the narrative is structured around the theme. Please include conflict and resolution in your response.
Hugo Cabret is a 12-year-old boy who lives with his father, Jude Law in Paris. One day, his father Jude finds mechanical automation, a mechanical man designed to write with a pen, at the museum. Hugo and Jude try to repair this broken mechanical automation, but sadly, Jude dies in a fire at the museum.
This forces Hugo to live with his alcoholic uncle Claude who treats him very poorly and forces him to learn how to maintain clocks at the railway station. After a while, Claude goes missing, but Hugo still continues to do the clockwork fearing that he would be sent to an orphanage if he doesn’t do so.
One day, Hugo is caught stealing from George’s toy store. George finds the notebook that had been maintained by Hugo’s father, which had the automation’s information and threatened to destroy it. However, Isabelle, George’s daughter, promises to help Hugo, repair the broken automation as she believes that it contains a message from his father. Thus, the story revolves around how Isabelle and Hugo fix the automation.
Here, Isabelle assuring Hugo to help him with the automation is the resolution as she enters the situation at a time when Hugo has nowhere to go. Whereas, the conflict is the death of Hugo’s father, dealing with his alcoholic uncle, being caught and threatened by George and having no one to help him initially.