Kindness as a Weapon: An Analysis of Waymond from Everything Everywhere All At Once
Nothing matters.
At least, that’s the initially perceived theme in the 2022 movie Everything Everywhere All At Once (EEAAO). In this movie, we follow a family of 3. Fellow immigrant parents, Evelyn and Waymond Wang (played by Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan), and their 1st generation child, Joy Wang (played by Stephanie Hsu).
Jobu Tupaki, a variation of Joy, has come to the conclusion that nothing matters. And there are reasons why she might have come to this conclusion.
Evelyn has not yet accepted her daughter is lesbian, Joy believes she has failed at life, and in another universe somewhere, her mind had become so fractured and scattered throughout the different versions of herself, she’ll never fully live in a single universe ever again.
And coinciding with this reality, the parents are certainly not living a life of peace either. The laundromat the parents own is struggling. Evelyn and Waymond married at the disappointment of Evelyn’s father, Gong Gong, and will soon divorce due to Waymond fear of falling out of love with Evelyn. They left for America with nothing, and those difficulties over the course of their lifetime have started to take their toll on both of them.
However, this all changes when Evelyn’s husband, but not her husband, Waymond admits to Evelyn that they live in a multiverse, and this is the one universe where she’s failed at literally everything.
But this story isn’t about that Waymond, but the Waymond who has spent decades of his life with the family and who was able to teach a multi-generation family how far and wide kindness can go even in the face of nihilism.
Waymond in EEAAO is unlike any character in the movie. That is especially true because of his arc or his lack of an arc. In the movie, Evelyn, in a way, looks down on Waymond. Calling him weak and critiquing the googly eyes he seems to put on inanimated objects throughout the movie. However, as you continue to watch the movie, you begin to grasp Waymond's philosophy in the different variants of himself through Evelyn.
In the 3rd act of the film, we see it unfold as a different variation of himself states to Evelyn:
When I choose to see the good side of things, I’m not being naive. It is strategic and necessary. It’s how I’ve learned to survive through everything. I know you see yourself as a fighter. Well, I see myself as one too. This is how I fight.
Waymond, in his own way of fighting against a cruel world, has made his choice to be kind, see the good of others and situations, and fight through the chaos with his empathy.
Even now, in our world, we rarely see a philosophy such as this. Where kindness and empathy are the soul core of one’s moral code. And, it’s understandable as to why. We are living through a recession. Some of us have lived through a couple within the last 2 decades alone. Climate change is devastating the world. There is a lot of hate, and there doesn’t seem to be enough reason going around. It’s understandable, just like it’s understandable why Joy is a nihilist and decided that life, everything, was meaningless.
But Waymond also sees these things. He understands, just as he understands that the laundromat is struggling. Just like he understands that Evelyn is stressed and burdened by her father’s expectations. Just like Joy simply wants her mother and grandfather to accept her as she is. He sees this and makes a choice on how he responds to these struggles but not by getting angry or being in denial about the situation.
He accepts Joy for who she is. He asks for a divorce from Evelyn to preserve their relationship and family. He desperately asks the IRS auditor to give Evelyn and himself enough time to complete their taxes to save their business, and it works.
Waymound, unlike his father-in-law, his wife, and his daughter, uses kindness and empathy as a tool when encountering these struggles in life. Not because he’s weak but because it’s necessary for the future. To see the bright side of life is a way to keep yourself sane in this insane world in order to make peace and make connections with others who might also be struggling with something. It’s a means to the next chance you have at love and life, not to happiness, maybe not permanently, but it’s a chance. It gives you a fighting chance to keep moving forward.
The Waymond who said the quote was the Waymond who never married Evelyn and never moved to America. The quote not only defies all the Waymonds we encounter in the movie but also gives us an insight into that Waymonds life.
That’s why his kindness and empathy are necessary because, without these qualities, he wouldn’t have been able to keep on going. It’s to be kind and empathetic in a world that isn’t.
And when you watch the movie, you finally understand that Waymond doesn’t change. It’s the audience who changes along with Evelyn when she finally understands Waymond.
Everything matters.
That’s the finalized theme of the movie Everything Everywhere All At Once. Evelyn is the one who tells this to Joy in the final scenes of the movie. When Joy is ready to let go and finally cease caring, Evelyn tells Joy in this vast and unknown universe when it seems as though they will get lost in the noise:
I will always, always, want to be here with you
Even with a whole universe where every little speck of time and attention and space where maybe nothing should matter, Evelyn will always want to be with Joy.
This is when we see Waymond's philosophy shine through. In their own way of breaking from nihilism, they realized that everything matters, and all the time they spend together, in a universe where they might have never reached their full potential, they still want to be together.
This is how you fight, and that is something Waymond had taught Evelyn as well as the audience through the course of the movie.
If nothing in the universe matters, then all of our actions, our kindness, empathy, and necessity to keep on going every single, day, minute, and second matter.
If nothing matters, then everything matters.
