The Lion King's Mythic Narrative

Introduction

Disney films have tremendous reach in American popular culture and have emerged as an important moral educator. That Disney animated films generally are retold fairy tales that not only tell a story but also have a moral is a given. The Lion King is a particularly telling example of obvious moralizing, but it also teaches other values, some positive and some that might be categorized as negative. It does so through words, pictures, and music in such a way that children are caught up in the narrative and not the preaching--a narrative that relies heavily on myth.

Proppian Analysis of The Lion King

Identified Character Types:

The Villain - Scar (evil uncle of Simba)

The Donor - Rafiki (all-knowing monkey)

The Helper(s) - Timone and Pumba (Friends who discover and look after Simba)

The Princess - Nala (Simba's childhood sweetheart)

Her Father - not mentioned

The Dispatcher - Nala (makes problems in Prideland known to Simba and convinces him to return)

The Hero - Simba (ultimately returns to Prideland and overthrows Scar)

False Hero - Scar (does not try to marry princess but tries to run Prideland)

Examples of Functions in Lion King:

- Villain attempts to deceive hero with trickery: Scar leads Simba to believe he is at fault for Mufasa's death.

- Hero decides on counteraction: Simba decides to return and restore Prideland.

- Villain defeated: Simba defeats Scar and returns to thrown.

- True hero recognized: Simba is king.

- Hero marries and ascends throne: Simba marries Nala and is king.

Nietzsche view on the movie

The movie is about young samba who will be the future king of the land and his uncle who envies his brother and wants to be the king. The evil brother kills the father and tricks the young lion Simba into leaving and never coming back. The kingdom becomes ruled with the evil hyenas and the evil brother. The land eventually becomes decrepit and life less with no food or water. While Simba was gone he finds some friends and struggles with not being able to go back to the land and eventually is found by his old female friend Nala. Nala tell him about his uncle’s evil ruling and how he is needed to go back and be the rightful king. After a while and through a journey he finally gets enough courage to go back and battle his and the hyenas for the throne.

While seeing this I noticed something, this is what Fredrick Nietzsche spoke of in his book, The Will to Power. Fredrick Nietzsche is a famous philosopher and classist who believes that everyone’s ambition is power. One thing he mentions in his book is “Is it not true, that we all have suffered tremendously, at one time or another? We all suffer. Actually, we should suffer. It is our suffering (be it extreme or minimal) that highlights and marks our necessities, which in turn motivates innovation and creativity, which then breeds solutions. And that how we have gotten everything we take for granted today.” What he means by this is that people need to suffer. Life is about suffering and overcoming suffering. I noticed this when Simba was vanished how miserable and how hard his life was by himself. How he missed his father Mufasa and his home. He needed this to give him strength to overcome his fear of going back. If he were just given the kingdom he would not be as great of a leader or cherish being a leader, if he had to earn and fight to receive this honor he would cherish it a be a great leader knowing he strived to get to this point. This is something truly believe in, I notice things now and days when person is just given something they do not care for it as much as if they worked for it, the struggle to get what they want, that’s what makes you appreciate what you have.

Another thing that popped out and caught my attention is the way Nietzsche described slave and master morality. The difference between the Slave and the Master is resentment. The slave morality live on resentment, the constant false notions of blame ultimately evolve and mutate to what they call “evil”. The concept of evil is the essence of what they live by. Master morality or a Noble is a creator of values, “good” is the essence of the noble man; he does good deeds for the sake of being good, not for pity. This is the king Mufasa he has his values and understands the way of the kingdom how life is and how to keep balance. Slave’s morality, uncertain of themselves, would do a good deed because they pity the person or relate to the person being in that position and do kindness because they would feel bad if they don’t. The evil brother was just there he was the evil a slave, he hated this and say his brother Mufasa the king as what was keeping him from what he wanted, which was to rule have the power and to be king. What the noble consider good the slave consider evil. The slaves live on resentment to gain reassurance; they would blame a noble for their lack of power, instead of admitting of their lack of power and strive to gain power. Here Mufasa is king and the brother would only find ways to blame Mufasa for not being able to be king and this was noticeable when he was with his minions the hyenas and how he spoke of destroying the king in order for himself to be king. To go from having a Slave morality to a Master morality one would have to think of the present and be aware of it. One would have avoided resentment because it takes attention away from oneself, and if taken away it will provide a motive to improve oneself. To me this was the evil brother, who would want the power he could not have. He saw his brother Mufasa as evil in his ways that his ways were better.

Structuralist analysis

When Simba takes his place as king and saves his prideland:

Set up: Simba is born and is introduced to the pride. Scar is jealous of his newborn nephew. Mufasa tells Simba that someday he will rule the kingdom, everything the light touches – he is warned not to go to the dark place. Scar cons Simba into defying his father and taking Nala to the dark place, where they are nearly killed.

1st turning point: Scar begins a plan to kill Mufasa. Simba is caught in a stampede. Mufasa is killed trying to save him. Scar and the hyenas assume power.

Mid point: Rafiki picks up Simba’s scent and realizes that he’s still alive. “It is time.” Nala finds Simba. Simba returns to save his kingdom.

2nd turning point: Simba returns to his kingdom to find that Scar has taken control and has destroyed everything. He tries to stand up to Scar, but backs down when Scar accuses him of killing his father.

Climax: Simba learns that Scar killed his father and battles him for the kingdom. Simba banishes Scar, but Scar continues to fight. He is ultimately killed by his own hyenas.

Resolution: Simba assumes the thrown. The kingdom is restored.

When Simba grows up and assumes his true identity:

Set up: There’s more to being king than getting everything that you want. Song “I just can’t wait to be king” demonstrates Simba’s immature view of being king. Simba is cornered by the hyenas, but is too small to stand up to them.

1st turning point: Simba lets himself be seduced into Scar’s plan to kill him and his father. Simba runs away.

Mid point: Song – “His carefree days are history.” Simba decides to face his past and return to help his people.

2nd turning point: Simba asserts his authority, but backs down when Scar confronts him with his past in front of the pride. He is forced to reveal that he thinks he killed Mufasa.

Climax: When he has the chance to kill Scar, Simba banishes him instead, saying, “I’m not like you.”

Resolution: “It is time.” Simba takes his rightful place as king.

When Simba makes peace with his father’s death:

Set up: Mufasa has to rescue Simba from the hyenas. He tells him that he is very

disappointed in him. Mufasa also tells Simba that he will always be there to guide him.

1st turning point: Scar leads Simba to believe that he is responsible for his father’s death.

Mid point: Simba and Nala begin to fall in love. Simba talks to the stars and says, “you said you’d always be there for me.” Rafiki shows Simba that his father still lives inside him. “You are more than who you have become. Remember who you are, you must return and take your rightful place.”

2nd turning point: Scar forces Simba to reveal to the pride the fact that he believes that he killed his father.

Climax: Simba learns the truth that Scar really killed his father and this gives him the ability to come back from the brink of death and fight Scar.

Resolution: Simba becomes a father and continues the circle of life.

Myths in The Lion King

The first myth that The Lion King alludes to is the biblical narrative of life in Paradise before the fall into sin. The movie begins with a diverse group of animals, which normally prey on one another, joyfully meeting at Pride Rock to witness the mystic Rafiki's blessing of lions King Mufasa and Queen Sarabi's new cub, Simba. The king--Mufasa here, God in the Bible--rules a beautiful land, and all appear to be happy and at peace.

A second reference to the Garden of Eden myth comes when Simba is a frisky lion cub. Just as Adam and Eve are forbidden to eat of the fruit of one tree, Mufasa places a limitation on Simba. He says, "Everything the light touches is our kingdom". When Simba asks about the "shadowy place," Mufasa replies, "You must never go there, my son". The allusion continues when a tempter, in this case jealous Uncle Scar, suggests to Simba that "only the bravest of lions go to the land of shadows.

In a 1990s feminist reversal, Simba, the male, is tempted and recruits his best friend, female Nala, to go with him--as opposed to Eve recruiting Adam. Both know it is wrong, but both proceed, and the consequences are that it is the beginning of the downfall of nature in harmony and the beginning of a reign of evil. For, unknown to Mufasa and Simba, Scar has hatched a plan with his evil cohorts, the hyenas, scavengers of the shadow land who periodically prey on Pride Land animals. They intend to kill both Mufasa and Simba, thus allowing Scar to ascend to the throne.

Their plot succeeds in that Mufasa is killed saving Simba from a wildebeest stampede. Scar manages to convince Simba that he caused his father's death and that he must leave Pride Land and never return. Scar then takes over, allowing the hyenas to roam freely. The result is nature out of balance and the destruction of the land. In the biblical narrative, that means that evil is in the world, and Satan is alive and at work, a reality in which Christians believe.

Meanwhile, Simba has been rescued by two unlikely friends--Pumbaa the warthog and Timon the meerkat--and taken to live and mature in the jungle. During this time things grow worse for the animals in Pride Land, and Nata finally runs away to the jungle where she finds Simba. Nata succeeds in persuading him, with the help of the ancestral spirit in the sky and the work of mystic Rafiki, that he is the rightful king and must return to Pride Rock. When Simba returns, he encounters a bleak, desperate land. Ingoglia describes the sight: Everything had been touched by the drought. The trees werealmost leafless. Starving giraffes, stretching as high as possible, had eaten the branches bare. The enormous ancient baobabs were stripped, their stringy bark devoured by desperate, hungry elephants.The dry wind picked up, and threatening clouds gathered overhead. . . . A blinding lightning bolt scorched the earth, and the dry grasses caught fire. Not only has the land suffered, but Zazu, Mufasa's faithful servant, is confined to a cage; the hyenas, having exhausted the herds meant for the lions, are about to riot; and Scar is trying to stop a rebellion by the starving lionesses.

Contrast that description to the one in the book of Matthew telling of the last days before the return of Christ, Christ tells his disciples: You will hear of wars and rumors of wars... Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. Once again the use of biblical myth is evident.

The final biblical reference is to the description of the Savior's rescuing humanity through the conquering of Satan, and Christ's reign over a new heaven and a new earth as the rightful king, The story of The Lion King concludes with Simba as the victor of the battle with Scar, purged of guilt over his father's death. As Jung observed, "The myth of the hero is the most common and the best known myth in the world....The essential function of the heroic myth is the development of the individual's ego-consciousness--his awareness of his own strengths and weaknesses--in a manner that will equip him for the arduous tasks with which life confronts him” In one possible stage of the heroic myth, the hero becomes the culture's savior. Simba is the hero of Pride Land as he has saved the animals from chaos and possible extinction.

In the final scene, it is dawn, and Pride Land is restored to beauty. The animals once again are gathered in harmony to witness the blessing of Simba and Nata's new cub, and the circle of life continues. This has obvious references to the New Age philosophy of cyclical history, the intimate relationship of nature and culture, and the belief that ancestors are somehow living now; all things are related in the "circle of life." Consequently it diverges from the biblical account; nevertheless, the similarities between the two are still strong. The Lion King speaks in sacred myth to advocate morality.

Disney's The Lion King as Moral Educator

Although Disney's role as moral educator is strong, recognition of that role is limited. For example, in Kathy Merlock Jackson's comprehensive Walt Disney: A Bio-Bibliography, she cites a number of articles that discuss Disney's role as educator in connection with history or children's literature, but morality is not discussed. Nevertheless, Jackson does suggest how powerful an influence Disney has had on our culture: The Disney vision has permeated our culture; it is recognizable, inescapable.

Michael Real, however, not only believes Disney has influence on culture; he suggests that it acts as a moral educator. In analyzing 200 questionnaires administered to people who had just completed a day at Disneyland, Real concludes that Disney instructs through morality plays that structure personal values and ideology: Historically, morality plays served a particular religion, but today the emphasis on multiculturalism and pluralism prevents the direct teaching of ethics, metaphysics, or theology in the public schools. This leaves a vacuum for students--one not always filled by familial religious-ethnic interpretations of behavior and values. Mass-mediated culture is available to fill the void. Critics are well aware of that media potential and are paying more attention even to children's films. The Lion King raised an uproar of both negative and positive response. Understanding the film's role as a promoter of morality, then, means examining the critical response, identifying its axiology, and discussing its responsibility to its unique audience.

The Lion King's Axiology

What values does The Lion King teach? Its primary message, central to the story, is that Simba, much as he enjoys life in the jungle with Pumbaa and Timon, must live up to his calling. He must accept the responsibility of who he is--a future king. Growing up means accepting responsibility. Certainly, few would disagree that Disney is proffering a prosocial message here, using Brown and Singhal's definition as any communication that depicts cognitive, affective, and behavioral activities considered to be socially desirable or preferable by most members of a society.

A second dominant value is that the survival of the lion kingdom--and by implication, our society--depends on the relatedness of the members. Everything is part of the circle of life, posits the movie's theme song. The song teaches the importance of relationships as part of the food chain, as well as the reality that life and death are part of the same circle. Hence, the third significant message is entwined in the song: birth, death, and new birth are part of creation, and death is not something unnatural. At the same time, life is valuable and precious. The ritual of baptism adds significance to that fact. Again, those lessons mirror truth, to which few would object.

Numerous other values can be derived from the story and may or may not be observed by the children watching. They include the following:

1. There are mysteries in life that point to a transcendent, spiritual reality. The movie shows this through its use of biblical myths and, more specifically, in the instances of the mystic Rafiki's, participation, and Mufasa's appearance in the sky.

2. Cleanliness is an important part of life (even for animals). This is observed in the fact that Nala could not go with Simba until she had finished her daily bath.

3. Family is family, with good and bad members. Scar, while seemingly a good-for nothing whiner, is not cast out or ignored, and Simba respects and listens to him.

4. Father is the head of the household; mother's role is to feed and clean the family while father's is to rule. This was the relationship of Simba's family.

5. Fathers should be involved in raising their children. Mufasa took time to teach Simba lessons and had a positive, loving relationship with him.

6. Friendship, surprisingly, is a good basis for marriage. The friendship between Nala and Simba is encouraged and valued. When Simba discovers, however, that they are pledged to be married when they are older his response is, I can't marry Nala. She's my friend.

7. There is good and evil in the world, which are often associated with light and darkness. Many visuals throughout the film suggest this, including Scar's dark mane and the darkness of the elephant graveyard, the hyenas, and the land ravaged by Scar's rule. In contrast are the light of the heavens shining on Simba (and later his son) in a baptismal blessing and the light on the land under Mufasa's and then Simba's rule.

8. Obedience to one's parents is right. Simba is disciplined for disobedience, and he suffers consequences of his actions.

9. Death comes to all--both good and bad. We do not understand it, but it happens. Simba learns this lesson when his good father is violently killed by a stampede and Scar is killed in battle.

10. Life goes on even in the face of death. Thinking he was responsible for his father's death, Simba wishes he was dead; yet Timon and Pumbaa show him that life goes on.

11. Guilt can get in the way of who we ought to be and what we ought to do. Simba experienced this and learned that responsibility is even greater than guilt (and later discovered guilt was unfounded).

12.Life is more than avoiding worries and responsibilities. Simba wanted to believe he could--and live the easy life--but he found he had to accept who he was and his responsibility.

13.Honesty and openness help truth win out. By not confessing his guilt to anyone, Simba could not learn the truth that he did not cause Mufasa's death. When he confessed, the truth came out, and he was absolved.

The majority of values are noncontroversial, prosocial concerns that provide important lessons about life and community. Macintyre argues that we need to combat today's moral decline by returning to an emphasis on character, on moral virtue, and grounding that in narrative, practice, and community. The Lion King exemplifies the drive toward this kind of morality with its emphasis on Simba's character: the need for him to practice his rule, his responsibility to his community, and the importance that his story and that of his people be told. The Lion King is a mythic, moral narrative.

Work cited

Alleva, Richard, "The Beasts of Summer: 'Lion King' & 'Wolf ." Commonweal 19 Aug. 1994:18- 20.

Arisen, David. "Wait and the Waif." Newsweek 23 Nov. 1992: 76-77.

Beauchamp, Tom L. Philosophical Ethics: An Introduction to Moral Philosophy. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1982.