Trauma and Disney

Disney Pixar’s, “Frozen” is a story about Elsa, princess of Arendelle and her cryokinetic powers, as well as her younger sister Ana. While applying the trauma critical lens to the movie does not require me to explain the plot, when Elsa is a young girl, she accidently injures her sister with her ice-powers. Ana, luckily, is cured by a troll king and is rid of all memory of the incident and her sisters powers all together. Afraid she’s going to hurt her sister again or that she might find out about her powers, Elsa locks herself in her room for years and refuses to speak to Ana.

According to Bessel A. van der Kolk and Alexander C. McFarlane, “despite the human capacity to survive and adapt, traumatic experiences can alter people’s psychological, biological, and social equilibrium to such a degree that the memory of one particular even comes to taint all other experiences, spoiling appreciation of the present” (Literary Theory, 488). After Elsa locks herself away, her parents leave the castle to attend a wedding in another kingdom. On their way home, their ship gets stuck in a storm and their parents die. This all takes place during the song, “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” and the song takes a drastic turn when they receive the news about their parents. The lyrics read,

 “Please I know you're in there,

People are asking where you've been,

They say "have courage";
And I'm trying to,
I'm right out here for you
Just let me in
We only have each other
It's just you and me
What are we gonna do?” (Lyrics Mode)

While van der Kolk and McFarlane speak about the individual who experiences the trauma becomes distant and can’t “appreciate the present”, Elsa is completely unavailable to her younger sister and she tries to grieve and eventually cope, and it’s implied that she doesn’t even leave her room to attend her parent’s funeral.

What’s even more interesting is the push her parent’s make to keep her distant. Her father says, “we’ll lock the gates, we’ll reduce the staff. We will limit her contact with people and keep her powers hidden from everyone” (Frozen). If Elsa experiences any PTSD after putting her sister in critical condition with her powers, locking her away surely won’t help. Evenutally after three years, Elsa’s coronation day comes and she faces it with agony as she’s been conditioned for the past three years to revolve her entire life on not letting anyone know about her powers or to let anyone else get hurt. She repeats the words, “conceal, don’t feel, don’t let them know” (Frozen).

Speaking more on this, our authors quote “Immediately after a traumatic event, almost all people suffer from intrusive thoughts about what has happened. These intrusions help them either to learn from the experience and plan for restorative action (accommodation), or to gradually accept what has happened and readjust their expectations (assimilation). One way or another, the passage of time modifies the ways in which the brain processes the trauma-related information” (Literary Anthology, 491). Time is definitely a factor in “healing” and it’s seen in Elsa. Elsa, being exiled to her room, has time to adapt to her conditions (accommodation) and knows her gloves stop her hands from turning things to ice. She also knows how long she has to hold something before it becomes completely frozen. She strategically revolves her life outside of her room on whether or not her powers will be revealed. After her sister gets mad at her and tells her all she knows is shutting people out, she loses control of herself and her powers are revealed. She accidently threatens the well-being of everyone at her coronation and one again, exiles herself away from the castle. It is here where she embraces her powers (assimilation) and becomes the Ice Queen.

 

http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/k/kristen_bell/do_you_want_to_build_a_snowman.html