Tear Jerker / My Life as a Dog

• Ingemar visiting his mother at the hospital. In the hallway, he fights back his tears as his older brother Erik tells him to “man up.” When he’s allowed in the room, he and his mother have a heart-wrenching final conversation in which Ingemar innocently asks her what she wants for a Christmas present. She tells him “You know what to get me” and smiles.
• Ingemar decides on a toaster as a present for his mom, not realizing she is terminally ill and likely won’t be able to open the gift.
• Ingemar learning that his dog Sickan was not put in a kennel as he believed, but was instead euthanized. This crushing news, along with the death of his mother, is too much for him and he runs into the little summer home he built with his Uncle Gunnar and locks himself inside. When Uncle Gunnar tries to get Ingemar to open the door, Ingemar refuses and pretends he is a dog, barking at his Uncle. The following morning, the uncle is able to get inside, and finds Ingemar lying face down, wrapped up in a blanket and crying. Uncle Gunnar confesses he didn’t want to tell Ingemar the truth about Sickan for fear of upsetting him. Ingemar cries to himself, “Why didn’t you want me?” which encompasses his grief and feelings of parental rejection.