Living in a Little Man's World

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“Appearances are not held to be a clue to the truth. But we seem to have no other”. This quote was spoken by Ivy Compton-Burnett which states that we tend to have a belief that appearances are what define a persons self and as to who we see them as. We don’t take into consideration that they can be anything or anyone else regardless of their image. An example of a misjudged stereotype based on appearance would be characters of giants in all sorts of media. Hearing the word giant, many form a mental image of a very large, intimidating being who has a disfigured stature with repulsive characteristics. That mental image leads many to label giants as unintelligent, slow and aggressive beings. The filmmakers of Big Fish, Jack the Giant Slayer, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix were under that same belief that the appearance of giants are what label them as unintelligent and aggressive beings. Intelligence is defined by the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills, and the ideology based on prejudice or discrimination against any real, fictional or mythical race of beings of superhuman size and possessing superhuman capabilities is known as Giantisim. The filmmakers are Giantists based on their negative representation of giants in their films.

In Tim Burton's Big Fish, Karl was seen as a character who was gullible and easily fooled. Being a giant with a disfigured appearance, Karl was an intimidation to the towns people of Ashton. Based solely on his image, Karl became a victim of misconception and was thought of as an aggressive being wanting to feast on the residents living there. Edward bloom arrived to Karl as Ashton's hero and offered himself as the sacrifice, but ended up going on a journey together. His...

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...ense of confusion. When Hermione ordered him to put her down in a firm commanding tone, Grawp listened and settled her back down. He was like a child that still needed to be educated. The filmmakers created Grawp as a dirty looking giant, giving him no lines to speak indicating that he was not educated enough to even produce words.

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Therefore, the filmmakers portrayed giants in a negative impression. In Big Fish, Jack the Giant Slayer, and, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Karl, the legendary giant warriors, and Grawp were represented as unintelligent beings based on their appearances. The filmmakers chose to elaborate on their characteristics in order to maintain the prejudiced stereotype of giants, proving them as giantists. The misjudgement of these characters based on their image encourages the outlook of Giantism in all sorts of media.

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