Ethical Message of Mulan
Ethical Message of Disney’s ‘Mulan’
“A flower that blooms in adversity is the most beautiful and rare of them all” (Emperor of China from Disney’s ‘Mulan’). This film is set during the war between China and the Huns in Northern China during the Sui dynasty. Mulan goes to war in place of her father with good intentions and along the way teaches key lessons to the young viewers. There are multiple lessons implied within this picture, but one that really stuck out was the lesson of woman strength and superiority. Just by providing the element of the Chinese culture, it added an additional lesson, which is responsibility and bringing honor to your family. Lastly, by Mulan’s actions and decisions to go to the army, she implies a lesson of independence and not conforming to the expectation of her role in society.
Strength in women is an important lesson for the young viewers of Walt Disney’s Mulan. One of the first scenarios that demonstrate this lesson very dominantly is the scene at the training camp where the soldiers were asked to climb a large, wooden post to retrieve an arrow stuck on the top. For weeks, no one could do it, but with full determination to remain at camp, Mulan awoke at dawn and proved herself worthy to be in the army and ultimately proving woman worthy of keeping up with men, or even exceeding above them. The next scene that supports this moral lesson is where the troop is battling the Huns in the snow and at the last second, Mulan save her troop by firing a missile not at the Hun, but at a snow filled mountain to create an avalanche. This proves that unlike men, who just fight with force and aggression against evil, women battle with force and utilize their intelligence, in addition, to succeed. Mulan saves the army from the Huns and is told that she is “the man” as opposed to being “the woman,” which could be seen as bad. But when they find that she is a woman, they disregard what she has done and now look down upon her. Shang, the
“A flower that blooms in adversity is the most beautiful and rare of them all” (Emperor of China from Disney’s ‘Mulan’). This film is set during the war between China and the Huns in Northern China during the Sui dynasty. Mulan goes to war in place of her father with good intentions and along the way teaches key lessons to the young viewers. There are multiple lessons implied within this picture, but one that really stuck out was the lesson of woman strength and superiority. Just by providing the element of the Chinese culture, it added an additional lesson, which is responsibility and bringing honor to your family. Lastly, by Mulan’s actions and decisions to go to the army, she implies a lesson of independence and not conforming to the expectation of her role in society.
Strength in women is an important lesson for the young viewers of Walt Disney’s Mulan. One of the first scenarios that demonstrate this lesson very dominantly is the scene at the training camp where the soldiers were asked to climb a large, wooden post to retrieve an arrow stuck on the top. For weeks, no one could do it, but with full determination to remain at camp, Mulan awoke at dawn and proved herself worthy to be in the army and ultimately proving woman worthy of keeping up with men, or even exceeding above them. The next scene that supports this moral lesson is where the troop is battling the Huns in the snow and at the last second, Mulan save her troop by firing a missile not at the Hun, but at a snow filled mountain to create an avalanche. This proves that unlike men, who just fight with force and aggression against evil, women battle with force and utilize their intelligence, in addition, to succeed. Mulan saves the army from the Huns and is told that she is “the man” as opposed to being “the woman,” which could be seen as bad. But when they find that she is a woman, they disregard what she has done and now look down upon her. Shang, the