The gremlin proved a brilliant metaphor for the kind of ruthless predatory husband the protagonist sought to save herself and child from. It is a tragic reality that insanely controlling husbands will frequently snatch a child from its mother if not murder them making the terror associated with her flight (escape) and subsequent demand by the male crew (society) that she be returned all too realistic. That in the end she beats the beast to death is aspirational as society does not afford a woman this option.