Monday, July 6, 2009

Spirited Away

Many children in today’s world are not only spoiled and greedy, but they also do not know how to ask for what they want; rather, they whine and cry until they are satisfied.  Spirit Away demonstrates this through two of the younger characters, Chichiro and Yubaba’s giant baby, Boh.  In the beginning of the film, Chichiro doesn’t want to move, and as she and her family drive away she begins to whimper and complain about how her parents are running her life.  As they pull up to the “amusement park” Chichiro doesn’t want to go inside, but she never asks her parents if they could turn back and get to their new house.  Instead, in a very high-pitched, annoying voice she complains about how the place gives her the creeps.  It is also apparent that Chichiro is spoiled when she has difficulty doing easy household work around the bathhouse; Lin even mentions that it is as if she has “never worked a day in her life.”  This is true.  Chirchiro, along with other children her age have never needed to work; everything is handed to them.

Boh, whose greed is displayed by his abnormal size, has also had everything handed to him.  Yubaba does everything in her power to make sure he does not have to leave his room, let alone lift one finger.  The audience can tell that he gets everything he wants by the toys that are thrown all over his floor.  And there is one specific scene where Sen is hiding under his pillows and Boh grabs onto her and says, “if you don’t play with me I’m going to cry,” and if he does cry Yubaba will come storming in and punish Sen, or even worse, kill her.

However, after Sen works at the bathhouse and learns the meaning of hard work, she matures and even tells her parents that “she thinks she can handle” moving away.  Also, because Boh had traveled with her, he too had grown and matured.  Yubaba was surprised to see him walking and holding his own outside of his bedroom walls.  This shows that if parents stop babying their children and begin to make them work for what they want, they will grow to become responsible and respectable citizens.

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