Character Analysis: Inside Out

829 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Psycho analytic theory of human development

In the film Inside Out, Riley is an 11-year-old girl who has been uprooted from her home in Minnesota, and forced to move to San Francisco with her parents. The move is a rough transition for Riley, and her emotions get the best of her. There are five characters in her head that represent her primary emotions; Fear, Anger, Disgust, Sadness, and most important of all Joy. Joy and Sadness get lost in her brain and leave Fear, Anger, and Disgust to control Riley. In this clip, Riley’s emotions affect her and her parents at the dinner table and their ability to have quality interpersonal communication..
Riley undergoes all four stages of emotions throughout the clip: physiological, a physical change; nonverbal, a change in behavior; cognitive interpretation, thinking and processing of the emotion; and finally, a verbal response. Ronald Adler in Looking Out Looking In, describes how “verbal nonverbal expressions of emotion are often interconnected” (141). Physiologically, Riley’s arms and shoulders begin to tense up when her mom begins probing her with unwanted questions. Next, she responds nonverbally by rolling her eyes, showing her
Earlier that day, Riley ends up crying in front of her class, embarrassing her and ruining her first day at her new school. Riley continued to dwell on these negative thoughts which in turn affected her mood.This exemplifies rumination which Looking Out, Looking In describes as “dwelling persistently on negative thoughts that, in turn, intensify negative feelings,” (159). This affected her parents and their conversation around the dinner table through emotional contagion. “...research reveals that emotions, both positive and negative, actually spread among [people] like viruses,” claims Sigal Barsade Ph.D from Psychology Today. Riley’s mood quickly spread to her parents which in turn ruined their family dinner. Our emotions deeply affect ourselves and those around us as shown in this

Show More
Related

  • Character Analysis: The Liles Of The Field

    256 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the Lilies of the Field by William E. Barrett, Homer and Mother Maria both display straightforward, hardworking, and stubborn character traits. Firstly, Homer and Mother Maria both display a straightforward personality by being brutally honest about their opinions. For example, when Mother Maria asks Homer to build a chapel, Homer speaks his mind by telling her he does not want to build it. Mother Maria shows her straightforward behavior during Homer’s stay at the convent. One morning, when Homer sleeps in late, Mother to becomes extremely upset and is not afraid to show how she feels about him. Secondly, both Homer and Mother Maria display a hardworking spirit. Homer is a hardworking man because after finally agreeing to build the chapel,

    Read More

  • Character Analysis: The Looking Glass Wars

    579 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Frank Beddors, “The Looking Glass Wars” a lot of things happen that are bad. There are lots of good things too. The story is about the “Myth” of Alice Liddell stepping through a looking glass into Wonderland. The topic of this essay is the Truth of the story. The purpose of this paper is how Loyal or devoted some people are to white imagination

    Read More

  • Out Of The Dust Character Analysis

    695 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hope and joy can be hard to find especially when times are tough. This is a situation in Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse , the character Billy Jo and her family are living in the time of the Dust Bowl and are struggling financially . Her father is a farmer in a time where nothing grows and after an accident Billy Jo’s mother passes away. This is a big part of Billy Jo is effected emotionally and shows seems very sad. Billy Jo has to move and has to move on and find joy and hope even in tough times.

    Read More

  • Case Study: The Driving Force Of Dan's Behavior

    786 Words  | 2 Pages

    I see both cognition and emotion as the driving forces of Dan’s behavior as he struggles with earning admission to medical school. They both include multiple factors that are impacting Dan’s experience with getting into medical school.

    Read More

  • Character Analysis: We Beat The Street

    456 Words  | 1 Pages

    People have goals everyday, believe it or not some people think that dreams aren't worth it. I believe that it is worth it to dream because it gives a person a goal, it makes them feel good, and it makes them stronger. I know this from The Pearl, A Cubs video, the Susan Boyle video, and We Beat the streets.

    Read More

  • Research Paper On The Other Wes Moore

    1619 Words  | 4 Pages

    The example was when Wes’s mom found out that Wes’s girlfriend was pregnant, and her reaction was simply looking up and the two of them, and then resuming to cutting the cake she was cutting. “Mary closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She put down the cake knife and locked her fingers behind her head…After a moment, she brought her arms back to her sides, exhaled, and looked around the table. “So who wants cake?”” (Moore 100). If that was the reaction that every parent had towards pregnancy, we would have a tremendous amount of teens becoming pregnant all of the time with no control. The fact that this was her reaction to something so major just shows how Wes’s drug dealing was upsetting to her yet she would probably just take a deep breath and resume what she was doing. Statistics prove that once someone has been to jail, that they can never mentally be the same again (Lindquist). This could also be a major cause as to why Wes became so defiant and did not listen to his mother or

    Read More

  • Ethos Pathos Logos In Inside Out

    733 Words  | 2 Pages

    Inside out is a movie about a girl named Riley Anderson who is born with five emotions joy, sadness, fear, disgust and anger. These emotions are housed in Riley’s mind called headquarters. Each emotion plays a very big role in Riley’s life because they chose how she should feel during every second of the day since she was born. As riley got older things changed and her parents decided to move to San Francisco. Moving to a different state and city really made Riley’s life go downhill. Riley’s emotions fear, anger, disgust, and sadness were put into effect when she realizes she has to start a new school, and make new friends. Joy is displayed as a character who take charge and is always happy. For example, joys doesn’t like when other emotion

    Read More

  • Melindas Improvement

    474 Words  | 1 Pages

    “All right, but you said we had to put emotion into our art. I don’t know what that means. I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel.”(p122). This quote is from the third marking period when Melinda was talking to her art teacher, Mr. Freeman. I believe she wouldn’t have said anything had it been earlier in the year.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Why Don T We Listen Better

    1639 Words  | 4 Pages

    The first section explores the “flat-brain theory of emotions, flat-brain syndrome, and flat-brain tango” (Petersen, 2007, pp. 2-45). All three are interrelated (Petersen, 2007). The flat-brain theory of emotions “demonstrates what’s occurring inside of us when things are going well, and how that changes when they are not” (Petersen, 2007, p. 11). Petersen’s (2007) theory “explains how our emotions, thinking, and relating abilities work and how what goes on inside us comes out in the ways we communicate and act” (p. 8). The “flat-brain syndrome” describes what happens when an individual wears their emotions on their sleeve. This “makes it

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Arlie Hochschild On Emotional Work

    1725 Words  | 4 Pages

    A discrepancy between one’s internal and external state means that there is an imbalance of one’s emotional equilibrium. With or without dissonance, the individual is alienating themselves from the rest of the group because they are disconnected from their emotions. My internal state at the celebratory dinner did not match the positive facade I put up, because prior to the event, my car was towed and I anticipated an uncomfortable gathering with both of my parents under one roof. I used deep acting by telling myself that I was there for my brother’s engagement and that I should be happy for him just as my family was. I changed a personal part of myself to fit the context of the

    Read More

  • Room By Emma Donoghue's 'Room': Character Analysis

    1760 Words  | 4 Pages

    The first sentence of the book, Jack introduces himself to the readers he proudly says, "Today I’m five. I was four last night going to sleep in Wardrobe"(Donoghue 1). Throughout the novel Jack constantly reminds himself and others that he is five. This is how most children gain confidence and pride for themselves. In the article "Emotional Development" by Teresa Odle she explains how children show normal emotional development, "By toddlerhood and early childhood, children begin to develop more of a sense of self. Emotions such as pride, shame, and self-recognition begin to emerge"(Odle). Jack has a well developed sense of self especially with the way he believes he is much older and braver because he is no longer 4, he is 5. As the novel progresses Jack further develops his self recognition; when they were in the room Jack questioned whether he was a part of his mother at times but out of room he knew they were separate people. Also, Jack shows normal emotional development because he is able to recognize and respond to emotion. Ma is depressed because of the criticism she has gotten from people about keeping Jack so she eventually breaks down, "Ma’s got tears coming down her face, she puts up her hands to catch them. I’m off my chair and running at her, something falls over smaaaaaaash, I get to Ma and wrap her all up"(Donoghue 294). If children are delayed emotionally they would not be able to recognize and respond to emotion but Jack is able to recognize that his mother is sad and he responds by running to hug her. In Odle 's article she describes how children, "Can recognize nonverbal cues of emotion from one another. Preschoolers begin to distinguish between negative emotions such as sadness, anger, and fear"(Odle). Jack is definitely able to recognize nonverbal cues of emotion. Especially on days when Ma is depressed Jack is able to recognize that she is sad and he

    Read More

  • Psychology And Emotional Psychology In Pixar's Inside Out

    877 Words  | 2 Pages

    As time goes on, more emotions are added and the control panel becomes increasingly complex. This demonstrates emotional development over time moving from childhood into adolescence. A great example of the exchange between cognition and emotion are Riley’s memory balls. Each memory ball has a central emotion that is felt in the memory. Riley has a set of core memory balls which shape the way Riley thinks and feels about the world. Joy prides herself in the belief that all of Riley’s core memories are shaped by joy. Joy is the leader of Riley’s team of emotions and allows most of the team to serve their function. Joy is in control of keeping Riley happy, fear and disgust keep her from making unsafe decisions such as ingesting poison while anger protects her from others and gives her an incentive to be a better hockey player. Inside Out disproves the common assumption that emotions disrupt our thought rather than organizing them. Emotions shape our perceptions of our environment, memories, and

    Read More

  • Emotions Essay

    1359 Words  | 3 Pages

    unravel the nature of these emotions so that those portraying the emotions can gain an

    Read More

  • The Characteristics Of The Romantic Period In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    742 Words  | 2 Pages

    People thrived to experience life, and to seek out emotions, whether they were good or bad. This emotion and imagination of th...

    Read More

  • Personal Narrative on Friends

    574 Words  | 2 Pages

    “No, Dani!” I couldn’t believe myself, I was talking to her as if she were a dog. “You are a ‘re-tard’,” I still didn’t really knew what that meant, but using the word made me feel older. “I’m not playing with you anymore.” I tried to look like my mother when she refused to buy me more candy. Dani studied my face for a moment. “Go away!” I exclaimed. That did it. Dani cried, and I felt cold tears sliding down my cheeks too. She scurried away until I couldn’t see her anymore. The big kids were practically choking on their saliva, laughing so hard.

    Read More

More about Character Analysis: Inside Out

Open Document