James Dean, A Monkey, and the meaning of actions related to James Dean as the Monkey

James Dean, A Monkey, and the meaning of actions related to James Dean as the Monkey
a visual essay by Cameron Walker



In this essay I will explore the relevance of the credit sequence in Rebel Without A Cause, in which James Dean’s character, Jim (Jamey to his really good friends, right?), drunkenly lays down on the pavement with a cymbal clapping wind-up monkey.
When this sequence plays, upon first viewing, the screen is blocked by big bold red type that lists the crew of people who produced, directed, wrote, starred in, etc. the film. I was drawn, more so in this credit sequence, to how James Dean goes through this whole discovery process with the little toy doll that he has come across and that he studies with his stomach to the pavement and a smile on his face. At first, the doll is going by itself, which gets his attention, but then winds down and he frowns disapprovingly. The fact that it was clapping by itself is strange enough because there is no way it would be moving unless someone had already wound it up to be moving on screen when Jim finds it. Thus, the act of the monkey moving has meaning that doesn’t pertain to just its actions and needs to be further investigated. He reaches out, winds it a few times, and then watches it like a little kid until it winds down again. Covering the monkey with some trash as a blanket, they both lay on their sides in the same direction, quietly and unmoving, as the sound of police cars gets louder and louder.
First off, I really associated James with the wind-up cymbal-crashing monkey the more times I watch the movie. Its almost as if that scene, without the big credits, would have had an amazing emotional resonance, more-so than any other scene in the film, if they would have just let it play out and not distracted us with the titles. The credits themselves are a hindrance. This in my mind could have been intentionally put in to cover up this scene, so that if you actually payed attention and if you really wanted to discover this gem moment take place, then you have to invest yourself more into what’s behind the text rather than the text itself.
So, to the shot; Jim really connects and is delighted with this toy, so much that you can’t help but think that he relates to it in some way. The fact that he right away lays down on the dirty ground and stares at it makes us pay attention to it as well. How would you explain the reasoning to something like that?
Well, at this point in his life, Jim feels directionless and lost, without a reason to exist except for the occasional defense of his honor. So, in a way, he thinks that he’s just this wind up device that has an empty purpose when it needs to. Other than that, he’s just living these meaningless movements, over and over. He’s a toy in the way that, whenever he’s done with his perpetual cymbal crashing, his only means of existence and registered contextually by him beating up kids or crashing cars, his parents just pick him up and take him off to some other place and he gets wound up again.

But now, he has discovered something. The thing that you could say he has discovered is himself, in this town, on this street. After countless times being wound up and taken to different places he has found out that this is the place where he is finally going to stand up and get the answers that he wants from the world and his father, and to try to change the life of his friend Plato later, and to meet the pretty girl and find love and understanding. He feels finally happy and he curls up on the street to lay with this monkey version of himself and takes us to where the perpetual powder keg of the story first starts to build up, with all of the main players in the story meeting at the police department. Plato, unknown to Jim at this point, is emotionally disturbed and has just killed some puppies, Natalie Wood’s character was wandering around late at night, and Jim’s parents come to take their toy away again without understanding just why he was out late at night drunk.


When Jim gets dragged into the police station he is still holding the toy and can’t imagine parting with it as he pleads with the officer at the desk. “No! Can I keep it? Huh?” The officer then replies that it’s all right and Jim and the toy are left to rest against a wall. We segway from a shot of the monkey being held by Jim to a foreground shot with Natalie Wood and we enter her character arc.


After we see this shot of the monkey and Natalie, we no longer will ever see that monkey again. In a way, it has used up its significance as a plot or character device and no longer has any useful story properties. Or does it? When we see Jim again he is sitting on a big high chair without a care if the world, making siren noises and manufacturing shootouts with his pistol finger at other officers. So what happened to the monkey? Did he loose it? Did it get taken away? I don’t think there’s a possible ‘right’ answer to that question, but, in a way, the director is no longer saying that Jim connects with the monkey. He, instead, shows us that, in fact, Jim is the monkey, being wound up and gazed at for amusement of his drunken antics by the police lieutenant, his family, and everyone else that he meets throughout the story (including the audience watching the film).
The reason for this in the progression of the story though, is that Jim finally decides that he no longer wants to crash his life around, making noise and ruckus, and instead of just doing what he is expected to inevitably do he rebels and tries to find that answer that has alluded him for so long… why am I doing all these things and does my reasoning for doing them hold up to the fact that my decisions affect the lives of all the people around me? Why am I just this mindless toy?
Right away we are met by someone who sees through Jim and understands that he needs some kind of help, and that is the police lieutenant who questions Jim for being drunk in public and is a general liaison to the troubled youth of this town. Jim tries to punch him in order to instigate some retaliation that will finally send him away from everything, but he is thwarted by the older, wiser, and hardened police officer. He has seen this before and realizes that Jim just needs some kind of outlet for his uncertainty in order for him to survive in this town without making some kind of bad decision; when to act and when to hold back. Jim beats up the officer’s desk, and gains a person to confide in.
Next, the kids at school won’t stop harassing Jim and he gets churned up in his endless battle of self-honor once again. He goes to his father to ask for help, but his father is just as clueless as everyone else, so Jim is left to do the only thing he knows how and it results in the death of another student. Jim realizes that he could have stopped this and is tired of things being that way, so he returns to the police station, but the officer he confided in is gone.
In essence, I think this is the point when he decides that doing the right thing is what is most important in life, rather than making sure that you keep the image of yourself intact to all the other people around you. Instead of worrying about how you look to others and whether or not they see you a certain way, you should turn your gaze inside of yourself and question your motives.

Am I just crashing two cymbals together in order to amuse or entertain the gazes of the people around me? Or, do I really feel good about the decisions I make in life and do they make me a better and stronger and more assured person because I know deep down that I am not some mindless thing and there is good and honor in the world that I just have to find a way to harness and take control of.
The rest of the movie shows this in Jims attempts to help the helpless Plato, which ultimately ends in tragedy, but the lesson that life is precious and should be taken seriously is given.
Conceptually, this essay tried to explain the presence of the cymbal monkey in the credit sequence of Rebel Without A Cause and explained how Jim is a toy in his universe until he eventually decides to break free of himself and become a real person. All in all, we’re just spinning our tires until an incident snaps our attention back and we find purpose and understanding in a seemingly pointless and cold world.