Key in the Can

[Cyrus]

I went back to play SH3 again and I got to the part where Heather purchases a can from a vending machine and finds the key inside.
Does anyone know what this symbolises? It also kinda reminded me of Harry finding a key in the bag of jelly beans.

[JuriDawn]

Like the bag of jelly beans, finding a key in a sealed soda can—a mass-produced consumer product—furthers the sense being detached from reality. I wouldn't say it's symbolic, just unsettlingly absurd.

[Yana]

Didn't James in SH2 have to use a can opener on a tin that was full of lightbulbs? I found it very strange also, the can didn't have a label on it either.

[AnastasisXD]

i have never seen a canwith bulbs in real life, arent they used for food or what?

[serek]

I thought it was invoking Heather's pregnancy - something (or someone) seemingly insignificant holding within an item used to progress forward (the God fetus).

That might be over-analyzing it, though, I just struggle to find anything else it might represent.

[bsheffield87]

I imagine that it represents everything being strange and everything being out of place: a key in a bag of jelly beans, a light bulb in a can, and a key in a can. You know, just stuff that's out of place in a world that is already out of place as it is.

[EileenGalvin]

Even more absurd than the key in the can is the fact that in the same room (I think) Heather refuses to take the money that is laying all over the counter.

I mean, come on! Grab that shit and run!

[Harrys_Girl]

I think it also plays on the fear of mass-production and the consumer not really knowing what is in the food/drink. Similar to the urban legend of getting a strange package w/ "gravy" in it from the US, only to find out later that it is the cermated remains of a deceased relative.

[alone in the town]

Silent Hill 2: A can holding an item that lets you use a key
Silent Hill 3: A can containing a key
Silent Hill 4: Getting a key instead of a can

It's simply too tightly-bound to be coincidence.

[Travis]

I'm tired of the fact that any little abnormal and bizzare thing in the SH games MUST represent something or have a deeper meening.

I imagine that it represents everything being strange and everything being out of place: a key in a bag of jelly beans, a light bulb in a can, and a key in a can. You know, just stuff that's out of place in a world that is already out of place as it is.

That's it! Why bother any further?

[alone in the town]

I hate when someone is presented with satire or sarcasm, doesn't get it for what it is, and responds with fiery indignation.

[Travis]

Hey now that's unfair! There was no sarcasm in my post. And in fact I love allegory in the SH series (espesially in SH2).
But... Come on!
What's the significance of Harry driving a Jeep, or of Heather having her hair dyed?
(THAT'S sacrasm by the way)

[Harrys_Girl]

^alone ment he was being sarcastic and you responded "with fiery indignation."

Silent Hill 2: A can holding an item that lets you use a key
Silent Hill 3: A can containing a key
Silent Hill 4: Getting a key instead of a can

It's simply too tightly-bound to be coincidence.

Sarcasim.

I'm tired of the fact that any little abnormal and bizzare thing in the SH games MUST represent something or have a deeper meening.

Fiery indignation.

See?

[Travis]

I wasn't referring to Alone's post alone. And I wouldn't call my response, "fiery" indignation.
Anyway, no harm's done...

[Herr Shaun]

I don't see any sarcasm or fiery indignation. I see short fuses and pointless bickering.

As for the key in the can, I find it hard to believe that Team Silent spent time making something so minute represent something else metaphorically. It's just an oddity, like everything else in Silent Hill.

[secretsquirrely]

I have to agree with it just being a sense of loss of reality. But, also it may have to do with fate being at work. How else could a key get into a sealed manufactured item like that? As for the other games, it could also just be a trademark of the Silent Hill franchise to put the keys in the most random and off the wall places. So it could either be really deep, or an inside joke of the producers.

[FatalFrame]

Don't you know that keys and lightbulbs are to be kept fresh? I recommend storing them in the refrigerator.

[Uyrikeustek]

I like this in the Silent Hill games. You never know what you're going to get!!!

[Mis Krist.]

You bumped a year old thread to say THAT? Honestly... could you please stop it? All I see are you reviving dead threads for a one or two sentence response that has little to no contribution to the topic at hand, and it's quite annoying and approaching the spam event horizon.

[AuraTwilight]

Not to mention I'm pretty sure the avatar is too big. It's stretching the screen.