Nicole Affleck
EMS 301
Mr. Young
Snow White
1. Snow White is a very ditsy, feminine, and motherly character. She is very nurturing and
loving towards the dwarves. She has a very positive and bubbly attitude that seems to be
contagious to everyone, eventually even grumpy. At the beginning of the movie, she is
dressed in rags out of the queen’s jealousy, but her dress that she is known to be wearing is
far nicer. She is also very pretty, dainty, and extremely feminine along with a small waist.
2. The story begins with Snow White singing into the well, and then the
prince approaching her to sing along. The evil queen asks her magic mirror
“who is the fairest of them all?” Hoping to hear her own name, she finds
out that Snow White’s beauty is greater than hers, which results in her
attempting to kill snow white by sending the huntsman after her. The
huntsman finds Snow White and warns her of the queen’s plans, and then
Snow White makes her way through the woods. She finds a cottage along
with the wild animals, and decides to clean it in hopes that whoever lived
there would let her stay. The dwarves come home to find her lying in their
beds, and after she explains her story they let her stay. The next day the
dwarves go to work and Snow White is left alone. The queen learns of her
location, and disguises herself as an old hag and brings a delicious looking
poisoned apple. She then convinces Snow White to try it, and she then falls to the floor. The
dwarves chase the queen out and eventually a rock falls on her and she dies. The dwarves put
her in a glass coffin so that her beauty can still be admired, and then the prince who learns of
Snow White’s death kisses Snow White, which wakes her up and they live happily ever after
together.
3. Snow White learns that people can be deceiving. She also learns that jealousy can be beyond
cruel, and acting on it may end in your own failure.
4. The social values being reflected in this film are involved with sexism. In Snow White,
instead of asking if she can stay with the dwarves when they get home, she cleans their house
and makes them food, which was the role of the women in this time. Not only does she do
this, she is chipper and thrilled to be doing it. Another social value involving sexism is how
the dwarves work all day, and can’t seem to take care of themselves until Snow White comes
along. They also seem very happy to be at work when they are there.
Mulan
1. Mulan is a very determined, headstrong girl who is very family-oriented. She is very
quirky and somewhat clumsy. She is also very stubborn and courageous. She wears a
dress when she is not a soldier, and prefers to look natural and somewhat grubby over
wearing all of the makeup she does when she meets the match-maker. She has very
feminine and dainty features in the beginning, but gains a bit more muscle and shape by
the end.
2. In the film Mulan, the story begins with the Mongolian soldiers or Huns,
invading the Great Wall of China. The imperial army is then warned, and
they confront the emperor who tells the general to get as many new
recruits as possible. The story then moves to Mulan who is on her way to
meet the match maker. After a terrible encounter with the match maker
and accidently making a fool of herself, she heads home realizing that no
matter how hard she tries she will never be good enough for her family’s
honour. The village is then all called to the town square, and one man is
recruited from every family, which include her permanently injured from
war father, since he is the only man alive in the Fa family. She then
decides that night to leave for the army disguised as a boy to fight in her
fathers place. Mushu is told to awaken the great stone dragon to protect
her, but ends up breaking it, so he leaves to help her. After plenty of
training and making friends in the army, they go to the front and are
confronted by the Hun army. Mulan comes up with a last minute plan to get rid of the
large number of Huns with an avalanche, but Mulan gets badly injured by their leader
Shan-Yu who gets swept away with the rest of the Hun army, and then Mulan saves
Shang her captain. She is discovered as being female after she is bandaged up, and Shang
spares her life and heads to the emperor’s celebration without her. Some of the Huns
survived, and head to the celebration to kill the emperor. Mulan stops them with a
fireworks explosion, and the emperor awards Mulan with the crest of the emperor and
Shan-Yu’s sword. She returns home and presents it to her father, who tells her that
having her as a daughter is greater than any gift or honour. Shang then returns Mulan her
helmet, and stays for dinner.
3. Mulan learns several lessons in the film, to respect herself for who she is, and that her
father and family will always be proud of her no matter what. The audience learns that
women are capable of amazing things, and are equal to men.
4. The social values being reflected in this film are involved with gender constructs, and
how Mulan overcomes them to save her father and prove to herself that she is worth
something. The first portion of the movie is spent with people teaching Mulan to be a
lady, and she doesn’t seem to be very comfortable with it. She seems far more
comfortable bearing a sword and fighting for her family’s honour.
Mulan and Snow White
5. The two films are similar because they both star a woman or
girl who plays a different gender role. They are very different
because Snow White inhabits the more stereotypical Woman
role with cooking and cleaning, while Mulan inhabits a man’s
role in a war.
6. In snow White, the message that is being sent out is that
women do the cooking, cleaning, and house work in general and should enjoy it, along
with the men being the providers who work all day and should enjoy it. In Mulan, the
message being sent out to women is that they are just as strong as men, and are capable of
equal or greater things. The message being sent out to men is to never underestimate a
woman, and that you should always be respectful to others, no matter their gender or
class.