How 'the Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl' can assist us in dreaming

The act of dreaming has been one of mystery and magic since the dawn of human time. For most of the day we experience a homogenous way of living, like Squidward in the Spongebob episode of 'Squidville,' when Squidward develops depression due to his unvaried daily routine. Later, we travel deep inside of our subconscious mind actively encountering another degree of existence. We resurrect every morning experiencing the effect of our nightly adventures whether we remember them upon waking or not. The childhood favorite 'The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl ' confirms the fascination of that wild adventure experienced when we die for a day’s time. In this response to symbolic literature, I will confirm and provide evidence that we are day dreamers creating our reality.

Sharkboy and Lavagirl lay the foundation for what it means to dream as well as record dreams. Max, the main character of the movie, uses his dream journal to remember the world he creates while asleep and dealing with a tension filled home as his mother and father fight to see eye to eye. The two magical beings Max creates, Sharkboy and Lavagirl, represent yin and yang; the (physical) belief that the universe is governed by a cosmic duality, sets of two opposing and complementing principles or cosmic energies that can be observed in nature[1]. Sharkboy is a boy who was separated from his father during a storm, forced to be taken in by the sharks he befriended before the wreck. He is trained to live by instinct and develop the ways of a shark, eventually growing sharp teeth, a fin on his back, and gills. Lavagirls origin on the other hand is one of great mystery and is repeatedly re-visited throughout the story. She is caring, empathetic, and curious minded as is yin energy. Yin manifests itself as creativity, limitless, sensitivity, and femininity respectively. Lavagirl even opens the movie up with the quote “Everything that is or was, began with a dream…” The noun Dream, according to google means, a series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person's mind during sleep. Other similar words presented are as follows: fantasy, nightmare, vision, hallucination. There are several types of dreaming, however I will only discuss two forms in which I have experienced: lucid and non-lucid. Lucid dreaming is the experience of being awake or conscious in a dream, ultimately manipulating events to the dreamers benefit. Non lucid dreaming is the experience of dreaming however either, a.) not being able to remember said dream, or b.) simply remembering the dream however not being conscious of dreaming while experiencing it.

From start to finish, Lavagirl encourages Max’ intuition and even protects him from Sharkboys aggressive frustrations regarding Max’ lack of self. Sharkboy is the inner part of us that simply knows of our success and power as the creator however as they are underdeveloped versions of the integrated being, Sharkboy comes off as a hothead and Lavagirl, confused and codependent. Sharkboy, the representation of Yang energy manifests itself as determination, will, physical strength, and masculine qualities respectively.

Per Sharkboys journeys, he is the first to conversationally expose Max to his very own dream world, called planet DROOL; named after “… [being]so cool, it makes you drool.” Max is completely oblivious to his lucid dreaming as he begins another grueling day at school interacting with his shadow self[2]—Linus, who recently defaced Max’ dream journal. Dream journals have been a form of keeping our dreams close to us, by writing in great detail, or minor, as well as drawing or simply extracting sounds-- as is the case for many musicians who state that they receive their songs through their dreams. Journaling our dreams is a tangible way for us to look at reoccurring themes in our subconscious mind, and actively follow the dreams lead in this world.

At some point Max, Sharkboy, and Lavagirl arrive at Planet Drool, where Max gets to personally travel lucidly through his very own dream world. As in many Hero Journeys[3]Max must go through a series of check points to recalibrate his dream world which has been infected with darkness after the defacing of his dream journal. In this movie, the checkpoints serve as tips and tricks to get our own dreaming in order. They must travel through the passage of time, catch the train of thought, swim down the stream of consciousness, and skate across the sea of confusion (now covered in ice). The passage of time reminds me of the many sayings such as, time does not exist, it is an illusion, or relative even. “Time is money” is a popular one. What does time mean in the dream world? Does time exist in a place some of us can barely remember? Time is an interesting concept as the only way we can even tell time is by looking at numbers. Numbers are sigils through which we can piece together different aspects of our lives through said symbol(s). For example, the past only exists in our memories and yet we move through our lives in the form of repetition, doing the same or very similar program every day. Like how we are forced to view animated characters wear the same clothing every episode and season even though the animators are very well capable of changing their clothing. As we move along to the train of thought, in this reality we are constantly distracted by noise, colors, and energy and even so we must innerstand the importance of keeping our minds on track. Despite the influx of thoughts that come through our minds every day, still there is a road. As we row our banana-split boat down the stream of consciousness, Lavagirl reveals yet another important fact, “Learn to sleep with your eyes open, and you won’t have to be asleep to dream… you’ll be able to make anything happen, at any time.” The day dreamer can manipulate his own life by dreaming WHILE being awake. This my friends is the secret to creating your reality, and has been the secret in plain sight the entire time: Lucidity at all times.

Max is given a vision of an ice heart which he must use to pause time before the darkness overtakes the entire planet. Of course, this must be done in the one place Lavagirl has a difficult time conceptualizing: the ice castle. As she assumes that the ice princess and her must be enemies because of their dualistic energies: fire and ice. Just as they get closer to the sea of confusion, they are captured by Minus, Max’ shadow self in the dream world, who also reveals a very important fact: “Fear exists in the one place you can never escape: your mind.” Now, I will not go through the entire movie scene by scene however there is a marriage between Max and his anima[4](the ice princess), Sharkboy and Lavagirl sacrifice themselves for each other and Max awakens to his power as Lavagirl is simultaneously revealed to be the light, *hint* *hint* *wink* *wink*. Max and his shadow integrate, saving planet Drool and teaming up together in the real world to resolve the main problem which was presented throughout the entire movie: the reunification of his mother and father. Physical representations of our masculine and feminine qualities right in front of our eyes. These two seemingly opposing energies were finally integrated in Max’ subconscious mind and so in that, making his dreams a reality, reality became a dream.

“Dream a better dream, then work to make it real”- Tobor

1. [1] Shan, Jun. (2020, February 11). The Meaning of Yin and Yang. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/yin-and-yang-629214 [2] The hidden parts of yourself which may have been repressed and shunned and in doing so is externally projected through other people. [3] A symbolic roadmap of the journey towards the Self that one has to take, created by Joseph Campbell. [4] the feminine aspect of oneself. i.e. the mother.