15 Reasons Hey Arnold Is Actually About Depression And Economic Struggle
Helga’s Mother Is An Alcoholic
Photo: NickelodeonMiriam Pataki is a stay-at-home housewife and the mother of Helga and Olga. Throughout the series, it’s astoundingly clear that Miriam is an alcoholic. Seriously, this one is pretty much right out in the open. She appears in many episodes to be making "smoothies” (see: daiquiris) and mostly shuffles aimlessly around her house, listless and slurring her speech. There are even times she passes out on the couch and is unaware of where she is when she wakes up.
She also casually talks to her 9-year-old daughter about her depression, so clearly she's not doing so hot. It's easy to believe that she is using alcohol to drown out her sorrows. Also, during an episode titled "The Beeper Queen," there's even a hint dropped that Miriam has had her license suspended. That has to be the result of a DUI, right?
Lila And Her Father Live In Abject Poverty
Photo: NickelodeonIn the episode titled "Ms. Perfect," Arnold and his friends meet a new classmate named Lila. She's smart, fashionable, pretty, and almost instantly popular. Helga and the other girls in class become jealous of Lila and play a mean-spirited prank to humiliate her (because kids are the worst), causing her to skip school and plunge into depression. Hold to to your horses, that's not the dark part.
The girls soon learn that Lila and her father are living well below the poverty line. The home they are living in is shabby and falling apart, and it's located in one of the city's worst neighborhoods. Apparently, they're in such bad shape that they can barely afford groceries.
This episode is heart-wrenching because it depicts the struggle of poverty in a shockingly real way. This means, of course, that there is no real solution to Lila's struggle. She remains in poverty for the rest of the series. Yeah, Hey Arnold! really didn't pull any punches.
Mr. Hyunh Gives Up His Infant Daughter During The Vietnam War
Photo: NickelodeonIn "Arnold’s Christmas," Arnold is faced with the task of getting a gift for Mr. Hyunh, a Vietnamese tenant in his grandparent's boarding house/amazing country singer. When he confronts Mr. Hyunh about his lack of enthusiasm for the holiday, he's exposed to a pretty staggering truth.
As it turns out, in the past, Hyunh was caught in the middle of what it pretty clearly the Vietnam War. He was forced to give up his infant daughter to the U.S. military so that she could have a better life. Bruh.
Although the thought of Hyunh losing his daughter is sad, the entire war scene depicted in the episode is even more depressing. The scene shows the darkness of warfare and the destruction, fear, and sorrow that plague the parties involved. The episode is a stern reminder of the brutality and pain caused by war. And it probably aired next to, like, a commercial for Sketchers or cereal or whatever.
Chocolate Boy Is Basically A Drug Addict, And No One Can Help
Photo: Nickelodeon"Chocolate Boy" is one of the series' darkest episodes. It's seriously jacked up. See, Chocolate Boy is a young child who... loves chocolate. He's not very creatively named. In his eponymous episode, Chocolate Boy asks Arnold for help breaking his chocolate addiction (first because of a bet, but then for real). Throughout the episode, it's pretty strongly implied that Chocolate Boy is addicted to chocolate in the same way some people are addicted to crack cocaine.
Chocolate Boy humiliates and degrades himself for chocolate, dancing for the ol' sweet bad brown when cajoled by some fifth graders. At one point, he even goes rooting through a dumpster looking for more chocolate.
After he goes cold turkey, he starts going through heroin-like withdrawal. He sweats, he gets the shakes, and all he can think about is chocolate. Arnold even tries to get him on carob (basically methadone for chocolate), but Chocolate Boy has a severe allergic reaction.
While he eventually kicks his addiction to chocolate, he then seems to get hooked on radishes. Kind of like giving up heroin and picking up smoking cigarettes. By the time of Hey Arnold! The Movie, he's suffered a complete relapse. Chocolate Boy is clearly an allegory for drug addicts in our own society and the terrifying and stark realities of their existence.
The Public School System Is Failing The Children
Photo: NickelodeonArnold and his friends attend P.S. 118, a public school in the city. It's clearly a failing institution, constantly plagued by budget cuts, staff shortages, and an uncaring administration. While there are several episodes that revolve around problems with the school specifically, let's not forget that the students are the real victims here.
In "Tutoring Torvald," Arnold is assigned to... well, tutor Torvald. Torvald is a 13-year-old fourth grader who struggles with remedial math. That's right, he's 13. That means he's been held back for three or four years at least, and he's not even the only teenager in the fourth grade! Arnold's classmate Harold becomes a man in "Harold's Bar Mitzvah," meaning that he too is 13 years old. If Torvald and Harold are indicative sample sizes of what's happening in the rest of the school, then a relatively high percentage (around 12.5%, judging by Arnold's class size) of students are being held back with alarming frequency. Clearly, the public education system in Hey Arnold! is in dire need of some assistance.
Arnold Lost His Parents And He Hasn't Gotten Over It
Photo: NickelodeonEveryone loved Arnold's affectionate and kooky grandparents, but do you remember why he lived with them in the first place? His parents left him when he was an infant. In fact, Arnold is constantly daydreaming about them and their adventures. He never got conclusive proof of their deaths, so he's forced to spend his life speculating.
Clearly, he has a lot of unresolved feelings wrapped up in his parents' disappearance. This can be seen in the episode titled "Arnold’s Hat," where Arnold becomes depressed after losing his signature tiny hat. It is later revealed that the hat was given to him by his parents as a baby. Really stop and think about that. He's been wearing the same hat every single day since he was a baby. If you saw a 10-year-old doing that in real life, you'd probably suggest some sort of psychiatric counseling.
Arnold's City Struggles With Violent Crime
Photo: NickelodeonArnold is generally an all-around nice guy who usually tries his best not to let things get him down. In the episode titled "Mugged," however, Arnold finds himself a victim of a mugging. This prompts him to learn self-defense from his grandmother, which helps him gain confidence and teaches him how to protect himself. However, Arnold starts using his new martial prowess to start harassing other people in turn, perpetuating the cycle of violence.
This episode is messed up on a few levels. First, the manner and brutality of Arnold’s mugging is pretty hard to watch, even if it is animated. Seeing a little kid getting beat up by teenage male is pretty disturbing, and it suggests a frightening level of institutionalized violence. He ostensibly kicks Arnold's ass for some change and a bus pass, but he's clearly mostly doing it for the thrill. Secondly, the episode explores the ways in which a violent incident can alter someone's life.
Often, victims of crimes will, like Arnold, respond by becoming more threatening than the thing that scared them. If Arnold didn't have such a loving support network, he might have just stayed an abusive d*ck for the rest of his life. Frankly, the guy who assaults Arnold was probably a victim himself at one point or another. Violence begets violence.
The Patakis Are Objectively Terrible Parents
Photo: NickelodeonOut of all the families depicted on the series, Helga’s family is probably the most dysfunctional. And that's really saying something. When the chance arises for Helga to talk about her anger issues, in an episode titled "Helga On the Couch," her therapist gets an inside look of how deeply neglectfully Helga's family has been towards her.
In a heartbreaking scene, the Pataki parents praise their eldest daughter over her latest achievements and ignore a pre-school aged Helga, who is pleading with them for attention. Also, to be fair, they really messed up Olga's head too. It’s truly crushing to see the root of Helga’s anger problems (and the resentment she has for her sister) result from the neglectful actions of her parents.
Jeez, wasn't this show like, TV-Y7 or something? That's some deep stuff.
Olga Pataki Is Constantly On The Edge Of A Nervous Breakdown
Photo: NickelodeonOlga is the pristine older sister of Helga Pataki. While she lavishes attention on her little sister, Helga is generally kind of a brat to Olga. To be fair, Olga is academically talented, pretty, well-mannered, and popular. She's also clearly her parents favorite. It's easy to see why she'd be anathema to Helga.
Olga, however, is clearly has her fair share of issues and neuroses. This is perhaps most clearly illustrated in the episode "Olga Comes Home." See, Helga steals a letter with Olga’s college grades (before her older sister sees it) and secretly changes an A+ to a B+, which sends Olga on a downward spiral of depression. Olga locks herself away in her bedroom, broken, tearful, and miserable.
Can you imagine the kind of pressure you'd have to be under for one grade to do that to you? Apparently, Olga has a lot going on underneath her glittering exterior.
Rhonda Is An Avatar Of Institutionalized Classism
Photo: NickelodeonIn the episode "Rhonda Goes Broke," the show breaks down the cavernous class divide in Arnold's city. Rhonda is a rich kid who loves to flaunt how rich she is. She's actually kind of a brat, but whatever that's not the point. When she learns her family has gone broke, she becomes instantly devastated and perplexed about being poor. The sad thing about this episode isn't necessarily Ronda’s situation, but rather her utter ignorance and disgust at the way other people live.
See, when her dad's stocks tank, Rhonda and her family move into the Sunset Arms. That's the boarding house that Arnold's grandparents run AKA the place that Arnold lives in even though his life isn't in shambles. Rhonda spends most of the episode bitching non-stop about the terrible quality of life that Arnold lives with every day. Despite living in a massive city, she's clearly had zero exposure to how the other half lives. It's a pretty disheartening look into the culture of the Hey Arnold! universe.
Harold Is A Frequent Victim Of Fat Shaming
Photo: NickelodeonOkay, to get this right out of the way, Harold is kind of a bully. He's loud, he's obnoxious, and he picks on kids smaller than he is. However, like a lot of bullies, he's actually desperately insecure. In "Weighing Harold," we see Harold as a vulnerable and self-conscious little boy. In the episode, Harold is bombarded by people disparaging him about his weight.
In fact, it’s not only his peers that insult him, but full-grown adults as well. Seriously, random adult strangers just totally sh*t on young Harold. The constant taunting sends Harold into a series of desperate attempts to lose weight, but he is continuously met with disappointment. His confidence shaken, he becomes utterly depressed. In a moment of weakness, he breaks down and calls himself a dumb fat freak.
Overall, the episode closely mimics the sad truth about what people go through when they are fat-shamed in real life.
Pigeon Man Teaches Arnold That Most Humans Are Inherently Evil
Photo: Nickelodeon"Pigeon Man" is one of the more painful episodes of Hey Arnold! ever made. Vincent, also known as the Pigeon Man, is a lonely hermit and an outcast who's fascinated with pigeons. He doesn’t trust people, and favors the companionship of birds over human friendships. Almost everyone in the city views Vincent as a strange man, but Arnold sees something in him.
When Arnold tries to introduce Vincent back to society, however, it backfires horribly. While they're out eating pizza, some kids sneak up on to Vincent's roof and destroy his home. In the end, Vincent decides to leave the city. Before Vincent’s epic departure into the sunset (he flies away carried by his pigeons, it's awesome), he explains to Arnold that although he’s disappointed in humans generally, he’s thankful that there are at least some people like Arnold who are kind.
While that seems hopeful, that's actually a terrible message to relay to a child. "Look, kid, people are mostly awful. That's just a fact of life. There's only a few good ones, and it's kind of unlikely that you'll find nice people in any given place. Pigeon Man, AWWAAAYYY!"
Helga Has A Dangerously Unhealthy Obsession With Arnold
Photo: NickelodeonThere’s just no hiding this one. Since episode one, it’s clear that Helga is madly in love with Arnold (when she's not busy hating him). See, Helga refuses to let Arnold know she likes him. She continuously goes to great lengths to prevent Arnold from finding out that she likes him, and then she's tormented when he doesn’t recognize her feelings towards him. It's pretty bananas.
For the most part, this is all played for laughs. However, there’s a dark side to her affections. Like, an unhealthy and possibly psychotic dark side. She is constantly stalking Arnold and "collecting" things that he's used and thrown away. She even secretly cuts off a lock of Arnold's hair as a keepsake! The most damning manifestation of her obsession, though, has to be the candle lit shrine she’s built in her bedroom. It's made out of used gum (some of which was chewed by Arnold) and is shaped in Arnold's likeness.
Now that’s creepy. Like, "incriminating evidence to the police if they should ever find it"-level of creepy.
Arnold's Guardians Suffer From Varying Degrees Of Senility
Photo: NickelodeonLook, no one is doubting that Arnold has some loving and devoted grandparents caring for him. Their intentions are not the issue here. It's just, honestly, due to their age they both seem to be more than a little senile. While Grandpa Phil appears to be more on the forgetful side (he often forgets things or loses his train of thought) it’s Grandma Gertie who we should really be worried about.
At most times, Gertie is confused and apparently out of touch with reality. In numerous episodes, she dresses up in silly outfits and changes her demeanor to fit each "role." She often refuses to break character, even in serious or life threatening situations. If anyone from child protective services saw her in real life, they'd probably remand Arnold into protective custody. Although Gertie seems to disassociate with reality more and more as time goes on, her psychotic breaks are mostly played up as "kooky" or "wacky."
They're really just heartbreaking if you think about them for more than, like, two seconds.
Stoop Kid Has Major Abandonment Issues
Photo: NickelodeonAlthough Stoop Kid doesn’t appear often throughout the series, the brief glimpse into his life is shockingly melancholy. In the episode "The Stoop Kid," we are introduced to this awkward and often angry young boy who likes to keep people away from his stoop.
Although he appears to be older than Arnold, it’s clear that his vocabulary and reading abilities are well below average. He appears to struggle reading an elementary school-level book. As the story goes, Stoop Kid was abandoned as a baby on the very stoop he guards. The show does nothing to disprove this fact, and all the evidence points to Stoop Kid living on his concrete throne.
That's... Jesus, that's depressing. This child was abandoned and basically raised feral. The stoop is all he’s ever known and represents something that is good, reliable, and safe. And people have the nerve to make fun of him for that! Poor Stoop Kid.
