'Howard The Duck' Is Really A Metaphor For Cultural Assimilation
To Make Ends Meet, Howard Must Work A Low-Paying, Menial Job
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As the reality of his indefinite and involuntary Earth visit sets in, Howard decides to contribute to human society. His first task is finding a job, which takes him to the unemployment office. After a bizarre and rather uncomfortable exchange, Howard is assigned to work at a "romance spa."
Howard's comic-book counterpart becomes a private detective. Despite being reasonably intelligent, Howard is deemed fit only for the task of mopping up. This is the same unfortunate pigeonhole many immigrants face when moving to another country, even when they are highly educated and skilled.
Howard Is Taken From His Home By External Forces
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Howard's home, Duckworld, mimics everything on Earth - from our technology and cities to our popular culture - but through a waterfowl lens. Despite these similarities, Howard didn't choose to migrate from Duckworld to our planet; rather, he was effectively pulled from his living room by a mysterious force and sent tumbling through a portal.
This forced relocation is not unlike being coerced to leave one's home country due to external crises - such as active conflict or environmental factors - which makes Howard akin to an asylum seeker.
Howard Is Constantly Told To Change His Appearance To Blend In
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Not much separates Howard from the average human - other than him being a duck, of course. He wears the same clothes as those around him, speaks the same language, and has largely the same cultural reference points - albeit with aviary twists.
But most humans Howard encounters fail to look past his difference in species, concluding that, rationally, he must be a person in a duck suit. Howard is asked to remove his "costume," even enduring human attempts to physically pull him out of it.
Howard is asked to mask or sand down his offending natural state to help him visibly blend in - but in this regard, at least, he's not alone. The Dark Overlord is forced to do the same, at one point stating, "I have disguised my true form, which would be considered ... hideous and revolting here."
Howard Engages In A Taboo Relationship With An Earthling
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At one point during the film, a scantily clad Beverly attempts to seduce Howard in her apartment. When Phil and two of his scientist buddies burst in, they're shocked by what appears to be Beverly and Howard embraced in the throes of passion. Later on, a trucker at a diner calls their relationship "disgusting."
Interpreting this as a metaphor for the way interracial relationships were once viewed as taboo - and, to an extent, still are in some areas - is hardly a difficult feat.
Howard And Other Extraterrestrials Are Automatically Villainized
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While Beverly and her bandmates embrace Howard - eventually taking him on as their manager - Howard is largely met with ridicule and even hostility from most other humans. To Phil and his scientist buddies, Howard is little more than a subject to study; to others, however, he's a menace.
The scene in which Howard is targeted in the diner serves as a prime example: despite being the victim and only fighting in self-defense, Howard is the one who finds himself in handcuffs. And yet, humans aren't intended to be the movie's villains; the Dark Overlords - the film's other alien race - fill that purpose, instead.
Howard Endures Prejudice
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Obviously, a four-foot talking duck sticks out like a sore thumb on Earth, a clash that serves as the crux of the film's humor and main character's appeal. But Howard's specific experiences can easily be read as an extended commentary on prejudice, and even "Othering."
Throughout the film, Howard attracts a mixture of responses from human society - sometimes horror, other times scornful laughter - and all based entirely on his appearance. In one scene, he meanders through a bustling plaza, all while confused and alarmed humans stare or skirt around him, panicked by his very existence.
The Movie’s Dialogue Is Rife With Politically Loaded Language
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Howard drops a keyword fairly early in the movie: "I've given up trying to assimilate," he dejectedly tells Beverly, his human love interest. "I've got to get back to my own kind!" Not only is he referred to as a "thing," but the word "duck" is even reconstituted as a dehumanizing term.
Out of Howard's beak, it's simply a self-descriptor; out of the mouths of human antagonists, it is spat out as an insult, designed to remind Howard he's both different and lesser. Beverly's friend Phil Blumburtt uses the term pejoratively at one point, and Howard's retort, "[Duck] and proud of it," is particularly telling.
Howard Is Constantly Confronted With The Risk Of Persecution
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Howard soon realizes that being a sentient animal in a planet inhabited by carnivorous humans is going to be stressful. On TV, he sees duck hunters bragging about their slayings. In real life, he's horrified by the sight of rotisserie birds and fried eggs.
Howard later comes close to being put on the menu himself when he's assailed by a roadside diner chef intent on cooking and eating him. And that is to say nothing of the authorities and prying scientists hunting Howard down. These events could be perceived as either harmless carnivore humor or a commentary on the consequences of inflamed xenophobia.
When Presented With A Way Home, Howard Chooses To Stay On Earth
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Despite being forced onto the lowest socioeconomic level, taunted, mauled, and nearly eaten by humans, Howard chooses to stay on Earth when given the chance to return home. The decision ultimately codes him as a selfless, heroic character; after all, he's sacrificing his past life to save a planet that has treated him horribly.
The message, perhaps, is that humanity is worth saving despite its flaws. And, in siding with humanity, Howard is choosing to fully integrate himself into our world and abandon his roots and culture for good.
Howard Wipes Out The Spectroscope, Preventing Other Alien Visitors
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Howard doesn't simply prevent himself from returning home - he effectively closes the interdimensional border by taking the spectroscope out of commission. In the framework of the story, this was a good idea, as the Dark Overlords were on the verge of unleashing chaos upon the planet.
This decision also means, however, that in the wider picture, no peaceful, well-meaning aliens can ever visit Earth. This truly marks the completion of Howard's assimilation, as he draws a line between other extraterrestrials and the human culture into which he has integrated himself.
The Film Ends With Howard Playing Guitar, Accepted By Society At Large
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The film closes with a performance from Beverly's band, Cherry Bomb, overseen by Howard - now the band's manager - from the wings. Through a series of backstage mishaps, Howard inadvertently ends up on stage. Rather than shrinking and cowering in front of his human audience, he embraces the spotlight, and the band's fans embrace him in turn.
Howard has effectively become an archetype of a "model minority" - an outsider who has embraced a dominant culture's customs as his own, found himself a stable relationship, and worked his way up from a low-paying job to a white-collar profession.
