Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs English Literature Essay

Snow White was the heroine of the first full-length animated movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, in 1937. Snow White is immature, reasonably, virginal, sweet-natured and obedient. She does n’t mind housekeeping because she is certain that a rich immature adult male will shortly come and take her off.

When Snow White is afraid, she runs off and falls down in cryings. When she finds shelter in a soiled small house in the forests, she instantly cleans it from top to bottom. When she lives at that place, she continues to make the housekeeping: the group of ( little ) working males who live in the house clearly need a ‘mother ‘ to clean for them, so this is Snow White ‘s natural function.

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SHELTER is something that protects you and maintain you safe from conditions or from dangers

Snow White ‘s lone enemy is her wicked and powerful step-mother. ( Another typical Disney character is the evil older adult females, who has a batch of power. She is ever destroyed. )

WICKED: bad, evil

A STEP-MOTHER is a adult female who marries person ‘s male parent after their female parent died

Snow White ‘s wicked step-mother fast ones Snow White into eating a poisoned apple and she falls into a coma. The midget can non assist her. Snow White must wait until she is rescued by the buss of a fine-looking prince, and so she rides off merrily with her new love.

Trick: ( V ) to gull or lead on

When person is in a COMA, they are wholly unconscious and can non be awakened

This is typical of Disney ‘s films. Young adult females are of course happy home-makers ; they wait ( like Snow White in her coma ) until a adult male comes along to give them life.

Something is Typical if it has the usual qualities of a type of thing.

After Snow White, Disney used other fairy narratives for his films, for illustration Cinderella ( 1950 ) and Sleeping Beauty ( 1959 ) . The heroines and their narratives were really similar to Snow White.

FAIRY Narratives: narratives that are told to kids about charming topographic points and people

Then, in 1966, Walt Disney died and the Disney Company did non bring forth any good alive movies for a long clip. Then, in 1989, the company produced a new, and really successful, cartoon characteristic movie, The Little Mermaid.

FEATURE FILM: a full length film

The Little Mermaid

Ariel, the mermaid, is the heroine of the film.

It seems that Disney did non pay much attending to the Women ‘s Motion: Ariel is the same as the earlier Disney heroines, except that she is slightly sexy and wears a Bikini made from shells. And the reply to all her dreams is to acquire her adult male. Ariel will make anything to do the prince autumn in love with her. She even gives up her voice so that she can hold legs.

( What message does this film give to immature misss – “ Keep quiet and be beautiful ” ? )

But Disney films have happy terminations, and so Ariel gets her voice back and she keeps her prince. On the other manus, she loses everything else. When she becomes human and marries the prince, she must go forth behind her submerged place, her male parent and her friends. She gives up everything in her life for love affair. That ‘s OK for a fairy narrative, but it is non a good thought for immature misss in existent life.

Mermaid

Mermaid

Many adult females complained to Disney about The Little Mermaid, and Disney promised to believe more carefully about adult females ‘s functions in future. They hired a female film writer for their following film, Beauty and the Beast ( 1991 ) . Disney ‘s promotion people promised that Belle, the heroine, would be ‘modern ‘ , ‘active ‘ , and even ‘feminist ‘ .

Screenwriter: the individual who writes the words of a film

Beauty and the Beast

The imperativeness thought Disney had done a good occupation, but the lone existent betterment is that Belle likes reading!

BELLE is the chief adult female character in Beauty and the Beast

However, the most of import job in this film is non the Disney company ‘s thought of an independent adult female. The job is how Disney changed the hero, and the message of the narrative.

In the original narrative, the Beast looks awful and awful, but he is truly sort and gentle. The message of the narrative is that you should non judge person by what they look like. An ugly outside can conceal a loving bosom.

Disney changed this. The company decided to make a Beast with a ‘very serious job ‘ . Disney ‘s Beast terrifies his family and frightens Belle, his captive. The Beast does non assail Belle, but the menace of physical force is present.

In the Disney film, Belle changes the character of the Beast. Her beauty and her sweet nature alteration him from a animal into a prince, from person who is cruel, into person who is sort. So the film ‘s message is really different from the message of the fairy narrative.

SWEET-NATURE: being sort and pleasant

The film says, if a immature adult female is pretty and sweet-natured, she can alter an opprobrious adult male into a sort and soft adult male. In other words, it is a adult female ‘s mistake if her adult male abuses her.

This is another unsafe message for immature misss because it is non true: if Belle lived in the existent universe, she would about surely become a beat-up married woman.

Person who is ABUSIVE dainties people really severely

Maltreatment: ( V ) to handle person really severely

BATTERED: severely crush

Aladdin

Princess Jasmine, the lone female character in Aladdin ( 1992 ) , is a batch like Disney ‘s other adult females.

But there is another really distressing thing about this film, its racism.

Listen to some of the vocals, for illustration:

“ I come from a land… . where they cut off your ears if they do n’t wish your face. It ‘s barbarian, but hey, it ‘s place. ”

Racism: the belief that people of your race are better than people of other races

BARBARIC: violent and cruel

And expression at the characters.

The evil characters, like Jafar, look really Arabic. On the other manus, Aladdin, the hero, looks and sounds like a fresh-faced American male child: his tegument is much paler, and he asks people to name him ‘Al ‘ , an American name, non an Arabic name.

FRESH-FACED: clean and guiltless.

Something is PALER than something else if it is lighter-colored or whiter.

Of class, Disney does non mean to pique people – that would be bad concern. Most people who watch the films are likely caught up in the Disney thaumaturgy and do n’t detect these things. But that ‘s the job. One manner in which Disney creates the thaumaturgy is by utilizing stereotypes that people respond to without believing. Aladdin looks ‘right ‘ for a hero ; Jafar looks ‘right ‘ for a scoundrel. We do n’t believe about it.

If you are CAUGHT UP IN something, you are really involved and interested in it.

Stereotype: a fixed image or thought of what a type of individual is like.

By utilizing citation Markss [ ‘RIGHT ‘ for a hero ] , the author makes clear that she means this ironically.

The Lion King

The Lion King does the same thing. The characters are animate beings, but their voices show racist stereotypes. Even though The Lion King takes topographic point in Africa, two white American histrions are used for the voice of Simba, the hero. However, the hyaenas who are bad characters in the movie, talk non-standard English and are played by histrions like Whoopi Goldberg and Cheech Marin. The scoundrel, Scar, suggests homosexualism.

And, of class adult females ( the lionesses ) are weak and need a male hero: when Simba runs off, the lionesses can non protect themselves from the evil Scar and must wait for old ages until Simba returns to salvage them.

RACIST STEREOTYPES: a fixed thought of what people of different races are like.

Hyena: an African animate being that feeds on dead animate beings ; its call sounds like a laugh.

SUGGESTS HOMOSEXUALITY: gives the thought that he might be homosexual.

Matoakas

After The Lion King, Disney became interested in the thought of ‘multiculturalism ‘ and made Matoakas in 1995. This film mixes Disney ‘s favorite narrative of the princess- in-love with a existent narrative from Native American history.

That is a job because Pocahontas was a existent adult female, and she was really different from the Pocahontas that Disney invented. To give merely one illustration: in existent life, Pocahontas was a kid when she foremost met the ‘hero ‘ John Smith and there was no love affair between them. When Pocahontas met Smith once more old ages subsequently, she called him ‘father ‘ .

Multiculturalism: the thought that it is a good thing to include people from many different civilizations.

But there are even more serious jobs with the Disney version of Pocahontas and the picture followup, Pocahontas II. The films ignore the existent destiny of both Pocahontas and her people. The first film ends cheerfully with peace between the settlers and indigens ; in fact, many, many of the Powhatan Nation ( Pocahontas ‘ people ) were subsequently killed.

Settler: the first groups of people who came from Europe to America, to settle and do a place for themselves

IGNORE: do non demo

As for the existent Matoakas, she was kidnapped and held surety. She was forced to go a Christian and behave like a ‘civilised ‘ white adult female. She was married to a settler who believed that the civilization she grew up in was evil.

Subsequently, Pocahontas was taken to England, to assist publicize the settlement of Virginia. In England, she was homesick. She became sick and died before she could return to her fatherland.

‘CIVILISED ‘ : from a ‘more advanced ‘ society. The citation marks around the word show that the author is being dry.

HOMESICK: feeling sad because you are off from place

None of this is in Disney ‘s film. And that is really distressing, because many people believed that they were larning about history when they watched Pocahontas.

Mulan

Disney has done a similar thing with Mulan ( 1998 ) , the narrative of a Chinese hero. The existent Hua Mu-Lan lived so long ago that her narrative has become a Chinese fable – a fable that Disney has reinvented so that it fits the form of a immature adult female in love.

Legend: a celebrated narrative about a great hero

Disney created Shang, a male hero for Mulan. He is her dominating officer. In the film, Mulan is wounded in conflict and everyone finds out that she is a adult female. Her penalty is decease but Shang can non kill her, so he sends her away. After the war he comes to happen her and get married her.

In the military, your Commanding OFFICER is the individual who gives you orders.

Disney has done it once more. Brave, kick-boxing Mulan does non look like Snow White but, in fact, the life of a Disney heroine has non changed really much. Work force still have power over them ( Shang rather literally decides whether Mulan will populate or decease ) ; and the best thing that can go on to them is to get married the hero and unrecorded “ merrily of all time after. ”

KICK-BOXING: a sort of contending that uses both punching and kicking.

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