How does Mary Poppins relate to the Bible?The Disney classic Mary Poppins is beloved by all ages in the spectrum. This timeless tale of a mysterious nanny changing the lives of one family seems innocent enough; however, many allusions to the Bible appear quite frequently in the film. While some may argue that the Bible is mutually exclusive, this paper demonstrates that Mary Poppins can be viewed as highly christian because Mary Poppins and Mary the Virgin share similar qualities, the Mary Poppins film itself has religious symbolism, and many of the other characters in the film represent a trait from the Christian faith. The Virgin Mary and Mary Poppins appear to share the same qualities that make them heavenly. Virgin Mary is queen of Heaven, …show more content…
Mary is going to bring new life into the world, there will be a death, and there will be a resurrection. It has all happened before, and it will happen again. Poppins eventually reveals too, “I’ll stay until the Wind changes,” signifying Our Lady’s obedience to her true spouse, that is, the Holy Spirit. For she is not the ultimate decision-maker for herself but still subservient to God. This is one of the more explicit hints that the movie is about the Virgin Mary. The English word “Holiday” literally means “Holy Day.” The song sings of Mary in such a high manor, it almost seems as if they are worshiping her , or at least hold her up above any other creature. Furthermore, all the cartoon animals know and love Mary very well , as if all the creatures are calling her blessed. A colossal amount of happiness and love are poured out into the world thanks to her, as they sing such things as: “Happiness is booming all around her” and “When Mary holds you hand, you feel so grand, your heart starts beating like a big brass band.” They say, “Mary makes the Sun shine bright!” just as the Virgin’s soul magnifies the Lord. It also has the peculiar phrase “the daffodils are smiling at the dove” , while the dove is usually associated with the Holy Spirit, thus talking about how souls who celebrate holy days are taking joy in …show more content…
Mr. Banks is a materialist as he continuously places excessive emphasis on worldly goods and scorns things that reek of the supernatural. He regards his job as a money-grubbing banker as the most important thing in his life. While their parents are caught up in useless, worldly concerns, Jane and Michael are untainted. They represent an innocent, pure, receptive side of humanity that is still willing to be taught.Both Bert and Joseph are poor, lowly workers who act as loving foster fathers and have a special relationship to their respective Mary’s. Bert hangs around Jane and Michael and takes care of them as St. Joseph does so spiritually with Christians. Bert is amongst the lower-class, low-income, hard-working individuals of society that struggles to make an honest living, but somehow manages to succeed. Bert’s broad variety of jobs symbolizes the universal patronage St. Joseph has to all workers of so many varying fields.Contrasted to this, however, is the fact that St. Joseph belonged to the House of King David , that is, he possessed royal blood. Mary Poppins, strangely enough, at one point sings the verse, “Though you’re just a diamond in the rough, Bert, underneath your blood is blue!” When someone has so-called “blue blood,” it literally means “of noble birth.” Yet Bert humbly takes on the unassuming status of an impoverished commoner hence, “diamond in the
Film analysis with a critical eye can give the viewer how animation giant Disney uses literary element to relay key messages to the audience. Walt Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog” is a perfect example how different literary theories like ‘the Marxist theory’ and ‘Archetypal theory’ can be embedded in the simplest of the fairy tales. The different literary elements in the movie, shows a person how characters like ‘the banker’ and the setting of the houses helps to portray the socio-economic differences in New Orleans at that time. Applying ‘the Marxist theory’ and ‘the Archetypal theory’ to the plot, characters and the setting, shows how movies can be a medium to confront social issues and to prove that all fairy tales are of the same base.
Snow-White is arguably one of the most well-known and revered fairy tales of all time. Versions of it permeate almost every culture, or at least can be recognized by most cultures throughout the world. It has been adopted into film, with later spin-offs and adaptations occurring in recent years. There is certainly some deeper appeal to it, hence its popularity throughout time. Some may find it hard to accept that a portion of its appeal could be due, in part, to the tale’s Christian roots.
Ironically, the author divides the poem into different times of the day, we see that as the time changes, so does Mary’s beliefs. This form of poetry confronts any interpretation that suggest that light is holy and darkness is evil. Specifically, at 6 am. In the first stanza when the sun comes up, she explicitly states this no longer a simile for God. In the same moment readers witness the death of her soul and the shattering of her beliefs. On the other hand, Atwood creates a contrasting effect at 12 midnight, in which in this time of darkness she exemplifies hope and optimism despite the fact death sat upon her shoulders.
Anderson, Hans Christian. “The Little Mermaid.” Folk and Fairy Tales. 3rd ed. Eds. Martin Hallett and Barbara Karasek. Toronto: Broadview, 2002.
This paper is written to discuss the many different ideas that have been discussed over the first half of Theology 104. This class went over many topics which gave me a much better understanding of Christianity, Jesus, and the Bible. I will be addressing two topics of which I feel are very important to Christianity. First, I will be focusing on the question did Jesus claim to be God? This is one of the biggest challenges of the Bibles that come up quite often. Secondly, I will focus on character development.
If children or adults think of the great classical fairy tales today, be it Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, or Cinderella, they will think Walt Disney. Their first and perhaps lasting impression of these tales and others will have emanated from Disney film, book, or artefacts (Zipes 72)
Allusions are used to emphasize ideas and themes an author presents in a novel, and to further understand its deeper meaning. Given that the bible is a prominent authority in societies, it helps an individual differentiate right from wrong, which is the internal conflict the main character, Huck, from The adventures of Huckleberry Finn, combats in his journey. Throughout his trip, he encounters well-intentioned Christians, deceived by religion into accepting slavery, demonstrated by Twain’s portrayal of religious hypocrisy. Twain alludes to the Old and New Testament in order to highlight the role religion had in the character development of Huck Finn and themes, such as, a civilized society and society’s conflicting acceptance of racism.
Jolley uses characterization to individualize each character in a poverty stricken family. The son is referred to as a prince by his mother several times throughout the story even though he is a high school dropout. “Mother always called him Prince; she worried about him all the time. I couldn’t think why. He was only my brother and a drop out at that” (117). The author portrays the son to be someone with low self-esteem because he is poor and a drop out he lives a miserable life. His mother tries to provide him with as much, but is unable to do this because of her social status is society. “‘Sleeps the best thing he can have. I wish he’d eat!’ She watched me as I took bread and spread the butter thick, she was never mean about butter, when we didn’t have other things we always had plenty of butter” (117). Through this passage the author convincingly demonstrates that they are poor and cannot afford an assortment of thing...
It’s like Tom Outland’s death stirred up turmoil for the family. Everyone became at odds with each other. Before Tom died, Mrs. St. Peter had a grudge of jealousy towards him because of the bonding relationship he and her husband, Professor, St. Peter had formed. Rosamond and Kathleen have a grudge against each other because both girls were fond of Tom but Tom loved Rosamond. Tom left all his money and inventions to Rosamond and it was a large sum that provided her with the enablement to live comfortably. Kathleen feels like Rosamond flashes the money in her face and finds it preposterous. ““I can’t help it, father. I am envious. I don’t think I would be if she let me alone, but she comes here with her magnificence and takes the life out of all our poor little things. Everybody knows she’s rich, why does she have to keep rubbing it in”” (69)? The Outland holds bitterness and unresolved
When I saw Lars and the Real Girl on the choices of movies for this project, I knew exactly what I wanted to write about. I really enjoyed this movie and its uniqueness. This movie has the most unique plot I have ever witnessed in a film. At the end of the movie, Margo says to Lars, “There will never be one like her” in reference to Bianca. In reality, there will never be a movie like this one. What I enjoyed most about this film was it was a Christian film but wasn’t a Christian film. What I mean by that is that it didn’t just throw Christianity in your face while watching it. Nothing about this film seemed fake. It never seemed as if the writer was trying to tell you one specific message of the film. The writer was simply telling a story, and leaving it up to the audience to figure out what the message of the story was for that particular person. The writer left it up for the audience’s interpretation. Everything in this film seemed genuine and real. It was something that I really could see happening at my church community. I will be honest when I first read the initial plot before I watched the movie; I was skeptical of how this movie would involve Christianity, but after watching the whole movie I saw that there were elements of Christianity all throughout the movie. From the perception of the church to the common beliefs of the characters, the Christian faith was shown in all aspects of the movie. Lars and the Real is not only a movie, but it is a lesson that through faith and the strength of a community a troubled soul can be healed. There are four specific items I am going to address in this paper: the message of the film regarding the Christian metanarrative, the way Christianity was...
Even though Mrs. Turpin is already “saved” because of her Christian faith, she needs a revelation from Mary grace to realize that her world view i...
Since the early 19th century, many fairytales have been the center of stark criticism causing heated discussion among the world’s leading personalities of the time. Each having opposing views, Dr. Karl Oppel, a German psychologist, and Dr. Bruno Bettelheim, a child psychologist from the United States, were two of the most voiced fairytale experts. Though theses two men were three generations from each other, Dr. Bettelheim drew most of his protests from Dr. Oppel’s most publicized findings and opinions in a 1903 debate. In his book, The Parent’s Book:...
In today’s modern age, young children are being raised by their TV screen. Reining from the original tales of Perrault and the Grim Brothers, the Disney princess line has been a staple on the screens since the 1930s (Do Rozario 1). However, these princesses have gone through dramatic changes to remain relevant to todays youth. The effects that can be influenced by the roles expressed in these types of films send mixed messages to the audience, causing them to ask themselves whether or not they should believe what the princess is expressing on the screen.
The story of Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll, is a captivating story that follows a young girl Alice, as the protagonist, on her journey down a rabbit hole and through Wonderland. The text itself is often defined as a children’s story, rather than a particular type of folkloric literature, yet when reading the text from a perspective other then that of a children’s book, the reader notices many folkloric symbolism that become apparent throughout the story. When analyzing the text, it can be argued that Alice in Wonderland is in fact a fantastical fairytale, encompassing an abundance of important fairytale elements. In determining whether a story is categorized as a fairytale or another children’s literary work, Axel Olrik, a Danish folklorist, created a set of eighteen “Epic Laws of Folk Narrative” that provide guidelines for defining a piece of children’s writing.
The Chronicles of Narnia are veritably the most popular writings of C.S. Lewis. They are known as children’s fantasy literature, and have found favor in older students and adults alike, even many Christian theologians enjoy these stories from Lewis; for there are many spiritual truths that one can gleam from them, if familiar with the Bible. However, having said this, it is noteworthy to say that Lewis did not scribe these Chronicles for allegorical didactics of the Christian faith, but wrote them in such a well-knit fashion that young readers might understand Christian doctrine through captivating fantasy and thus gain an appreciation for it. With this in mind, and in the interest of this assignment, the purpose of this paper is an attempt to analyze one of the many doctrines of the Christian faith from The Lion, The Witch, And, The Wardrobe (LWW), namely, temptation and how Lewis illustrates it through an individual character, Edmund.