BB Gun
On one level, A Christmas Story is a narrative about the coming of age of Ralphie and his ascension to the next level of maturity. Over the course of the film, Ralphie is shown progressively moving away from childhood and toward manhood: his desire for the gun, overcoming a bully, fulfilling his desire to get out of the bunny outfit, and being given his first chance to help his father perform an adult task (changing the tire) all point to his maturation. The consistent rejection of Ralphie’s desire for the BB gun by his mother is juxtaposed with the actual gifting of the gun by his father. The gift is thus a symbol of Ralphie's transition from the “boy and his mother” stage and into the more complicated “father and son” stage.
The Leg Lamp
The leg lamp that arrives as a "major award" for Ralphie's father symbolizes the commercialization of Christmas as well as the middle-class yearning for wealth. While Ralphie's father thinks the lamp is a high-class piece of fancy decor, Ralphie's mother is embarrassed by its garish and suggestive appearance. Their disparate reactions to the lamp emphasize Ralphie's father's tendency to be blinded by "valuable" objects that are nonetheless ugly, gauche, and out of place in the family's middle-class Midwestern home.
Fantasies
Fantasies are an important motif in the film. It is significant that the majority of Ralphie's fantasies occur in the first half of the film – when he is still a young child desperate for the approval of the adults in his life. Ralphie fantasizes about saving his parents from burglars with his BB gun, making his parents feel guilty for punishing him with soap in his mouth, and overwhelming his teacher with the beauty of his prose. Notably, however, these fantasies begin to disappear as Ralphie starts to mature, suggesting that part of his transition into adolescence involves actively pursuing these dreams rather than simply fantasizing about them.
Walking to School
Another important motif in the film is the walk to and from school that Ralphie and his friends take every day in the snow. The walks to school usually feature Randy trailing behind in his giant snowsuit, one of the film's major comic images throughout. The walks to and from school are also where Ralphie and his friends encounter the bullies, and where Ralphie finally stands up to them and retaliates. These walks are likely to remind viewers of their own school commutes in the 40s and 50s.
"You'll shoot your eye out!"
One of the most recognizable motifs in the film is the phrase "You'll shoot your eye out," which is uttered by three adults over the course of the movie: Ralphie's mom, Ralphie's teacher, and the mall Santa. Through the repetition of this phrase, the film subtly mocks the "adult" reaction to a child's Christmas request by suggesting that all the adults in the film can think about is violence, injury, and the lack of capability Ralphie has for wielding a "weapon" like the BB gun. At the end of the film, Ralphie ironically breaks his glasses after shooting the gun, thinking that he had shot his own eye.
