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Analysis of the ballad of mulan
Synopsis of mulan
The story of mulan essay
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William Shakespeare once said, “[My] honor is my life; both grow in one; take honor from me, and my life is done.” The idea is touched upon in both the book Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston as well as Disney’s Mulan were family honor is more important than anything else. Mulan was directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook, and produced by Walt Disney Pictures. The film Mulan retold the story of a woman warrior who took her father’s place in battle and became a savior of China.The movie uses many elements from the original story told in the chapter “White Tigers,” but adds many modern twists in order to make the story more appealing for a newer generation. In both stories of Fa Mu Lan the elements of sacrifice, silence and voice, cultural practices of ancestor worship and filial piety, and Chinese stereotypes are present.
The first element that it similar among the two legends is the concept of sacrifice. In the memoir, the reason for Fa Mu Lan’s success is due to tremendous sacrifice by herself and others. One of the most prominent examples of immolation is when a rabbit sacrifices it’s own life in order to give Mu Lan food and to make sure she will survive a cold night in the mountains. The incident was written as follows in the book: “A white rabbit hopped beside me...I ate it, knowing the rabbit had sacrificed itself for me” (Kingston 26). The sacrifice of the rabbit was an act of selflessness that taught Mu Lan about benevolence and allowed her to live long enough to act on this lesson. Furthermore, in the movie, Mulan sacrifice’s her safety, rather than having something sacrifice itself for her like the Mu Lan in White Tigers. During the scene where Mulan was attempting to save the emperor from the Huns, she has a
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...nist ideas. They suggest that women are good for only household chores and that they are not very intelligent. In fact, Mulan herself refutes these stereotypes through her quick thinking and advanced battle techniques, yet they still insist on carrying though.
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In movie version of Mulan as well as the book by Maxine Kingston, the elements of immolation, holding one’s tongue, respect for ancestors and parents, and stereotyping in the Chinese culture are present. All of these elements come together to create two similar stories of a woman warrior out to bestow honor upon her family. Still, for something as simple as family honor, is all the trouble of the quest for a small bit of greatness worth it?
Works Cited
Kingston, Maxine Hong. "White Tigers." The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts. New York: Vintage International, 1976. 20-53. Print.
Overall, “Mulan” does an outstanding job of portraying the popular story telling of the hero’s journey. Creators are still, to this day, using the easy pathway of the hero’s journey because it is easy to understand as long as all of the steps are met. This brings people of all sorts of cultures and religions to come together to sit back and enjoy a story
Thus born The Woman Warrior, a chronicle of a Chinese American woman's personal sufferings and triumphs, of duplicities and truths, and of struggles and breakaways; a requiem for all the victims of the old culture whose soundless cries have not been heard and who died without a name, engulfed by the darkness and the silence. In her world then, at least, the failed heroine Fa Mu Lan is redeemed.
Mulan follows both the "ordinary world" and "call to adventure" steps. Mulan Lives in an relatively ordinary world with her family in China. Mulan's duty to her family is to bring honor by marriage, but she is very clumsy as seen in the beginning of the movie. She visits the matchmaker, but is deemed as awkward and not ready for marriage. Mulan is called to adventure
Mulan goes through being rescued when she fights Shan-Yu on top of the roof of the Emperor’s palace and Mushu helps Mulan pin Shan-Yu down and blow him up with fireworks. Mulan‘s ego decreases when Mushu successfully tries to help her get rid of Shan-Yu. She considers herself a hero now and does not want Mushu to think she cannot fight her own battles. Mulan in the end disregards her ego in order for her to not die on the roof. Mulan crosses the final threshold when she returns to her home with the gifts from the Emperor hoping her family will forgive her for leaving the family to go fight in the war. Her father accepts Mulan’s new power and wisdom and told her that, “The greatest gift and honor is having you for a daughter.” Mulan’s return to the past is pleasant and safe knowing that nothing can change her family’s love and affection for her. In addition, Mulan enters into the final step in the hero’s journey: the freedom to live. Mulan shows her freedom to live when she invites her soul mate, Li-Shang for dinner. This event marks the end of Mulan dwelling on the past and makes her excited, but not concerned about what the future
Did you know Walt Disney changed the lives of so many people? These are two characters that are either changed those lives or not. Mulan is a female character that changed into a man to save her father from joining the army. She has appeared in 36th animated feature film Mulan, as well as its sequel Mulan II. Ariel is a mermaid who thought she did not belong under the sea. She is from the Disney Pictures' 28th animated film The Little Mermaid. She is all so from The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea and The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning. Mulan is a better role model than Ariel. Mulan is a better role model because she doesn't trust strangers, she would die for her family, and she follows her instincts.
Adeline described about herself, “I was the female warrior Mulan.” The author, Adeline, once thought to herself, “Then they all ran out, leaving me quite alone with my silver medal, staring at my empty bowl.” (Yen Mah 11) Everyone appreciated Mulan until they discovered that she was a female, not the male they thought she was. She proved that women can be just as good as men. Adeline’s siblings were happy and proud of her until her father had complimented her. Then they stole her dinner, some dragon fruits. Girls were all unequally treated back then. Adeline’s father told her, “Continue studying hard and bring honor
Mulan tells that the story of brave Mulan. Mulan did not want her elderly father to fight in the war, so she disguised as a man and joined in her father 's army. Finally, Mulan defeated the Huns and Shan Yu (leader of the Huns) with her partners in barracks. This Disney film portrays the conflict perspective, feminism, and symbolic interaction perspective.
...ues the Chinese chose instead to uphold their values and some societal relations such as the position of women and the definitions of public and private space between men and women came under scrutiny. The duties of filial piety have a place in traditional Chinese society and have to value to continue to evolve with the country, but values are only worth keeping if they do not hinder the progress and growth of a nation.
Overall, the Disney movie, Mulan, demonstrates gender roles, socialization of gender roles, and consequences of breaking the gender roles. By Mulan going to war for her father, in China, many things were at risk, life, honor, and the country of China, itself. Displaying the characteristics a man had was the only way for Mulan to survive, granted, she was not great at displaying woman characteristics in the first place. Being caught in war, as a woman, meant death, but Mulan was lucky for her bravery when saving Captain Li Shang, for he spared her life, which allowed Mulan to help save China and the emperor in the end. Even though China had very strict gender roles, Mulan broke them to save her father’s life and became the person she was meant to be.
In multiple instances throughout the film, female characters violate gender norms by acting as both warriors and leaders because they are adapting typically masculine traits. In the film, women are the majority of the labor force at iron town. The men are merely there to do the labor that needs the most physical power. “Americans oversimplify Japanese women as demure, submissive, and oppressed” (Kyu Hyun, 2002, 38). This quote shows that the stereotype of women in Japanese culture had been just like the western perspective where they were below men. This quote also shows that Princess Mononoke reverses the gender role from being submissive to being above men. Another quote that supports that women were not submissive says that “the young unmarried women in Japan have become a powerful group, demographically and economically” (Kyu Hyun, 2002, 39). The women who were in the upper class society of Japan had time on their hands and we know this because they had time to write literature. “Most of the canonical work from this period was produced by women of the upper social class” (Varner, 2005,
Women have been in movies since they first started playing on the big screen, they have played an assortment of roles, the damsel in distress, the first one to die, the poor scullery maid who ends up a princess, the evil witch, etc. While some of the roles have shed bad light on women, for example being a femme fatale, other movies have set positive examples for the future generations. As time has changed, the Disney princesses have evolved with it, each princess becoming more outspoken and independent, influencing the young women of today to want to grow up to be just like them, “They enact a shift from the "princesses" of ballet to the "heroes" of sport. Heroism, egalitarianism and autonomy are slipped into the conventions of Disney princesshood” (Do Rozario, R.,C., 2004, para. 34). In Mulan the movie, Mulan saves her father by disobeying him, and taking his place in the war by doing that she ended up saving her whole country. Disney isn’t telling young women to disobey their parents; they’re showing them that while you may be a girl, you can be brave and succeed.
In the Disney film Mulan, the character for Mulan plays an important part to support the example of a woman not satisfied with her state of being and subordinated position in society and therefore, takes action to show others her true capabilities and qualities. This prototype is scarcely depicted in today’s cartoons and films so that children rarely identify with this image. “Mulan” helps to promote this role model of an intelligent woman and could be the first step in breaking gender constraints. In addition, it might teach children that they have to find their own state of happiness rather than trying desperately to fulfill society’s expectations.
Mulan pushes gender inequality by reinforcing masculine and feminine stereotypes through the songs that it presents throughout the movie. The roles of what it means to be a man is simply laid out within the influential song, “I’ll Make a Man Out of You.” This song occurred when the fresh new soldiers appeared to be very weak and unfit, so Captain Shang sang of how they must become strong like real men should be. Captain Shang asks the question, “did they send me daughters, when I asked for sons?” (Mulan), implying that women are unfit for the conditions of
Mulan reinforces the traditional ideas of masculinity in the song, “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” (Mulan 1998). The lyrics, “Let’s get down to business, to defeat the Huns. Did they send me daughters, when I asked for sons?”(Mulan, 1998) portrays the traditional gender roles of men; it claims that male is the only sex that is able to fight. The goal of this scene is to “make a man” out of the new recruits. The movie Mulan asserts that being feminine is detrimental to the war effort. Instead, the docile, feminine recruits have to be transformed into men. This song in Mulan argues that one should strive towards being a "man";
...ected to carry heavy loads of items and this is true even in today’s time. In the past women had almost no rights except to be a housewife. Most people say that the reason behind this is that women are considered gentle and delicate. For example, in this collage a person only includes pictures that are delicate and gentle such as empty bags. Consequently, females are not considered as strong as males because of there delicate characteristics.