Shrek Belonging Analysis
Additional Material 3 – Shrek (film)
Written by: Ted Elliot & Terry Rosio, based upon the book by William Steig, viewed on the 23/11/11
Shrek is a fantasy film that is based upon an ogre named Shrek who lives secluded in a swamp; he is considered a monster and is feared by everyone. Under a new regime by Lord Farquaad, he orders that all fairy tale creatures be turned in to the guards and they are exiled to Shrek’s swamp. Lord Farquaad sends him a quest to save Princess Fiona from a dragon guarded tower, and in return his swamp will be given back and along with it, his most desired privacy.
This film supports many ideas about both belonging and not belonging, one central idea that circulates through the movie is the fact that Shrek doesn’t belong because he is …show more content…
an ogre, this presents the idea that people may not belong due to their culture and origins. This becomes apparent very early in film when there is a close up of an advertisement from lord Farquaad which reads “WANTED, fairy-tale creatures, reward” this technique shows the viewer the importance being placed upon race, and how it can affect if someone does, or does not belong. The use of strong dialogue is also used to support this idea where at the end of the film when lord Farquaad finds out Princess Fiona is an ogre during their wedding ceremony and shouts “it’s disgusting, guards, guards I order you to get them out of my sight now!” by referring to Fiona as an “it” it shows the value he places on race and how he doesn’t believe she should belong to society. This idea is similarly shown in “Romulus My Father” where at the beginning of the book the ‘new Australians’ as they are called, are given jobs at the camp in order to pay for their passage over. The immigrants are given jobs that do not fully utilize their skills “perhaps for good reason, or perhaps merely as an expression of their prejudice against ‘new Australians’” in this quote Raimond shows how he believes that the Australians were treating Romulus differently due to his race, and hence how it affected his belonging in Australia. Another technique used in this book is hyperbola, Romulus complains that Australians are different in the respect that he couldn’t just drop in and talk to them for hours like he could in Romania, saying that one has to “make an appointment” it is differences like this that make the Australian culture seem unappealing to Romulus and it is also why he even chooses not to belong.
The idea that not belonging may affect your mentality is shown in both Shrek and Romulus My Father although to different extents and in different ways. In Shrek, not belonging has forced him to live a secluded life in a swamp, this has prevented him from having any socialization with other people and as an affect he finds that his personality clash with donkey makes it, at first, hard for them to befriend each other. Donkey has a high spirited, always happy and overly chirpy personality while Shrek, who is use to isolation, is much more closed off to companionship and finds donkey annoying.
This is evident during the film when Shrek says “donkey there’s no we, there’s no our, there just me and my swamp, and the first thing I’m gonna do is build a ten foot wall around my land” this quote shows how, after being isolated for so long, Shrek is out of his comfort zone with other people and how he belongs with his swamp, and not with other people. The use of ‘happy’ upbeat music in the opening scene coupled with a close up camera shot of signs saying “beware ogre” and “stay out” clearly convey these ideas to the viewer. The idea that not belonging can affect someone’s mentality is shown to be very extreme in Romulus My Father where Romulus goes insane due to finding out that Lydia had been betraying him, he felt like he had belonged to Lydia and of course that she had belonged to him but upon finding out the truth and realising it was all a deception, it was too much for him to handle. He began to go insane and started having trouble socializing with even his own son. The main technique that shows this idea is the use of contrast, found in the quote “she found the acknowledgement that she was living with someone who was mentally ill more disturbing than the thought that she had married someone of bad or unpredictable character” this shows how extreme his mental illness had become all because he had found out that his feeling of belonging to Lydia was under false pretences.
In Shrek, Shrek never feels the need to conform to society in order to belong “look I’m not the one with the problem ok, it’s the world that seems to have a problem with me… they judge me before they even look at me, that’s why I’m better off alone” this shows he doesn’t feel that it is necessary for him to change in order to belong.
The camera angle shows him sitting by himself on a cliff symbolic of how he is alone in the world. Contrastingly, Fiona has a great desire to belong to society and live a ‘normal life’. She is even willing to marry someone who she does not like in order to become human. A similar scenario can be found in Romulus My Father Raimond finds himself wishing that he could belong to society more, “…had awakened in me a desire to live a normal life, desirable just because it was the kind of life lived or sought by almost everyone I knew” this quote clearly shows how Raimond’s desire to belong was stronger than the principles enforced upon him by his father, who is quite the opposite and does not believe in conformity. The contrast of his father’s principles and his own desires are the main technique used to show the reader that he wants to conform in order to belong to
society.
A major idea that plays a role in both Shrek and Romulus My Father is the idea of socioeconomic status and the role it plays in belonging. Shrek lives in a swamp where even donkey is surprised to see the quality of his home “look at that! Who’d want to live in a place like that” this quote shows how people can judge others by the quality of their possessions rather than their personality. There are two main techniques used to show his socioeconomic status, these are a high angled overview of his swamp which makes it seem very unappealing and low level lighting inside his house to make it appear more dark and gloomy. Both of these techniques give the impression that Shrek doesn’t belong especially when compared to the high quality of living that Lord Farquaad has and how he looks down at Shrek for the way he lives. This is also shown in Romulus My Father as Romulus never feels the desire to have any more money than he is spending and as such is very generous to people who need help (or even pretend to).
This is shown when Romulus offers six thousand dollars to Hora so that he could pay off a bank debt, and also when he payed for an entire family to get flown to Australia and was not payed back, instead he had riches flaunted in front of him by the husband “he came to the house to show off his new car, condescending to my father because he still drove an old Holden” this clearly shows how people did not believe that Romulus belonged just because he didn’t have the same socioeconomic status as others, and didn’t even have the desire to.
Both texts explore different ideas about belonging/not belonging, these include; not belonging because of race, conforming to belong, and socioeconomic status as well as many others and both texts use a variety of techniques to do so.
Written by: Ted Elliot & Terry Rosio, based upon the book by William Steig, viewed on the 23/11/11
Shrek is a fantasy film that is based upon an ogre named Shrek who lives secluded in a swamp; he is considered a monster and is feared by everyone. Under a new regime by Lord Farquaad, he orders that all fairy tale creatures be turned in to the guards and they are exiled to Shrek’s swamp. Lord Farquaad sends him a quest to save Princess Fiona from a dragon guarded tower, and in return his swamp will be given back and along with it, his most desired privacy.
This film supports many ideas about both belonging and not belonging, one central idea that circulates through the movie is the fact that Shrek doesn’t belong because he is …show more content…
an ogre, this presents the idea that people may not belong due to their culture and origins. This becomes apparent very early in film when there is a close up of an advertisement from lord Farquaad which reads “WANTED, fairy-tale creatures, reward” this technique shows the viewer the importance being placed upon race, and how it can affect if someone does, or does not belong. The use of strong dialogue is also used to support this idea where at the end of the film when lord Farquaad finds out Princess Fiona is an ogre during their wedding ceremony and shouts “it’s disgusting, guards, guards I order you to get them out of my sight now!” by referring to Fiona as an “it” it shows the value he places on race and how he doesn’t believe she should belong to society. This idea is similarly shown in “Romulus My Father” where at the beginning of the book the ‘new Australians’ as they are called, are given jobs at the camp in order to pay for their passage over. The immigrants are given jobs that do not fully utilize their skills “perhaps for good reason, or perhaps merely as an expression of their prejudice against ‘new Australians’” in this quote Raimond shows how he believes that the Australians were treating Romulus differently due to his race, and hence how it affected his belonging in Australia. Another technique used in this book is hyperbola, Romulus complains that Australians are different in the respect that he couldn’t just drop in and talk to them for hours like he could in Romania, saying that one has to “make an appointment” it is differences like this that make the Australian culture seem unappealing to Romulus and it is also why he even chooses not to belong.
The idea that not belonging may affect your mentality is shown in both Shrek and Romulus My Father although to different extents and in different ways. In Shrek, not belonging has forced him to live a secluded life in a swamp, this has prevented him from having any socialization with other people and as an affect he finds that his personality clash with donkey makes it, at first, hard for them to befriend each other. Donkey has a high spirited, always happy and overly chirpy personality while Shrek, who is use to isolation, is much more closed off to companionship and finds donkey annoying.
This is evident during the film when Shrek says “donkey there’s no we, there’s no our, there just me and my swamp, and the first thing I’m gonna do is build a ten foot wall around my land” this quote shows how, after being isolated for so long, Shrek is out of his comfort zone with other people and how he belongs with his swamp, and not with other people. The use of ‘happy’ upbeat music in the opening scene coupled with a close up camera shot of signs saying “beware ogre” and “stay out” clearly convey these ideas to the viewer. The idea that not belonging can affect someone’s mentality is shown to be very extreme in Romulus My Father where Romulus goes insane due to finding out that Lydia had been betraying him, he felt like he had belonged to Lydia and of course that she had belonged to him but upon finding out the truth and realising it was all a deception, it was too much for him to handle. He began to go insane and started having trouble socializing with even his own son. The main technique that shows this idea is the use of contrast, found in the quote “she found the acknowledgement that she was living with someone who was mentally ill more disturbing than the thought that she had married someone of bad or unpredictable character” this shows how extreme his mental illness had become all because he had found out that his feeling of belonging to Lydia was under false pretences.
In Shrek, Shrek never feels the need to conform to society in order to belong “look I’m not the one with the problem ok, it’s the world that seems to have a problem with me… they judge me before they even look at me, that’s why I’m better off alone” this shows he doesn’t feel that it is necessary for him to change in order to belong.
The camera angle shows him sitting by himself on a cliff symbolic of how he is alone in the world. Contrastingly, Fiona has a great desire to belong to society and live a ‘normal life’. She is even willing to marry someone who she does not like in order to become human. A similar scenario can be found in Romulus My Father Raimond finds himself wishing that he could belong to society more, “…had awakened in me a desire to live a normal life, desirable just because it was the kind of life lived or sought by almost everyone I knew” this quote clearly shows how Raimond’s desire to belong was stronger than the principles enforced upon him by his father, who is quite the opposite and does not believe in conformity. The contrast of his father’s principles and his own desires are the main technique used to show the reader that he wants to conform in order to belong to
society.
A major idea that plays a role in both Shrek and Romulus My Father is the idea of socioeconomic status and the role it plays in belonging. Shrek lives in a swamp where even donkey is surprised to see the quality of his home “look at that! Who’d want to live in a place like that” this quote shows how people can judge others by the quality of their possessions rather than their personality. There are two main techniques used to show his socioeconomic status, these are a high angled overview of his swamp which makes it seem very unappealing and low level lighting inside his house to make it appear more dark and gloomy. Both of these techniques give the impression that Shrek doesn’t belong especially when compared to the high quality of living that Lord Farquaad has and how he looks down at Shrek for the way he lives. This is also shown in Romulus My Father as Romulus never feels the desire to have any more money than he is spending and as such is very generous to people who need help (or even pretend to).
This is shown when Romulus offers six thousand dollars to Hora so that he could pay off a bank debt, and also when he payed for an entire family to get flown to Australia and was not payed back, instead he had riches flaunted in front of him by the husband “he came to the house to show off his new car, condescending to my father because he still drove an old Holden” this clearly shows how people did not believe that Romulus belonged just because he didn’t have the same socioeconomic status as others, and didn’t even have the desire to.
Both texts explore different ideas about belonging/not belonging, these include; not belonging because of race, conforming to belong, and socioeconomic status as well as many others and both texts use a variety of techniques to do so.