M Night Shyamalan Character Analysis

In M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs, he uses characters’ struggles, two philosophies, and an alien invasion to portray the stresses that a person’s faith can go through during a traumatic event.

Graham Hess was a minister of the church and has two children, Morgan and Bo. An unfortunate car accident killed his wife Colleen, six months prior to the alien invasion. Graham accused God for this doing and resigned as minister, losing his faith. While Graham struggles with his faith in God, Morgan struggles with his love for his father. He puts Graham at fault for the death of his mother. Not only does Morgan accuse him of this, he blames him for lacking in parental guidance. Morgan is left to care for Bo while Graham struggles with inner conflicts

and his faith. Uniquely, Bo has a strange habit of leaving full glasses of water around the house. Graham never removes the glasses of water, neglecting to keep a tidy house and parental supervision. This carelessness would be key to saving the family’s life at the end of the movie. Ultimately, Graham’s little brother Merrill played the role of dad, who moved in directly after the death of Colleen.
Merrill at one point in his life had aspirations to become a professional baseball player. This dream, however was crushed because he did not excel in the sport. He held two records, one for the most strikeouts and one for hitting a 570 foot home run. He believed that it felt wrong not to swing as hard as he could every time. Throughout his life, he struggled with this crushing reality of not accomplishing his dream. Aside from that, Merrill proved to be a father figure to the children by promising to protect them while Graham gathered himself. In addition to portraying characters’ struggles, Shyamalan uses two philosophies to indicate Graham’s feelings towards life.
Graham states that there are two groups of people in this world. Group one consists of people who believe that God is real and everything He has planned is for a reason. Group two consists of people who believe in chance, that there is no God. They believe that everyone is left alone in this world. Graham reveals that he is in the second group of people. His dilemma with faith reveals he belongs in group two. He believes that since Colleen is dead, he is alone and it is all God’s fault. However, Graham is not really alone. While he and Merrill were conversing, the two were laying down, holding his children while they slept. In fact, right before the alien invasion of the Hess house, the family ate their last meal together.
Indeed, the alien attack on the Hess house revealed that Colleen’s death was a sacrifice.

When the family emerged out of the basement they relaxed after a night or horror. However, this was cut short when an alien remained in the house and held Morgan captive. This caused Morgan to have an asthma attack and his lungs began to close. Graham realized what Colleen discussed with him before passing. She said, “Tell Graham to see and tell Merrill to swing away” (Shyamalan). During this thought the alien released its poison into Morgan. Graham told Merrill, “swing away Merrill, swing away” (Shyamalan). Before he swung, Graham grabbed Morgan, ran outside, and injected asthma medication into Morgan’s body. Merrill swung forcefully and knocked the alien into a glass of water, which spilled on it causing pain. Merrill realized that the water was key to eliminating the alien. He hit the glasses of water with great force and knocked the water on the alien, killing it. Coincidentally, the water glasses left around the house were a result of Bo’s strange habit. On the other hand, outside, Graham was holding Morgan and saying “can’t be luck, his lungs were closed no poison got in” (Shyamalan). This reveals that Graham falls into the first group of people, believing in God and his

plans.
All the signs that pointed to God helping the Hess family survive the alien invasion convinced Graham that God is real, thus returning to the church. The invasion allowed him to gain closure on his wife’s death and realized it was a part of God’s plan. The ordeal tested his faith, thus reviving it and making it stronger. To Graham, the survival of his family, allowed him to see the proof that God exists.