cup of milk

The blood soaked hand reaches for the cup of milk.

This trope, illustrated by Leon, Anton Chigurh, Homelander, Hans Landa is very simply, that of a character who is no stranger to crimson blood, who also love their milk.

Some talk about the child like innocence of drinking milk, or a Freudian desire from a lack of a mother figure. And of course I'm sure each of these characters are intertwined with different reasons, some including the ones mentioned. But I see a more absolute interpretation of the trope.

Life. And death. And the compromise.

Why do people smoke. It's a trade off. It makes the present more tolerable. It does result in a practical negative of capital, reduction in longevity, and increased risk of detrimental disease. But because it makes our present more tolerable, some decide to huff and puff. Our lives are riddled with more compromises than rational. And it only makes sense. Even pure rationality is completely irrational. Nothing more imperfect than something perfect in an imperfect world you know?

As blood spills on your lip, splatters your eyebrow you hear the last 'puff' of your victim, what is the thought process. To those who reach for the cup of milk with their blood soaked hand, death isn't something to fear. Death is something others fear. It comes down to their connotations of death. What is death to Leon. What is death to Anthon. What is death to Homelander, and what is death to Hans. And why do they long for that sip of milk.

Milk is so white. It's so pure. It's the elixir produced for the new creations of life. To provide warmth. To provide nutrition. Newborn offspring who lack the ability to feed themselves, milk serves as the apt nutrient that shall nourish them until they adjust to the harder world they've been birth to. Those who reap life also long for the essence that feeds life. Like a tiger munching grass, the man who has just ended the thought, the self, the love of another pathetic man, reaches for the cup of milk.