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Many people are led to Silent Hill for myriad reasons, but it is almost always as a form of penance. People who have committed some sin and feel the need to atone for it, even if they are not conscious of that fact. InSilent Hill 2, we see plenty of others undergoing their own trials alongside him.
One such individual is Angela Orosco, a young woman desperately seeking her mother in the town of Silent Hill, but seemingly to no avail. Why is Angela stuck in Silent Hill, and what exactly led her there in the first place? Angela hasn’t had an easy life, and Silent Hill seems to be the means for her to come to terms with that.
A fair warning that much of Angela’s story bearsheavy reference to child abuse and sexual assault, if you are made uncomfortable by these topics.
How Is Abstract Daddy Related To Angela?
James meets Angela multiple times throughout his own journey through Silent Hill. She is always somewhat at a distance from him, seeminglyexisting in a world all of her own. It is not until your meeting with her near the Labyrinth that the reality of how she has been treated dawns on you.
You battle Abstract Daddy here, a fleshy mound of two bodies fused together on what looks to be a bed frame or doorway. Though its name is not actually said in-game, the related trophy reveals its name as Abstract Daddy. This should be enough to give you a clearer idea of who this is meant to represent -it is her father.
When Angela is first met in the Silent Hill Graveyard, she says thatshe is looking for her mother, and makes a brief off-hand comment that her brother and father are supposed to be there as well, somewhere.This is the only time she explicitly mentions them. In the cutscene after defeating Abstract Daddy, she takes all of her frustrations out on the lifeless monster, kicking and screaming, even smashing a TV off it. She makes her hatred and fury immensely clear.
Throughout the Abstract Daddy fight, you must destroy TVs to progress, likely alluding to howAngela’s father would ignore her, and why she chooses to smash the TV on his monstrous form.
It is in the following conversation she makes clear just why she hates her father so much -he abused her as a child, physically, mentally, and sexually. She was cut off from her mother and left with a negligent, abusive father who viewed her only as a burden and a means of boosting his own ego. This is part of what Abstract Daddy’s design may be intended to convey. Her own father forcing himself on her andher feeling like she couldn’t separate herself from him.
However,there is a likely degree of sexism in this as well. Angela has a brother, who is only ever mentioned once in tandem with her father. It is possible he too participated in the abuse against Angela and that the second fleshy form onAbstract Daddy represents the two abusive men in her lifethat she was trapped with, her father and brother. It is named Abstract Daddy for a reason though. While the fatherly presence is guaranteed, everything else about him is twisted, a warped version of what a father should be.
So what caused Angela to end up in Silent Hill, having these recurring nightmares of her father?She killed him, the only means she could find of escaping his abusive hands. You can find a newspaper fragment on the way to Abstract Daddy that talks about the death of a man called Thomas Orosco from multiple stab wounds. This isthe very same bloodied knife that Angela hands youin the Blue Creek Apartments.
Why Is Angela So Apprehensive Around James?
Whenever James meets Angela,she keeps her distance from him. She is at times placid, and then manic only moments later. She can never be entirely calm when he is near, seemingly always trying to escape any scenario in which she is caught in the same room as him. Notably,her attitude towards James becomes all the more uncomfortable as the game progresses. So why is this when she has never met James before?
The majority of it likely stems from Angela’s own trauma. She was abused by the one man in her life that should have treated her with love and respect, and nowcan’t find comfort around men at all. It’s not a personal thing, but her own uncomfortable memories appearing all around her.
You may notice that in the majority of scenes between James and Angela that the camera is angled downwards, withJames typically towering over Angela. While this is no active effort on James part, it’s more a reflection of how it feels to Angela. A strange man appears claiming to be looking for someone, and he keeps coincidentally running into you, standing tall over you in every scenario and telling you to stay calm, to control your feelings.
In the final scene with Angela in the game,the camera for once puts James below Angela, acknowledging in some form that Angela has come to terms with her own trauma.
To her, itmust be just like seeing her father again, waiting for the penny to drop, for the abuse to start again. That’s why she has such sudden mood swings around him, why she can’t seem to think straight and runs away. And as she comes closer to dealing with that trauma personally, she becomes more upset around James, seeing more of her father manifested in him. It is not until the very final scene that she hasthe confidence to talk back to James more directly, with a more level-headed composure.
Where Is Angela’s Mother And Brother?
In almost every scenario that you meet Angela, excusing the encounter with Abstract Daddy,she is looking for her mother. Without fail, that seems to be her goal in coming to Silent Hill, same as it is for James to find Mary. The reality of it goes deeper than that, but to her own understanding, that is why she is here.
So where is her mother? Well, that’s not something we ever get the answer to.We see Angela through James' perspective, as another stranger going through their own trials. He doesn’t seek to know everything about Angela in the same way that Angela knows nothing about James and Mary. They run into each other, and that’s it.
It isentirely possible Angela’s mother is already dead, especially since the first location she searches for her is the graveyard. Recall that she also says her father and brother should be here, with her father definitively being dead at this point.Her mother could just as easily be alive, though our only awareness of her is from what Angela says.
The only clarity we have is that,at some point, her mother left. Whether she died, chose to leave her abusive husband, or any other scenario, she was gone from Angela’s life. It can be assumed thatAngela’s mother played no active part in the abuseshe suffered, though possibly allowed it to happen out of fear. Regardless of any part of this, it is clear thatAngela found some comfort in her.
And so what of her brother? While he is not mentioned as explicitly as her mother and father, there is an underlying assumption thathe participated in Angela’s abuse as well, though likely to a much less extreme degree than their father. He was likelyemboldened by his father, especiallyby his own sexism, while the general neglect he showcased likely allowed Angela’s brother free reign to do whatever he wanted.
In the final scene with Angela in the game, two bloody, fleshy bodies are attached to the walls of the staircase, seeminglythe two bodies of Abstract Daddy separated. It is very possible that one of these bodies is her brother, and that she also killed him for his role in her abuse.
Why Does Angela Look And Sound Different Compared To The Original Silent Hill 2?
While many characters underwent a fair few design changes when brought over to the Silent Hill 2 Remake, Angela’s were more specific than many others.Her changes were more subtle yet dramatic, changing the general feeling of her character. It is a very major shift that others did not quite experience, so what justified such a change?
As a victim of abuse,Angela did not mature in the same way that the average person would. Her age is never stated in-game, though the creators made clear thatshe is meant to be young, 19 at the oldest. Yet looking at the features on her face and the deepness of her voice, she would appear to be a woman far more advanced in age. Why would she have been made to look so much more older and mature when she was barely an adult?
In many victims of abuse,the stress induced by it tends to age you quite dramatically. This is clearly the case with Angela, having been forced to grow up for herself when no one gave her the comfort of a childhood. This was made to contrast withher decidedly childish manner of speaking, constantly fidgeting and asking for her mama. It is to contrast with the abuse she suffered that she looks older, but acts younger.
The rendition of her in the remake takes the opposite approach. Rather than making her look older,she looks considerably younger, perhaps even younger than the age she is intended to be. The likely reasoning for this was to make Angela feel likeher growth was stunted entirely by the abuse. Her body looks like it has grown, yet her features are locked in childhood. She stands with uncertainty and speaks without any clarity. She acts just like a confused child because that’s what she is.She was denied a childhood, and so never got to grow out of it.
Her two designs represents both sides of the same coin. The effects that abuse can have onaging you physically, while simultaneously showcasing how it canstunt your mental growth entirely. Angela is locked in a limbo that she can’t fully escape.
