Masaryk University Faculty of Arts
Department of English and American Studies
Teaching English Language and Literature for Secondary Schools
Bc. Soňa Prudíková
Writing Inuit by Disney Comparing Representations of Inuit and Native American Folktales in Disney's Brother Bear Master’s Diploma Thesis
Supervisor: Jeffrey Alan Smith, M.A., Ph.D. 2015
1 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.
…...... Bc. Soňa Prudíková
2 I would like to thank my supervisor, Jeffrey Alan Smith, M.A., Ph.D., for his continual support, helpful guidance and offering practical advice. Further, I would like to express my gratitude to Mgr. Anna Veliká, PhD. for her support and help, particularly for her comments made in reference to the field of Ethnology and fairytales. Finally, I would like to thank my family for their patience and support.
3 Table of Contents
Introduction...... 6 1. Making Disney’s Brother Bear ...... 8 1. 1. Summary of the Disney’s Brother Bear Story ...... 8 1. 2. The Making of Disney’s Brother Bear Movie ...... 10 2. Inuit Storytelling...... 12 2. 1. Introduction to Inuit Story-telling...... 12 2. 2. Coming-of-age in Inuit and Indigenous Tales...... 15 2. 3. Inuit Spirituality ...... 17 2. 4. Representation of the Bear in Native American Folktales...... 19 3. Analysis...... 21 3. 1. Introduction to the Analysis...... 21 3. 2. Summary of the Stories ...... 21 3. 2. 1. The Epic of Qayaq...... 21 3. 2. 2. Brother to the Bears...... 22 3. 2. 3. Racing the Great Bear...... 23 3. 2. 4. The Bear Boy...... 23 3. 2. 5. The Woman Who Adopted a Bear...... 24 3. 3. Analysis of Inuit Features and Elements in the Stories...... 25 3. 3. 1. Coming-of-age ...... 25 3. 3. 1. 1. The Epic of Qayak...... 25 3. 3. 1. 2. Brother to the Bears...... 27 3. 3. 1. 3. Racing the Great Bear...... 28 3. 3. 1. 4. The Bear Boy...... 29 3. 3. 1. 5. The Woman Who Adopted a Bear...... 31 3. 3. 2. Transformation ...... 32 3. 3. 2. 1. The Epic of Qayak...... 32 3. 3. 2. 2. Brother to the Bear...... 33 3. 3. 2. 3. The Woman Who Adopted a Bear...... 34 3. 3. 3. Brotherhood...... 35 4 3. 3. 3. 1. The Epic of Qayak...... 35 3. 3. 3. 2. Brother to the Bears...... 36 3. 3. 3. 3. Racing the Great Bear...... 37 3. 3. 3. 4. The Bear Boy...... 38 3. 3. 4. Representation of the Bear...... 39 3. 3. 4. 1. Brother to Bears...... 39 3. 3. 4. 2. Racing the Great Bear...... 39 3. 3. 4. 3. The Bear Boy...... 40 3. 3. 4. 4. The Woman Who Adopted a Bear...... 41 3. 3. 5. Revenge...... 42 3. 3. 5. 1. The Epic of Qayak...... 42 3. 3. 5. 2. The Woman Who Adopted a Bear...... 43 3. 4. Conclusion of the Analysis...... 45 4. Writing Inuit by Disney...... 51 4. 1. Inuit and Native American Representation ...... 51 4. 2. Ambiguity ...... 56 4. 3. The Indigenous Way of Telling Stories...... 59 4. 4. Language...... 61 4. 5. Spirituality ...... 67 4. 6. Animation...... 68 4. 7. Music...... 71 4. 8. Conclusion ...... 73 Works Cited...... 77 The Primary Sources ...... 81 Resumé (České) ...... 83 Resumé (English) ...... 84
5 Introduction
Disney’s forty-fourth full-length animated feature Brother Bear is “a story from long ago” as the film begins. Set in the Pacific Northwest in the prehistoric past it tells a transformation tale about a boy who gets turned into an animal. The film’s creators, inspired by bear legends, created an original story set in an exclusively Native American environment, which makes it the first full- length animated Disney feature to do so. Having included some elements inherent to the culture of the Indigenous peoples of North America, it suggests the story takes place among Alaskan
Inuit hunters. This is what, according to the journalist and writer Mark Pinsky, makes the film multicultural. As he points out, the first Disney tales were in the Western, thus European-
American, tradition. With Brother Bear, he suggests, the features have become cross-cultural
(Pinsky 223).
What kind of cross-cultural message does Brother Bear communicate to its audience? In her essay Inuit Myth in Brother Bear, Tali Schroeder traces the elements of Inuit culture in the film and she assumes the film includes some aspects of common Inuit traditions and customs, as well as some elements of Inuit mythology and portrays the Inuit lifestyle remarkably well
(Schroeder 1). Indeed, drum dancing ceremonies, the influence of animal spirit totems, a transformation element, animal spirits and shamanism are generally considered to be inherent to the Inuit. The North Pacific landscape, fauna and flora and the Northern Lights play a crucial part in Kenai's transformation into a bear. Furthermore, Kenai and his older brothers go hunting caribou and whales, weave baskets and ride kayaks, which corresponds to the fact they are meant to be Pacific whale hunters and fishermen, Alaskan Inuit. These are the most obvious elements of the Inuit way of life in the film. 6 While Schroeder in her essay is interested in the presentation of Inuit traditions and beliefs and refers to extrinsic manifestations of the Inuit way of life, I am going to deal with Inuit and Native
American folktales and transformation tales and compare them with the film. I will explore particular
Inuit and Native American folktales to see how the film reflects their Indigenous nature.
In order to identify the elements of Inuit myths and tales in the film’s story it is necessary to first explore the Inuit environment. I intend to explore Inuit and Native American myths and tales and examine the central motifs in them. Further, I will look for similarities and differences in particular tales and compare them with the film’s story. The main focus of attention will be the main hero in a coming-of-age process.
The analysis will provide a good starting point for the further elaboration of the subject. How does the film portray the Inuit and what kind of cross-cultural message is Disney trying to get across?
What kind of world view is articulated in Brother Bear and how is the idea of the Inuit nature communicated to its audience? These will be the central concerns of the second part of this thesis.
In order to avoid confusion, I would like to explain how the name Disney will be used in this work since it can refer to the person Walt Disney or the Walt Disney Company. By saying Disney, I mean the Walt Disney Company. When I need to refer to Walt Disney as a person, I write Walt
Disney.
7 1. Making Disney’s Brother Bear
1. 1. Summary of the Disney’s Brother Bear Story
The last Disney 2D animated feature Brother Bear is the coming-of-age story of a young Inuit hunter who goes on a journey of self-discovery to grow up and become a man. The story is set in the ice-ages and draws on the mythology of Native people of The Pacific Northwest while incorporating some traditional Inuit beliefs about the spiritual world and transformation.
Kenai, the youngest of three brothers, is about to enter his adulthood by receiving a sacred totem at a special manhood ceremony, a symbol of guidance through life. Spirits, according to traditional Inuit beliefs can affect people's lives and can be controlled by totems. Kenai's brothers already wear their totems: Sitka, the oldest brother, has the eagle of guidance and Denahi wears the wolf of wisdom. Kenai, much to his surprise receives a bear of love. The animal totem not being what he had expected is the reason for Kenai's great disappointment. He despises bears and is mocked about his totem by Denahi who considers the bear of love to be rather unmanly. Kenai himself hoped his totem would express bravery, strength and greatness and feels frustrated.
When a bear destroys a basket and steals a catch of fish because Kenai did not tie it up properly, he decides to pursue the bear. His brothers follow Kenai to stop him, but he has already attacked the bear. The bear fights back and the two older brothers try to help Kenai which results in
Sitka's death. Enraged, Kenai then wrongfully and needlessly kills a female bear in revenge for the death of his oldest brother who is then transformed into an eagle, his totem animal. As a consequence of killing the bear, Kenai himself is transformed into one. Encouraged by the village shaman, he sets out on a journey to find the mountain and “the place, where the lights touch the earth”, the only place where he can turn back into his human form. 8 On his way to the Northern Lights, he meets his little companion, a chatty but cute bear cub.
The two become friends and Kenai in his bear form starts little by little to take care of Koda who has recently lost his mother. The two set out on a long journey to reach the place where the lights touch the earth near the Salmon Run. Simultaneously, they are hunted by Denahi who, following the example of his younger brother, decides to track down and kill Kenai, the bear who he believes took his brother's life. This is a great opportunity for Kenai to overcome the prejudice, to see the world from a different perspective and to learn a lesson of love, empathy and brotherhood.
When the two bears reach the end of their journey at the Salmon Run they engage in storytelling.
Koda tells the story of his mother who fought human hunters and Kenai finally realizes what he did.
The moment Kenai realizes the bear he killed was Koda's mother he runs away horrified by what he has done.
The story culminates on a mountain peak where Eagle Sitka, Denahi, Kenai and Koda all meet once again and Kenai has to make a choice as to whether to remain a bear and make up for his previous mistake or become a human again. He chooses to stay with Koda, and thus to “become a man by becoming a bear”.
Brother Bear is the last traditional animated feature released by Disney and makes the most of hand-drawn animation. The story is set in the Pacific Northwest and offers breathtaking beautiful views of the Alaskan countryside. The images of the Northern Lights, river rapids, glaciers and landscape are stunning. Music and lyrics composed by Phil Collins and Mark Mancina are an important part of the film. They help to get across the most important message of brotherhood, tolerance and love.
9 1. 2. The Making of Disney’s Brother Bear Movie
The stories of Disney animated features find their inspiration in various ways; most of them are inspired by classic fairy tales or classic myths. The process of creating the film story of the full- length animated feature Brother Bear was more complicated. As an editor, writer and illustrator H.
Clark Wakabayashi claims in the book of the same name, in the beginning, there was just the idea of a bear story in a grand setting inspired by the Hudson River School of painting, somewhere in the
America's wilderness, perhaps the Rocky Mountains (Wakabayashi 16). As regards the setting, it was
Alaska that finally caught the attention of the movie’s creators. The story, however, took much longer to create and settle on. Making the film took over seven years and most of the time there was only a vague plot. The film’s creators devoted most of their time to developing the main characters and the setting. The authors, lacking a good story line, finally decided to do research on Native American bear myths and folktales (Wakabayashi 40). What they found were the stories of people transforming into animals as a part of coming-of-age rituals and animals acting as people.
What these stories as a whole offered was a view of a world in which the animal community, beyond simply sharing the same space as its human counterpart, was also seen to represent certain life-ways, values, and wisdom. People gained from this wisdom in many ways – by observation, by interaction, and even by becoming the animal itself (Wakabayashi 42).
In The Gospel according to Disney Mark Pinsky suggests the film’s authors Chuck Williams, a development executive and producer at Florida Animation Studio, and his co-writer Aaron Blaise
were directly inspired by “Native American myths and transformation tales” (Pinsky 220). According to most film reviews available on the Internet, the main character is believed to represent an Inuit boy.
10 This shared assumption is supported by the setting and some obvious elements of Inuit culture in the film. The story takes place in an unspecified time, sometime at the end of the last Ice Age.
As has already been said, it took the film’s writers several years to bring the story to its final shape.
The first idea, after reading Native American myths, was the story of a boy who is born as a shape bender and becomes rebellious and bitter toward his father, who is never around for him
(Wakabayashi 42). There is a Native American tale by the Pueblo Indians that contains the same motif. The Bear Boy is the story of a boy whose father mourned the death of his wife and neglected the boy's education which resulted in the boy getting lost in the wilderness and finding refuge with a bear family. In the original Disney version, as well as in the Pueblo tale, the boy develops a relationship with a bear and learns his lesson about life and love but, unlike in the Pueblo tale, he himself is transformed into a bear. Even though, this was not the final version of the story, brotherhood, forgiveness, learning an important life lesson and initiation into manhood remained the main messages of the film.
The film’s story is the result of several years of work inspired by Indigenous myths and tales that have been passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth and which have always played a crucial role in children’s education and the social life of the community. They have been a very specific part of the Inuit way of life. As Zacharias Kunuk, an aboriginal person and a filmmaker says: “…there are different ways to tell the same story. People in Igloolik learned through storytelling who we were and where we came from for 4000 years without a written language” (Kunuk). With the art of Inuit storytelling being the center of Inuit culture, I feel it is worthwhile to elaborate on the subject a little.
11 2. Inuit Storytelling
2. 1. Introduction to Inuit Story-telling
The Indigenous people of Arctic Canada, Alaska and Greenland have told traditional tales and legends for more than one thousand years. The largest collections of Inuit stories were collected and written down by Knud Rasmussen and Henry Rink who recorded the stories on their travells in
Greenland and Canada. A valuable source of information of Indigenous story-telling were the books by Anna Birgitta Rooth, an important Swedish folklorist who studied the storytelling of the
Athabascan Indians and the Eskimos of Northern Alaska. In her book Customs and Beliefs among the
Athabascan Indians and the Eskimos of Northern Alaska, she presents a collection narratives and songs. In interviews with the Inuit, she gives an authentic account of Inuit beliefs and traditions.
The stories are meant to educate as well as entertain people and have been passed down from generation to generation with little or no interruption. They have been transmitted orally through storytellers since there is no tradition of written records among the Native people of North America’s
Arctic regions. As everyone knows, there is a great tradition of storytelling among the Inuit, says
Peter Pitseolak, an Inuit photographer, sculptor, artist and historian (Pitseolak 11). The wisdom of traditional culture was passed on to the young through a rich collection of remembered stories and songs (Jackson 230). They were stories about animals turning into people or acting as humans. The stories played an important role in up-bringing of children. People, including children, gathered at one place in the evening where one or two storytellers would take as long as a month telling one story. “Eskimo stories often came with venues. Some would be told to children and grandchildren on domestic occasions or at particular camps” (Chandonnet in Oman VIII). Some stories were told
12 during the different hunting seasons and there were also special stories told in winter or summer
(Rooth, The Importance of Storytelling 19).
A frequent and common theme in the stories of Indigenous people is transformation into animals and animals into people. Ann Chandonnnet, a poet and journalist and a resident of Alaska, suggests that “perhaps the most unusual aspect of Northwest stories is the theme of transformation”
(Oman VIII). Animals change into people and people change their shapes and become animals. As we shall see in the story of Qayak, the transformation in the Inuit’s understanding is rather different from transformation in the Western tradition. “It is a permanent ability to change shape” (Oman VIII). The theme of transformation is closely related to the Inuit belief that all objects, or living things or beings, have a spirit. “Man as well as animals have both, soul and body. It is quite independent of the body, and even able to leave it temporarily and return to it” (Rink 36). This system of beliefs is a form of animism which represents the main ideas of Inuit traditional beliefs. The Inuit animistic beliefs should be mentioned here mainly because they often play a crucial role in their traditional tales. Rane
Willerslev, a Danish anthropologist, and the author of articles on animism and other anthropological topics, defines animism as follows:
The traditional term for this set of beliefs, whereby nonhuman animals (and even nonanimals such as inanimate objects and spirits) are endowed with intellectual, emotional, and spiritual qualities paralleling those of human persons, is animism. (Wellerslev 2)
Apart from transformation and respect for animals, other common themes in Northwest traditions include, for example, revenge, coming-of-age, loyalty or courage. As Chandonnet claims, respect for tradition and responsibility to the tribe (Chandonnet in Oman IX) are also often expressed in their stories.
13 The Inuit people occupy a great area of land and the distances between individual groups are enormous which gives no chance for communication. As the stories have been handed down by the word of mouth, the storytellers needed to be fairly accurate when recounting traditional tales.
“Generally, even the smallest deviation from the original version will be taken notice of and corrected. This circumstance accounts for their existence in unaltered shape through [the] ages” (Rink
85). Apart from their educational and entertaining function, the tales reflect Inuit traditions and culture. With the absence of written records, they convey the Inuit’s experiences, customs, traditions and beliefs and are very often part of their practical knowledge. The Inuit believe the myths and tales to be truth. The myths happened in the same localities that the Indians live in, fish and hunt (Rooth
63). As James Tobuk in an interview with Rooth says: “Most Eskimos like me I don't care to listen, I
[don't] care to listen to legends. I care to listen to some true story, not legend”. What he suggests is that there is nothing “impossible” and “not quite natural”, as he puts it, in Eskimo tales (Rooth 23).
Mame Jackson describes the nature of the Indigenous people’s traditional tales as follows:
Just as the spheres of animals and humans merged in their daily experience, so did the spheres of physical and spiritual realities merge in the universe as they understood it. Stories of magical transformations and spirit flights abound in traditional Inuit lore, as do reports of the amazing feats of shamans who, with their spirit helpers, could summon powers to intervene and alter the expected course of human and natural events. (Jackson 230)
Indigenous traditional stories might be difficult to understand unless we forget all about “the primacy of Western metaphysics over Indigenous people's understanding” (Wellreslev 3). While in the Western tradition there are elements such as travelling of souls, spirits, animal people and transformation usually part of magic, from the Inuit's perspective, they are taken seriously. Although the stories seem somehow unreal in the Western tradition of thinking and storytelling and include
14 elements which are foreign to a non-Indigenous audience, it is obvious they were part of the Inuit’s everyday reality, as the collection of recorded and transcribed interviews with Alaskan Eskimos by
Anne Rooth suggests: “Daddy tell me some old time stories, the time I get my blanket ready then the old dad he started to tell oldtime story. You see I go to sleep…All my life I could remember a lot of story what my daddy tell…” (Rooth 263).
With respect to the oral tradition of Inuit tales, there was little awareness of their form as they were not meant for the wider public. Once they were written down on paper, they became somewhat static in their form. Let me add a brief note on terminology to avoid misunderstanding. Inuit and
Native American folktales are difficult to classify and they are, in most cases, simply called ‘stories’ as, for example, in Ann Rooth’s book The Importance of storytelling or in Lela Oman's The Epic of
Qayak. Elsewhere they are also called myths, tales, folktales or legends. For the purpose of this work
I chose to use the terms stories, tales or folktales as ‘myths’ and ‘legends’ have their precise definitions in a European context which cannot be applied to Native American and Inuit storytelling.
2. 2. Coming-of-age in Inuit and Indigenous Tales
Brother Bear is a coming-of-age tale and the motif of passage from boyhood to adulthood will be analyzed later in this thesis. Before I discuss the main character who underwent the process of becoming a man, let me elaborate on this stage of life more in general.
All cultures including the Indigenous peoples of the Arctic regions recognize the time when boys come of age and become men. Initiation into manhood was an important part of a man's life.
Stories of a boy who goes on a quest when the time comes are numerous in all cultures, thus it is something we are very familiar with in Western tradition. As Joseph Bruchac suggests, traditional tales may also help boys to find their way to full manhood. In fact, he believes the transition between 15 boyhood and manhood has been taught for thousands of years through traditional tales (Bruchac X).
According to Oman, the hero almost always undergoes a quest of high severity (Oman preface IX).
The theme will be developed and analyzed later in this thesis, particularly in the stories of Qayak and
Swift Runner.
As the sources show, the Inuit have no special coming-of-age rituals and the initiation into manhood largely depended on the man's ability to provide food and shelter for the family and take care of his wife. As Patricia Grimshaw observed: “the characteristics associated with Inuit manhood were related to one's ability to provide food for one's family and, of equal importance, for others in the community who were in need. Furthermore, good hunting, modesty and independence were certainly codes of masculinity and occasion for celebration, a symbol of initiation into manhood”
(Grimshaw 61). Providing food for one's family and for other people in the community forms part of
Inuit traditional values and is also a frequent motif in Inuit stories.
Despite the absence of coming-of-age rituals among the Inuit, there is strong evidence of amulet presence. An amulet did not have to be necessarily connected with the coming-of-age ritual, as it is portrayed in the film. Protecting spirits, however, certainly played an important part in the life of an Inuit. Knud Rasmussen explains the meaning and function of an amulet as follows: it is the spirit of the object, the spirit of the owl, the swan, and the ptarmigan, which come to one's aid when that which symbolizes it is worn on the body (Rasmussen in Jackson 35). In other words, the wearer of an amulet had a spiritual power and character of the animal he was wearing. There is a significant evidence of various little objects portraying animals such as bears, walruses and seals that are believed to be amulets and shaman's (tools). “An amulet is a personal and private magical object that protects the wearer, endows him with special qualities, and enables him to propitiate the necessary spirits who enable him to live life more successfully” (Jackson 35).
16 2. 3. Inuit Spirituality
The spirituality of the Inuit is a broad term and reaches beyond the scope of this paper. It should, however, be addressed here especially because of its large representation in Inuit stories, as well as in Brother Bear. Motifs such as the travels of the soul, transformation, taboos and amulets can be found in all the Native American stories I chose to analyze. Let me briefly touch on Inuit beliefs. I will focus on the motifs which are present in the stories and will be analyzed later in this work.
Before the time of European contact, the Inuit believed in “the powerful forces of nature that affected their lives” rather than in the idea of a God (Wolfson 8). Their world was filled with taboos and spirits which affected everyday reality. As has already been said, “The Inuit believed that all living beings had a soul that defined their strength and character as well as their appearance” (Wolfson 8). Furthermore, in the Preface of The Epic of Qayak we can read the following: “When a loved one dies or is lost, he or she comes back in many different ways. Some are born as a baby and some are made known through animals or in dreams that they are around again” (Tyler and Brooks quot. in Oman XVIII). As Emily Wolfson suggests, ordinary people could communicate with spirits by using “magical words that were kept very private”. Another way to receive protection and help from the spirits was wearing amulets and “a magical charm, in the form of a piece of fur sewn to clothing, or an animal tooth, claw, or bone worn as a necklace or on a belt” (Wolfson 9). Although, the significance of amulets has already been discussed above, one more thing is worth mentioning: “… Amulets were ordinarily acquired from the parents during early childhood” (Rink 53).
17 A person who was able to communicate with spirits and maintained contact with the spiritual world was called shaman or angakoq. In An Encyclopedia of Shamanism, we find that
„Inuit angakut [pl.] were traditionally women. Men who were called to become angakut transformed their gender as a part of their training” (Pratt 23). Shamans were able to see what other people could not and some of them were very powerful. As Peter Pitseolak in his oral biography recalls:
“Before I was born there were so many shamans. They had their helpers of course. They could make helpers from any kind of animal, from worms, bugs and the spirits of dead people…A long time ago they could cure people’s sickness…Aggeok’s grandmother used to fly in the air; Parr’s mother used to jump on a harpoon to fly. One man had three marks on his cheek for killing ghosts…” (Pitseolak 29)
Spirits in the Inuit world were good or bad and so were shamans. There is substantial evidence of such beliefs and practices in numerous Inuit tales. In The Epic of Qayak, for instance, we can find an example of a good shaman as well as an evil one. “The shaman was an old chief that had never in his life hurt anybody's feelings. His reward for his good life was a happy family” (Oman 49). Evil shamans were sometimes so bad they even took peoples' lives. “The shamans that were her ancestors for they had taken lives through their supernatural power” (Oman
49).
18 2. 4. Representation of the Bear in Native American Folktales
As archaeological research shows, an outstanding position among animals in Inuit and Native
American culture is held by bears. They are respected and feared at the same time. Neo-Eskimo artists “made numerous carvings of bear interpreted to be amulets or representation of helping spirits”
(Jackson 25). The Bear, often connected with shamanism, was among the most often portrayed animals and was considered to hold extraordinary power. “The reference is made to the bear as a helping spirit, in fact the greatest spirit of all: as he who gives power to the shaman and provides him with helping power” (Jackson 37). The bear is also believed to represent a healing power. In How
Muin Became Keeper of the Medicines, the bear makes a journey for people and brings back medicines for them.
The motif of a bear is associated with help and threat at the same time, as in The Hunting of a
Great Bear (Swanton) where four brothers pursue a bear who is a kind of large and powerful monster.
Eventually, they all end up in the sky where they can still be found today. In Hunting a Great Bear the bear is Nyagwahe, a monster with a great power. When the main character defeats him and pulls one of his teeth out, the great power of Nyagwahe goes to him. A bear's claw or tooth was a symbol of power and strength in Native mythology. According to the story, Swift Runner used the tooth of the
Nyagwahe to heal the sick throughout his long life (Bruchac 25).
It is often the case in Native American legends that a human adopts a bear cub or a bear, usually female, adopts a human. There are several different versions of the Inuit tale in which a woman adopts a bear cub. It tells the story of a great bond between an old woman and a bear who becomes her son. The bear lives in the village but is eventually expelled by the villagers who are envious of his fishing success. In Inviting the Bears, a small bear who had been a human being before and who was captured and adopted by bears, acts as a messenger between bears and a human. Several
19 tales deal with the motif of a lost or rejected child who is adopted by a bear family. Partial transformation into a bear may also occur, as in The Boy Who Almost Turned into a Bear. The main character is usually found by people after which the bear gets killed. However, the boy often adopts a bear cub, his former brother or sister, takes them to the village and takes care of them until the cub is able to take care of itself. Sigo, in Mooin the Bear's Child resolves to never kill a bear or its children again after such an experience. Similarly, the main character in The Boy who Almost Turned into a
Bear considers all his descendants to be part of the bear clan and declares himself to be “one of the
Bear family”.
The bear in Inuit legends sometimes happens to be an instrument of revenge, too.
Kagssagssuk is a little orphan boy ill-treated by everyone. Once he makes friends with a giant who helps him to become incredibly strong. The giant sends three bears into the village so that the boy can kill them and show others how strong he is (Rasmussen 117).
There is a large representation of the bear in Native American tales and ceremonies. More than that, the obvious and passionate attraction to the bear seems to be mixed with respect and fear.
Talking about bears was one of the taboos. On her expedition to Alaska in 1966, Anne Rooth inquired about Eskimo myths, customs and beliefs. When she asked about bears, her informants disclosed the following information: “Girls were not supposed to talk about bear, and men never talked about the bear. They would never call the bear by name” (Rooth 33). They claimed that the bear can hear you talking and if you talk against him he will kill you (Rooth 29).
20 3. Analysis
3. 1. Introduction to the Analysis
Brother Bear is the story of a young Inuit hunter who goes on a journey of discovery and the film is set in the Pacific Northwest, home to Inuit people. In Brother Bear as well as in Inuit and
Native American stories, motifs such as brotherhood, transformation, coming-of-age or revenge occur. I would like to look more closely at particular Inuit and Native American tales and compare them with the film to be able to see whether the film reflects any intrinsic properties of Inuit folktales, apart from the most obvious ones. I will analyze and compare particular motifs such coming-of-age, transformation, brotherhood, representation of bears’ character and revenge in the following stories:
The Epic of Qayak, Brother to the Bears, Racing the Great Bear, the Bear Boy and The Woman who
Adopted a Bear, to see how they are portrayed in Indigenous peoples’ folktales and in Brother Bear.
3. 2. Summary of the Stories
3. 2. 1. The Epic of Qayaq
The Epic of Qayak: The Longest Story Ever Told by My People is a traditional Inuit story written down by Lela Kiana Oman who heard it in the 1940's from different storytellers and believes the story originated in the riverine valleys of the Kobuk and Selawik (Chandonnet in Oman pref.).
The story or its parts are well known among the Alaskan Eskimos as evidenced also by the personal
21 testimonies of people interviewed by Anna Rooth during her expedition to Alaska in 1966 (Rooth 14).
It offers some points of comparison that best point out the differences and similarities between the
Indigenous and Western ways of telling stories. Both characters are Inuits of similar age who go on a journey of discovery. Qayak's and Kenai's adventure in Brother Bear have a similar setting, both stories are set in the Pacific Northwest.
Qayak is the youngest of twelve brothers who, at the point of entering his adulthood, leaves his parents and wanders around Canada and Alaska. He travels in his kayak or walks. The main purpose of his journey is to discover the world and do good for people. On his quest he encounters dangers and overcomes obstacles. He lives with animals and people and he transforms into a caribou, pike, weasel and various other animals. At the end of his journey, Qayak returns home as he had promised his parents. By the time he returns they are already dead.
3. 2. 2. Brother to the Bears
Brother to the bears is the story of an orphan boy who feels so lonely among people that he wants to become a bear. The boy often goes off by himself into the forest. Once he gets lost and wanders off to a small wigwam where a female lives with her two cubs. He stays with the bears and desperately wants to become one as well. The female bear, although she loves him, sends him back to his village to live with people and become a great hunter one day.
The main character is about the same age as Kenai and he also undergoes an important transformation to become part of the human community. It is also a good example of a strong bond between a bear and human.
22 3. 2. 3. Racing the Great Bear
The story of Swift Runner is a coming-of-age tale in which the main character goes on a quest on behalf of his tribe and chases a great bear with the help of several magical objects given to him by his grandmother.
Swift Runner is an orphan boy who is brave enough to face an unknown danger while none of the brave warriors are willing to accept the challenge. Although mocked by everybody, Swift Runner, with the help of his little dog, pursues a monster bear for many days in revenge for the death of his people. When he finally defeats it, he pulls out the great bear's tooth and uses it to heal people and wake the dead with it. After returning home, he uses the tooth and his power to heal and help people.
3. 2. 4. The Bear Boy
The storyline of The Bear Boy is very similar to one of the first versions of the film story
(Wakabayashi 47). A boy, whose father does not treat him well because he mourns the death of his wife often roams through the forest and one day gets lost. Similarly to the previous stories, The Bear
Boy is primarily a coming-of-age tale. The boy gets lost because his father neglects his education.
Kuo-Haya follows the bear tracks, makes friends with bears, and stays with them for some time.
While the boy is staying with the bears, his father tries and succeeds in bringing him back without hurting the bears. The motif of bears taking care of humans is common in Native American stories and it was also the original idea of Brother Bear story writers.
23 3. 2. 5. The Woman Who Adopted a Bear
There are two very similar stories about an old woman who adopts a bear cub and takes care of it as if it was her own son in Inuit mythology, the Woman and Her Bear and the Woman Who
Adopted a Bear. The Woman who Adopted a Bear shares some typically Inuit elements more suitable for comparison with the film’s story. Firstly, it is partly a coming-of-age story which is convenient for the purpose of this thesis. Furthermore, the transformation element plays an important role here. At the same time, it is the only traditional Inuit story I have come across where a full transformation of a boy into a bear takes place.
It is a story of love, hate, betrayal and revenge. Angudluk is a great hunter who is not only successful but also generous and “gets pleasure from sharing his surpluses” (Wolfson 28). However, his wife does not share his feelings and often gets angry because she is so busy preparing food for other people in the village. One day a stranger named Tuku comes to the village and treacherously murders Angudluk. Ituko, Angudluk’s little son, uncovers betrayal and is struck on the head and killed by other villagers.
For five days, his grandmother sings songs for the boy’s dead body and then she buries him.
At the same time, hunters arrive with a live polar bear cub and his dead mother. The old woman decides to take care of the bear cub who becomes her adopted grandson. And so they live, eat and play together until the time comes when the hunters feel the cub eats too much. Once the old lady discovers that the village people plan on to kill the young cub, they run away and settle in a cave high up in the rock walls. The young cub goes hunting and brings the woman her favorite food.
Meanwhile, the people in the village are hungry and miss Angudluk who used to bring them food. Angudluk is dead now and so they ask the old lady and her cub to come back to the village. The old lady agrees and her son, the bear cub, goes hunting just like Angudluk used to and brings food to
24 the villagers who grow fat and lazy. They even forget that without him they would starve to death and resolve to kill him again. When they want to eat him, Ituko emerges from inside the bear’s skin and kills everybody in the village. While in a rage, he accidentally kills his grandmother, after which he is grief-stricken. In the end, Ituko gets married and raises a family, and lives in the village for many years.
3. 3. Analysis of Inuit Features and Elements in the Stories
3. 3. 1. Coming-of-age
3. 3. 1. 1. The Epic of Qayak
Although not obvious at first sight, the stories of Qayak and Kenai have quite a lot in common. First of all, Brother Bear as well as The Epic of Qayak are both epics. Furthermore, Qayak like Kenai, sets off on a long journey on which he must achieve and prove his manhood. Transition from childhood to adulthood has often been associated with quest among Native peoples of North
America.
Qayak, equipped with pebbles, magical words in the form of a song of power from his father and a special ointment made by his mother goes on a quest and is prepared to leave the protective love of his parents and face the ordeal. Thus, deceived by his father-in-law, he fights a one-footed bird in an exhausting life and death struggle (Oman 37). He has a long and violent fight with a mole, a prehistoric creature who had eaten many people (Oman 96) and he kills cannibals (Oman 94). In most of the fights his magic properties help him greatly.
25 Qayak's choice is voluntary. While Kenai has no choice but to go on a journey, Qayak wants to “test himself away from home” and he “could not neglect what seemed to draw him to go beyond the great horizons” (Oman 30, 32). Kenai on the one hand cannot wait to become a man but on the other is not prepared to face the real world. He does not own any magical formula or help. He throws his amulet away at the very beginning of the film. What he has in common with Qayak though, is the severe struggle he feels he must fight. He kills a female bear in a fierce fight to revenge the death of his older brother, and yet, more important battles await him. To become a man he needs to admit that he had made a mistake and sacrifice himself. Such a motif cannot be found in The Epic of Qayaq.
Qayaq does not make mistakes and does not apologize for anything for he does only the right things.
The process of change in him is different. It is through gaining experience and discovering or developing new abilities and skills that he passes from adolescence to manhood. He helps people but does not have to sacrifice himself like Kenai who undergoes a more profound change within himself.
Qayak seems to be gifted and protected by some kind of invisible supernatural power as also recognized by his parents (Oman 29, 139) and by Qayak himself when he finally addresses the unseen force at the end of his journey.
As loud as he could, he said: “I have overcome evil with good in my many travels. There were animals, birds and evil human beings. My power came from something great. Or someone has helped me. If there is someone who has helped me, I need help now. There is a greater force than I know, I need help now” (Oman 140).
Kenai, on the other hand, becomes a man through struggle and through learning from his mistakes.
There is no supernatural power to help him on his way. Being hunted by Denahi he realizes it is wrong to kill needlessly. He learns tolerance through being the outsider and clumsy at the Salmon
Run just as taking care of Koda teaches him responsibility.
26 3. 3. 1. 2. Brother to the Bears
As Joseph Bruchac claims, one of the most common rites of passage to adulthood among the
Native people of North America is the vision quest (Bruchac 14). I believe, the main character's encounter with the bear family can be recognized as a part of his coming-of-age as well. The boy at the point of his meeting with bears thinks he is dreaming. “Surely, this is a dream,” he thought. “I have fallen asleep in the woods. In the morning, when I awake, I'll return to my village. But, in the meantime, these animals cannot hurt me – for, after all, this is only a dream” (Nowlan 50).
The female bear becomes his foster mother and treats him like her own son. She teaches him fishing, wrestling and many of the secrets of the forest otherwise hidden from men. Finally, the time comes for him to go back to his village and make use of all the skills and experience he gained while living with bears. He becomes part of the human community and a great hunter and warrior “of whom songs were sung and stories were told by the campfires” (Nowlan 52).
Similarly, for Kenai, the encounter with bears was an opportunity to grow into a man. The boy welcomes the chance to stay and learn with bears while Kenai strongly objects to becoming a bear. I believe, they are two sides of the same coin. It suggests the necessity of growing up and the fact that we all have to become adults one day whether we desire or object to it.
The choice of leaving the bear family is similarly painful for the boy as staying with bears is for
Kenai. However, it is the painful choice they finally manage to make that helps them in the transition from boyhood to manhood.
27 3. 3. 1. 3. Racing the Great Bear
The most prominent motif in the story is initiation into manhood. As repeatedly mentioned,
Swift Runner is a boy “who had not become a man” (Bruchac 31). His name is a mocking nickname that other young men invented for him. We do not know his real name, neither the reason he is despised by the rest of the people. All he ever does is to play with his dog or listen to the old people talking (31). When he is offered the challenge of chasing the danger he accepts “without hesitating”
(31). He thinks he is the right one for the job because he is “worthless” and it does not matter if he does not return. This is the first and probably the most prominent difference between him and Kenai who is not modest and humble. On the contrary, Kenai is a young, strong and proud boy who does not listen to what others say to him as we can see when Tanana, the village shaman, wants to give him advice (Brother Bear 07.58). Kenai does not seem to listen to his older brothers either and it is out of his pride and disobedience that he almost gets killed by a bear (Brother Bear 10.47).
While Kenai angrily throws away the totem given to him by Tanana, Swift Runner gladly accepts his grandmother's advice and gifts. The fact he can bend his grandfather's bow means he is ready to face the danger that awaits him on the trail. In other words, it means he is ready to become a man. Given his grandfather's cap with four hummingbird feathers on it, four pairs of moccasins and a pouch with cornmeal mixed with maple sugar he sets off on a journey. With courage and without hesitation he faces Nyagwahe, a monster bear. Unlike Kenai, who does not know what to do when he becomes a bear, Swift Runner knows how to speak with the monster because he was listening to old people when they were talking. He also has to pass through a deep and thick forest but he is ready while Kenai in his situation is helpless.
When Swift Runner wins the chase and wakes dead people from his village up, they do not recognize him. After he introduces himself they notice he has changed greatly. “How can that be?”
28 one of the men said. “Swift Runner is a skinny little boy. You are a tall, strong man” (37). Tolerance towards those who despised him is one of the signs of Swift Runner's maturity.
As previously mentioned, Swift Runner would not have been able to win the challenging chase if he had not listened to the elders talking. He would not have known where to aim his arrow and would have certainly died. “I have listened to the stories of my elders. Your only weak spot is the sole of your foot” (36). As stated above, we find a strong tradition of storytelling among Native
People of the Arctic regions. It played a crucial role in children's education and as Bruchac claims, stories have been a way for boys to become men. We find a similar situation in Brother Bear where
Kenai with his little companion Koda also heads towards the Salmon Run to join a kind of storytelling event held annually. Different species of bears tell their stories to each other about what happened to them in the past year. The storytelling event has quite a different form as it is more reminiscent of a family celebration. In contrast to Inuit storytelling there is more than one storyteller and the stories are not traditional tales. They are rather adventurous stories or experiences of the bear family. However, they also maintain the educational and entertaining function as they communicate the common bear experience to the young generation of bears.
Both characters return home changed greatly and both of them have become men. Swift Runner becomes a valued member of his tribe and Kenai finds his place in the human family as a bear.
3. 3. 1. 4. The Bear Boy
Kuo-Haya is a young boy who is about to enter manhood. To enter manhood, he needs to learn to become strong and responsible. As his father “pays no attention at all” and is “blind to his son's needs” (Bruchac 80,82), the boy meets his destiny with a group of bears. As well as Kenai, Kuo-
Haya meets the bears at the cliffs (80), though he does not fight with them but wants to play. 29 Similarly to Brother to the Bears, the female bear and two cubs become his family and teach him everything he must know to become a man. Both, Kuo-Haya and Kenai learn and reach their manhood through bears. While Kuo-Haya wants to learn and welcomes the opportunity, Kenai strongly rejects it. Kuo-Haya learns “how we should care for each other” (82). The bears teach him to wrestle, run and everything else he needs to know. When his father comes to take the boy home, he can see that he has grown up: “his little boy was now a young man” (83). Kenai, as well as Kuo-
Haya, learns how to care for one another when he meets his little bear companion Koda. Furthermore, he accepts his lesson to its extreme: he sacrifices himself and remains in his bear form.
Kuo-Haya's guide to manhood is the female bear who acts as his father substitute for some time. His father, however, realizes the mistake he has made, becomes a good father and teaches his son “all the things a son should be taught” (84).
Although we know nothing about Kenai's father, his brother Sitka acts like one. In one of the original versions of the story, Sitka was originally Kenai's father (Wakabayashi 47). It is Sitka who has a talk with Kenai when he does something wrong and acts as his advisor (Brother Bear 9.35). It is probably Sitka again who brings about Kenai's change and he is also the one who guides him and protects him on his way (21.00).
Comparing the two boys, it seems Kenai, unlike Kuo-Haya, is not ready to accept his manhood and grow up. The way he accepts, or rather does not accept, his totem makes his immaturity quite obvious. Kenai's passage to manhood is dramatic and difficult while Kuo-Haya's is rather peaceful and harmonic. Kuo-Haya silently but firmly rejects his father's help to escape from the bears when he comes to bring him back. When his father calls his name, he “looks at him and then just walks into the cave” (82) while the female bear is protecting him against his father. Kuo-Haya’s maturity is reflected by forgiving his father. Not only does he forgive him, but he also gives him some advice on relationships which his father seems to accept (84).
30 3. 3. 1. 5. The Woman Who Adopted a Bear
Ituko is still a young boy who “has the wisdom of a great hunter” (Wolfson 31) when he gets killed by the village people. Both, Kenai and Ituko, transform into a bear shape suddenly without warning or preparation. They must both face an unexpected situation, although there is a slight difference. While Kenai’s change is unwanted, Ituko seems to participate in his transformation into the bear: “I took the shape of a bear to feed my grandmother,” (Wolfson 35). Thus, Kenai is changed into a bear while Ituko changes into one. Furthermore, Ituko seems quite satisfied with his present shape, while on the contrary, Kenai struggles. Not only does he feed his grandmother, but Ituko also brings food to the whole village and voluntarily accepts to do the same job as his father. Despite being a young bear, he is a great hunter just like his father was (Wolfson 32). Similarly Kenai the boy is as impatient as Kenai the bear.
Kenai as well as Ituko are on their way to become men, although the result of their final change is extremely different. While Ituko decides to take revenge and violently kills everybody in the village, including dogs, Kenai is rather gentle and compassionate and finally resolves to keep taking care of Koda to make up for his mistakes (Brother Bear 1.12.01).Ituko, on the other hand,
“raged through the village killing all the inhabitants, even the dogs who had nipped at his paws when he was a young cub” (Wolfson 36) Kenai’s sacrifice stands in sharp contrast to Ituko‘s revengeful behavior. As we can see, Kenai is truly sorry for what he has done. Even though Ituko mourns for many days until “peace finally comes to him” (Wolfson 36) he does not hesitate to kill his wife’s groom to be able to marry her afterwards.
In other words, there is no obvious difference or shift in Ituko’s character at the beginning and end of the story. Taking care of his grandmother and doing hard work for the village people when he is still a young cub show he is as responsible as when he becomes a young man. Ituko knows what is
31 his purpose since the beginning. Kenai, on the contrary, undergoes a remarkable change. His views of the world around him considerably differ at the beginning of the story and at its end.
3. 3. 2. Transformation
3. 3. 2. 1. The Epic of Qayak
In both, the story and the film, transformation into animals occurs and is of crucial importance. The transformation element is of such importance in the film that the directors decided to change aspect ratios at the point Kenai is transformed into a bear. Once he awakens in his new physical state the ratio widens to Cinemascope's 2.35:1, the intention being to “give visual expression to Kenai's altered view of the world” (Wakayabashi 76). The change in ratios and brightening the color palette during the course of the film enhance the change in the character himself. It stresses the difference between the two worlds, that of the animal and the human. Widening the view helps the viewer see the world from a different perspective. The audience, as well as Kenai, suddenly find themselves looking at the world from a bear's point of view which improves their understanding of the idea of transformation.
While Qayak transforms into different animals naturally, Kenai must be changed into a bear by his brother, Sitka. Although the motivation may be entirely different for Kenai who, unlike Qayak, does not wish to become an animal, the result is very similar. Both of them undergo some kind of change to gain experience and learn an important lesson. Kenai learns the hard way, he needs to gain the experience of walking in someone else's shoes and his lesson is to learn empathy. On the contrary,
Qayak changes into various animals quite willingly to gain strength or escape a danger in accordance
32 with the traditional Inuit beliefs about unity between humans and animals. Thus, on one occasion
Qayak decides to become a caribou to learn the way they move, live and think (Oman 68). In some other instances he turns into a weasel to move silently and enter an abode of his enemy (Oman 75).
While Qayak regards this kind of experience as beneficial and appreciates it, Kenai is appalled and horrified. Qayak, like Kenai, is a bit clumsy at first but eventually they both get used to their new forms. It takes much longer for Kenai who obviously feels more human than animal even at the end of the film. At the Salmon Run, in two thirds of the way through the film, where he meets different types of bears and is terrified by their size, his reactions are entirely human. It is the same sequence in the film where he still proves to be very clumsy and is not able to catch any salmon (57.25).
In Kenai's as well as in Qayak's case the change proves to be beneficial. However, the kind of transformation they undergo is different. We can see the change goes much deeper in Kenai whose life is directly threatened. In the course of the film, Kenai faces difficult situations and learns his lessons. He realizes what it is like to be hunted and what it feels like to lose a loved one and the change can be visible in his behavior. It is different with Qayak, who experiences a whole series of events, pleasant or dangerous, without any noticeable change. The development of his character is less apparent than in Brother Bear.
3. 3. 2. 2. Brother to the Bear
In contrast with Brother Bear, in Brother to the Bears no transformation in the physical sense occurs. Ironically, it is the non-transformation that attracts the reader’s attention. The desperate attempts of the boy to become a bear or to be considered one, are touching. I believe the story is a nice example of a vision quest that is in line with Indigenous people’s traditions. The transformation of the main character takes on a different form and happens within him. As the presence of the dark 33 forest suggests, the boy undergoes an inner journey. Forests have always been special and mysterious places and they play an important role in all kinds of tales and stories. There are countless stories, fairytales and myths all around the world that begin with passage through them, including Hansel and
Gretel, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast and many others. According to Joseph Campbell who coins the term monomyth as a basic pattern found in many narratives, a dark forest represents the call to adventure. “The hero goes forward in his adventure until he comes to the 'threshold guardian'...beyond them is darkness, the unknown and danger” (Campbell 71). The boy has to cross the forest on his way to the bears and similarly, he has to go back through it again on his return to the village: “So the boy said goodbye to the old bear and to the cubs and went back through the forest to his village...” (Nowlan 52) to become a heroe of his tribe.
Kenai, on the contrary, undergoes a radical change both physical and psychical and his journey to adulthood seems to be more dramatic and less harmonious. Transformation into a bear for
Kenai may be the same as passage through the dark forest for the boy in Brother to the Bears.
However, more importantly, Kenai's external change is only the means by which he is able to change inside.
3. 3. 2. 3. The Woman Who Adopted a Bear
Ituko’s transformation may be sudden, but it comes very naturally. As has already been said, a transformation was a common theme in Inuit myths and is “the most unusual aspect of Northwest stories” where people and animals often change shapes, live together or marry each other. Ituko says he became a bear on purpose, so he could feed his old grandmother. He developed some human qualities so he could become a grandson to the old lady. “They ate, played, and slept together”
34 (Wolfson 32). He would even go hunting for the village people like his father used to. “Dutifully, the young cub headed off onto the sea ice, but none of the men ever joined him” (Wolfson 33).
Kenai’s experience is considerably different, as has been discussed in The Epic of Qayak. Not only is he not aware of the change which has taken place but he is horrified when he finds out what has happened to him. Only very slowly does he realize what it means to be a bear. He is clumsy and desperate. In contrast to Ituko, Kenai does not have any control over the change. He is, however, given a choice as to whether to stay in his bear form or become a human again. This is not the case for Ituko, who seems to change, or be changed, at the point of his death and smoothly passes from one form to the other.
3. 3. 3. Brotherhood
3. 3. 3. 1. The Epic of Qayak
As suggested by the title Brother Bear, a strong focus is on the sense of brotherhood. The film resonates with the ideas of brotherhood and friendship that are abundant and well represented in the story.
Kenai has two brothers and the absence of parents emphasizes the importance of brotherly love. When his brother dies his despair is so deep that he does not hesitate to revenge his death. Kenai and his brothers have their counterpart in a couple of moose brothers. Rutt and Tuke who, even though they are a clever parody, demonstrate the good and bad sides of brotherhood. Their encounter with Koda, who feels lonely and has no brothers or sisters, highlights the importance of close family bonds and friendship very well. Kenai, whose relationship with Koda develops during the film, starts
35 to feel responsible for the cub to such an extent that he decides to stay in his bear form at the end of the film.
Qayak has eleven brothers none of whom he has ever met before he setting off on his journey.
There is no emotional bond between him and his brothers. Qayak only feels responsible for his aging parents and promises to come back and bring some news about his older brothers (Oman 32). When he hears one of his brothers wants Qayak to help him to fight a big water mole he feels “overjoyed by this” (117). However, the reader feels, Qayak helps his brother to fight the beast the same way he would help anybody else on his journey. Qayak wonders where his other brothers are and expresses his curiosity about how his brother found him. In a brief conversation, his brother explains, he sent for Qayak to help him with something bigger than he himself could handle. The fight between Qayak and the mole in the story is obviously more important than the brotherly bond between the two. On the contrary, it suggests Qayak's superiority and exceptionality over his older brothers and confirms the rest of the story: Qayak has no friends nor anyone equal with him on his journey.
Brotherhood in the sense of a dedication to community is expressed in the story through
Qayak's help to people and animals in the villages he visits. A strong sense of solidarity among the
Inuit can be observed when neighbours help their fellow villagers in need as is the case with Qayak's father in law, Umialik, when he was a small orphan boy: “Their neighbours were always giving them food and skins for clothing” (Oman 46). A similar motif can be observed in many Inuit tales.
3. 3. 3. 2. Brother to the Bears
The focus on brotherhood and close family bonds is prominent in the story. His loneliness is the main reason the boy gets lost in the forest. He desperately wants to become a bear: “I am not a man, but a bear. You are my mother and these are my brothers” (Nowden 51). He despises men for 36 killing his brother bears, and wants to protect them: “If they make such an attempt, I will attack them”
(Nowden 52). He even imagines fur and claws start growing on him so that he can claim he is brother to the bears. No matter how much he tries to become a bear and belong to the bear people his bear brothers never accept him. They become stronger and quicker at learning skills. When told by his foster mother to go back to his village and live with people, the boy is desperate. Similarly, Kenai has the horrifying experience of being hunted by his own brother and being a stranger in the world of animals where he does not belong. The circle is complete when the boy returns back to his village and becomes part of the human family.
In Brother Bear Kenai keeps coming back to his people and also becomes part of the community. He becomes their brother as a bear, similarly the boy stays in contact with bears by teaching his children bear language and being able to communicate with them (Nowden 52).
3. 3. 3. 3. Racing the Great Bear
As we find at the beginning of the story, Swift Runner is a small boy mocked by everyone except for his old grandmother. He is a real outsider among his people. When the chief wants to offer
Swift Runner the challenge he even has to “walk out of circle” where the others are sitting (Bruchac
31). His only friend seems to be his little dog and the two spend a lot of time together playing. His little dog is also the sole important companion on his strenuous journey. Similarly to Koda in Brother
Bear, the little dog also shows Swift Runner the way to go. Both characters have a strong bond between them and animals.
At the end of his journey, Kenai comes home to meet his people as a bear and re-establish at last what had been once broken: a sense of unity between people and nature.
37 What we can observe in Swift Runner, rather than brotherhood in true sense of the word, is the boy's sense of belonging to “his people” despite the fact they despised him. He feels responsible for his community. While Kenai returns as reformed, Swift Runner comes back to restore a proper condition.
3. 3. 3. 4. The Bear Boy
In the film as well as in the story brotherhood is represented remarkably well. Even though
Kuo-Haya spends most of his time alone, people in the village notice him and care for him. They observe his father's behavior and do not approve of it. When the boy gets lost they ask his father:
„Where is Kuo-Haya? “ When he replies he does not know their first reaction is: “Then you must find him!” (Bruchac 81). They even help him to search through the canyons and follow the tracks along the paths of bears. Finally, they find him and insist on his father bringing the boy back to the village.
The village shaman speaks in the interest of the boy and admonishes the father: “You have not done well. You are the one who must guide your boy to manhood, but you have neglected him” (82). As a result, the father realizes what he has done and tries to put things right.
Kenai does not seem to be lonely, he has the village shaman Tanana and his brothers to support him. His brother Denahi is even prepared to revenge his death and kill the bear, though unwillingly. We cannot see the village people's reaction to Kenai's transformation. Friendship and the sense of brotherhood in the film’s story is conveyed through Kenai's relationship with his two brothers and Koda and also through the annual gathering at the Salmon Run. Bears clearly express their feelings about community when Kenai wants to leave: “Every bear belongs here” (54.42).
38 Similarly, when Kuo-Haya stays with the bear family he learns “how we must care for one another”
(84) and his father has to promise he will always be friends with the bears. The strong sense of belonging within community appears to be an important message of the story as well as the film.
3. 3. 4. Representation of the Bear
3. 3. 4. 1. Brother to Bears
Bears, holding such a prominent position in Native American Mythology, are represented in
Indigenous tales in a number of ways. In Brother to Bears, the bear is portrayed as a symbol of love, strength and wisdom. A female bear adopts the boy and becomes his foster mother. She protects him and teaches him the secrets and skills he needs to know to live in a forest. At the end of the story she is the one who makes a decision because she understands the time is up. The boy has to leave the bears to live with his own people. The bear sends him away, no matter how painful it is for her. “I want you to know that it is because I love you that I am sending you away,” (52) said the old bear.
3. 3. 4. 2. Racing the Great Bear
There are two aspects attributed to bears in the story. The bear, Nyagwahe, is portrayed as a dangerous enemy of people, however, once defeated his tooth has a healing power and Swift Runner uses it throughout his life to heal people.
Kenai regards bears with hate and despises them. However, his feelings are strictly personal and they are not shared by other people in the village or his brothers (Brother Bear 15.02). This is
39 different in Swift Runner who offers to take on responsibility for all the people in his community and whose journey is more reminiscent of a mission that needs to be fulfilled. Although he pursues his enemy, he regards Nyagwahe with respect and keeps his distance until the time comes for them to fight. Kenai, on the other hand, rushes into a conflict without thinking and the reason he attacks the bear for the first time is hardly justifiable.
3. 3. 4. 3. The Bear Boy
Bears are regarded with respect and fear: “The people of the village always knew they must stay away from these cliffs, for the bear was a very powerful animal” (80). The village shaman claims the bears to be his relatives by which he suggests they are equal to people. He shows the boy's father a bear claw he wears around his neck and he also instructs him: “They are teaching your boy how we should care for each other, so you must not be cruel to them. You must get your son back with love, not violence” (82). The father resolves to obey.
Apart from being equal to people, in The Bear Boy, bears are considered to be a model for parental love: “Parents must always show as much love for their children as there is in the heart of a bear”
(82).
This is considerably different in the film. Bears are regarded with fear and Kenai, in particular, hates them from the beginning, which results in his killing a female bear (Brother Bear
10.47). Conversely, people are considered to be monsters by bears (Brother Bear 52.13). The sequence when Kenai and Koda are in a cave looking at a drawing of a man fighting a bear on the cave wall is especially telling. The situation changes in the course of the film when Kenai has an opportunity to see the world from a different perspective. When he meets the bear family at the
Salmon Run fish gathering, he can see how friendly and goodhearted the bears are and he is deeply
40 ashamed of killing one of them (Brother Bear 1.00.48). Similarly, the father in The Bear Boy is moved by his son’s change and has to promise never to hurt a bear.
3. 3. 4. 4. The Woman Who Adopted a Bear
The bear in The Woman Who Adopted a Bear is represented in more than one way. To the village people who seem to be constantly struggling to survive and must face the danger of starvation, it represents an enemy and a source of food. To the old woman, the bear is a compensation for her lost son and grandson. Apart from his bear nature, the bear in the story has human qualities. He is compassionate and devoted to his grandmother. He is also hard-working and responsible when he goes hunting for others. It is in line with the Inuit way of thinking where everything has its spirit.
Whether the bear is perceived to be a help or enemy to people, his position is always prominent and
Ituko in his bear form never becomes an ordinary member of the village.
The sacred position of the bear in the film is communicated to the audience only through Tanana, the village shaman, who gives Kenai a sacred totem animal to guide him through life at the ceremony of passage to manhood.
Kenai bear, despite his physical transformation, maintains his human qualities, he thinks and behaves as a human. The reason he inspires respect is only because of his great size and the danger he represents to other animals. The other bears in the film are also personified and attributed human qualities. They are chatty, clumsy, melodramatic and funny with their accents (Brother Bear 57.52).
41 3. 3. 5. Revenge
3. 3. 5. 1. The Epic of Qayak
While Kenai's actions are driven by an intense desire for revenge, Qayak seems to represent quite the opposite. He does not seek revenge even in a situation that would deserve it.
As we can learn from the text: “Hate was not in his heart. He was sent by his parents to overcome everything that was evil” (58). Indeed, Qayak does not kill or hurt either people or animals except in self-defense. “Never once did Qayak tried to slam Angatkuk against the rock, he only defended himself” (124). Not only does he not take revenge, but he also shows compassion with his father in law despite several attempts on his life, a motif unexpected in an Inuit legend. “Qayak looked at the suffering old man and forgave him. He saw him with eyes that looked into the man’s soul”
(67). Motifs such as compassion or forgiveness are not present in any other tale analyzed in this thesis.
In contrast with the other Inuit tales and similarly to Brother Bear, vengeance is regarded as low and has bad consequences in The Epic of Qayak. “If only these evil shamans hadn’t tried to avenge themselves, she’d been saved from days and days of sorrow” (72). Kenai’s attempts to avenge the loss of catch and later his brother’s death lead to a number of adverse events.
Similarly in The Epic of Qayak “Someone has to suffer when someone makes a mistake. Jealousy and greed and vengeance compelled them to take the lives of other people” (81).
42 3. 3. 5. 2. The Woman Who Adopted a Bear
In Brother Bear as well as in The Woman Who Adopted a Bear, an act of revenge plays an important role. The difference between the two lies in the moment when the act takes place. While in
Brother Bear the story begins with a revenge killing and it is very important for what will happen later in the story, revenge culminates in the slaughter of his fellow villagers, animals and the old lady in The Woman Who Adopted a Bear.
The behavior of Kenai, Ituko and even Denahi, is at a certain moment driven by the desire for revenge. Kenai hates bears and decides to pursue the bear who steals the fish and breaks the basket, even though his brothers discourage him from doing so (Brother Bear 10.49). When his oldest brother
Sitka comes to his help and consequently dies, Kenai’s rage culminates. He sets out on a trail of revenge and pursues the bear until he kills it (Brother Bear 19.10).
Similarly, Ituko kills everybody in the village, his grandmother and dogs being no exception, in revenge for the shameful and deceitful behavior of his fellow villagers. While Ituko’s killing does not seem to have any serious consequences either for him or in the continuation of the story, Kenai’s story, in fact, starts at the moment of killing the bear and thus, is crucial and the consequences are extreme.
Ituko is sorry for what he has done: “As soon as he realized what he had done, Ituko fell onto his knees and wept” (Wolfson 36). We cannot be sure whether he is sorry for killing the villagers or solely for the accidental killing of his grandmother, however he “took his grief up into the cave…he mourned for many days to dispel his emotions” (Wolfson 36). We may only guess and attribute his guilty feelings to killing his grandmother. Ituko does not attempt to remedy. When his sorrow has gone, he goes hunting. In contrast, it takes Kenai almost the whole film to realize what he has done and to be truly sorry. As a remedy, he stays in his bear form.
43 In Brother Bear, the motif of revenge is accentuated in the character of Denahi, who, although reluctantly, sets out on a trail of revenge to avenge his brother’s death. Similarly in The Woman Who
Adopted a Bear, Ituko is killed in an act of revenge for uncovering the lie about the death of his father.
Denahi’s effort to take revenge helps Kenai to see the world from a different perspective and understand what has done in a broader context and more depth. On the contrary, Ituko’s guilty feelings about his previous deeds are not an obstacle to killing his future wife’s groom just because he seems to be arrogant. When the little boy Ituko gets unjustly killed by a village man, literally nothing happens, except for his grandmother’s mourning. Revenge is seen as an accepted part of life in Inuit tales. In contrast, all attempts to avenge in Brother Bear turn out badly. Whether it is Kenai’s attempt to avenge his brother’s death or Denahi’s effort to do the same.
44 3. 4. Conclusion of the Analysis
Disney’s Brother Bear is the story of an Inuit boy, Kenai, who goes on a quest to become a man. The film is set in a strictly Inuit environment which raises the question to what extent the
Indigenous nature was captured. As a part of my work I have analyzed five Indigenous folktales to be able to compare them with Disney's Brother Bear and in order to see what they have in common and how they differ. To find the answer I have compared the following motifs in the tales: coming-of-age, transformation, brotherhood, representation of the bear and revenge. Since
Brother Bear is a coming-of-age tale, I focused on coming-of-age tales with a male main character to be able to find suitable points of comparison. To see whether and how the film conveys the nature and intrinsic quality of indigenous tales I decided to analyze and compare particular motifs frequently present in the tales. The motifs are analyzed from the perspective of relation to the main character.
Disney’s story presents an Indigenous teenage boy who goes on a journey to prove his manhood which is in a line with most coming-of-age tales. The question I tried to answer was how a boy becomes a man in Disney's story and in the five Indigenous tales.
Coming-of-age in Disney is in most cases, similarly to the Indigenous tales, associated with a difficult quest that is not always optional. It is, however, regarded as something that must or is desired to happen. Kenai as well as the other main characters, sets out on a journey. Some of the other boys are, like Kenai, equipped with a special item to help them on the way. Thus, Qayak and Swift Runner carry some special gifts to assist them on the way. What feels awkward, however, is when Kenai angrily throws his totem away (Brother Bear 15.47). If we consider the prominence of the bear in Native American mythology, the authenticity of such an act is thrown
45 into serious doubt. The bear in the Inuit environment is regarded with considerable respect if not with awe. Even Swift Runner who also defeats a monster bear keeps its tooth until the end of his life to heal people. Sacred objects and words were highly praised and guarded for their magical powers. Kenai, on the contrary, distrusts the spirit's choice and rejects the totem animal given to him by the village shaman.
Although all the main characters eventually grow into men, Kenai’s change seems to be the most prominent one. Perhaps it is because the main characters in Indigenous tales are less complex than in Disney. Although we sometimes know they are sad or angry, rather by their actions than words, their feelings do not develop in the course of the story. Dysney's characters have fully developed and dynamic traits and they go through a big change. Kenai, for instance, seems to be relatively immature at the beginning of the story. He, however, grows to become a man. Qayak, Swift Runner, Ituko and Kuo-Haya are rather static characters. They are as considerate, responsible or modest at the beginning as at the end of the story. Not that they would not grow in the course of the story but their development is less obvious. While the Disney character is very often surprised or moved, the other boys accept the events naturally as they come with no inner conflict to solve.
Perhaps the biggest difference between Kenai and the other teenage boys can be observed at the point of transformation into animals. Transformation into and from animals is as natural an element in Indigenous tales and Inuit environment as breathing. In the Inuit world people marry animals, as with Qayak who married a sheep which even gave birth to his first child, or adopt them just as Ituko in the form of a bear cub was adopted by his grandmother. Most characters in
Indigenous tales regard their own transformation as something very natural, obvious and matter- of-fact, if not desired as in the case of Qayak who wants to gain some experience when he turns
46 into a caribou or to escape danger when he turns into a weasel. Disney, on the other hand, makes transformation of the main character something extraordinary, unexpected and the main twist in the story. The film creators want to stress the difference between the animal and human world, which makes it quite the opposite of what the Indigenous people believe in. It is in sharp contrast with the animist belief that everything has a soul and people are able to change shapes. If Kenai was an Inuit boy, he could never be so surprised at becoming a bear. On the contrary, he would accept it as a fact and a matter of course. Furthermore, Kenai is turned into an animal as a temporal punishment for what he did which suggests the authors maintaine typically Western, rather than Inuit perspective beause, from the animist point of view, it does not make sense. One can change shape but it can hardly be considered a punishment because everything is changing.
There is no notion of anything similar in any of the five tales I examined. Kenai’s transformation, however, partly serves the same purpose as in other tales where it occurs: To gain some experience and to see the world from a different perspective.
One of the main messages in the film seems to be a strong focus on brotherhood. The sense of brotherhood is enhanced by examples of brotherhood in both human and animal world.
Thus Kenai is the youngest of three brothers and the absence of parents in the film makes the brotherly bond even stronger. When Kenai turns into a bear he is immediately joined by his little companion, a bear cub Koda who longs for a brother. Furthermore, they are followed by their counterparts, a pair of moose brothers. Simply put, the film is full of brothers, as the title suggests. Having a brother in the film means not being lonely, having someone to spend time with or someone to talk to when you need it. Responsibility, loyalty and empathy are among other qualities attributed to brotherhood in Bear Brother. Ironically, Kenai bear learns a lesson on brotherhood and solidarity among the bears at the Salmon Run.
47 Rather than a family relationship, brotherhood in the five indigenous tales takes on a form of solidarity and a sense of belonging together. Traditionally, Inuit people lived in small, family based groups and depended on each other in terms of hunting and fishing. The strong sense of self-reliance and interdependence is often reflected in their traditional tales. In The Woman Who
Adopted a Bear, Ituko, as well as his father before him, provides food for the whole village, which is taken for granted by his fellow villagers. Swift Runner accepts an impossible task for the sake of the whole village. Similarly, Kuo-Haya’s disappearance is considered as the responsibility of the whole community and his father obeys the village shaman who orders him to bring his son back in a peaceful way without hurting anyone.
Even though the concept of brotherhood between the tales and film slightly differ, they have the same final message: Bears are considered brothers to people. Brother to the Bears and
The Bear Boy both stress the importance of brotherhood between people and animals. Similarly, despite the fact Kenai remains in his bear form, he becomes a part of his former human tribe. The song lyrics “Show us that in your eyes/we are all the same/brothers to each other/in this world we remain truly/ brothers all the same” help to get the message across remarkably well.
As has already been said above, bears are generally treated with big respect, whether they are a help or threat to people. This is also the case in the tales I have examined with both elements sometimes present. Representation of the bear is diverse in the five tales I examined for the purpose of this work. The bear can represent a dangerous enemy with healing power as in
Swift Runner, loving and wise mother in Brother to the Bears or a great hunter and companion for life in The Woman Who Adopted a Bear. Nevertheless, in all the tales, bears are respected or feared and there is something sacred about them.
48 The Disney concept of the bear is far more popular than the Inuit tale would ever allow it to be. The bear in Disney’s film is deprived of his sacred dignity. A noble and respected animal in
Indigenous tales is portrayed as an ordinary and merry character in Disney’s film. The bear is personified and possesses a close resemblance to people. The little bear cub Koda is a chatterbox,
Kenai is a new confused and clumsy member of the bear family, the female bear at the Salmon
Run is as melodramatic as a woman can be (Brother Bear 58.26). The attribution of human qualities brings the bear closer to the audience, however, it makes it less authentic from an Inuit person’s point of view. Although Disney's reasons for doing so are understandable, it still raises the question: What audience is the film made for?
The last part of the analysis deals with and compares the motif of revenge in the indigenous tales and in Disney and two concepts emerge. Revengeful behavior frequently occurs in The Eskimo Folk-tales collected by Knud Rasmussen (Rasmussen, Eskimo folk-tales). It is, however, a motif not so frequently found in the five tales I decided to explore for the purpose of this work. The act of revenge that typically occurs in Inuit tales can be found in The Woman Who
Adopted a Bear where Ituko and his fellow villagers commit acts of violence in a fit of anger.
People who take revenge rarely, if ever, suffer remorse. Ituko's sad feelings are the consequence of killing his own grandmother together with his fellow villagers, not by the slaughter of the whole village. Vengeance similarly to that in Brother Bear is not planned, rather it is something that happens. In contrast with the film, it does not cause either surprise or remorse. Kenai, on the other hand, feels pangs of remorse the moment he realizes what he has done and acts accordingly.
His wrongful killing is a necessity for the main character to develop and for the story to continue.
On the contrary, revengeful killing is not an event of big importance in the life of Ituko, despite
49 killing his own grandmother by mistake. A few weeks later he kills a man again only to marry a woman who belonged to him.
It appears that the indigenous tales and Disney use two different concepts of killing and revenge: one that is crucial for the life and development of the character and one that happens at random, as a sudden consequence of a previous event but without being of greater importance for continuation of the story or the character development.
Despite the fact Brother Bear is a film about a young Inuit boy where the same motifs as in Indigenous tales are present, their meaning and message appear to be slightly shifted. Although they meet at some point, the underlying concepts are in most cases different, in some even fundamentally different. The question arises as to what audience does Disney’s Brother Bear talk to? In the following chapter I will elaborate on the message the film conveys in terms of representation of Inuit people and their culture. I believe the previous analysis can be a good starting point for further study of the Inuit representation in the film with the focus on authentic portrayal of the Indigenous nature.
50 4. Writing Inuit by Disney
“To start a story, for example, not in a linear fashion 'from the beginning', or to come into a story without a preconceived beginning and ending, but rather with anything that emerges at a specific moment in one’s thinking process, that relates back to one’s intimate experience, and then, to proceed slowly from there … means letting things come to you rather than seizing or grasping them.” (Tinh T. Minh-ha in Chambers and Curti 4)
4. 1. Inuit and Native American Representation
Brother Bear is in a sense an exceptional example in that it presents only Indigenous culture. It is the only Disney full-length animated feature that focuses exclusively on Native
American culture in the northern environment. The film presentation of Native American characters who were created by non-Native people deserves to be critically examined for its accuracy and authenticity, whether these were the filmmakers' goal or not.
Animated films by the Walt Disney Company, as well as its other cultural products, belong among the products of popular culture, more specifically, American popular culture. The
Walt Disney Company, one of the most famous conglomerates, is considered to be one of the biggest icons of popular culture (Wantasen 4). As such, the films produced by Disney represent and communicate to the audience some typically American values and ideas shared and accepted by the majority of American people. Indeed, ideas such as tolerance, equality, goodness and humanity, family values and looking to the future are often expressed in Disney films. As Ralph
S. Izard puts it, “One can look deeper into the Disney productions and find lessons there on the art of living and in the values which generally are considered desirable in American Christian 51 society. His films emphasize individualism, decency, appreciation of beauty, love for our fellow man, fair play and toleration” (Izard 39).
A multinational media conglomerate of this size and influence is more likely to be in a position to exert greater influence on our ideas and opinions than anyone else in this field. This is the reason why Disney films have always given rise to much debate and provoked strong reaction, ranging from widespread acceptance to the outright rejection of the ideas they represent.
Since the representation of the Inuit race and its culture in Disney Brother Bear will be the central concern of this chapter, let me elaborate on the subject of racism and stereotyping in
Disney films.
As for the race and class differences, Douglas Brode, a novelist, playwright, screenwriter, and a journalist who teaches cinema studies and popular culture, presumes that the cultural impact of Disney on its audience rests in the “teaching of tolerance and acceptance through a heightened understanding of the full range of diversity among members of the human race”
(Brode 17). More than that, he also believes that “the back to nature movement, radical environmentalism … were introduced in Disney movies” a long time before they became the mainstream (Brode 6). He goes as far as to suggest “that [Walt] Disney … was a single member of Old Hollywood who set what would come to be called multiculturalism into motion. His works challenge all those societal norms and once-unquestioned values...” (Brode 19). As he further claims and demonstrates in particular examples, class and race do not make a difference in
Disney films (56). Disney, according to Brode, brings races together and portrays Native
American characters remarkably well for the period the films were created.
Just as the company is praised for emphasizing good values and promoting tolerance it is often accused of quite the opposite. Disney films must frequently face repeated and numerous
52 accusations, according to Eleanor Byrne and Martin McQuillan in Deconstructing Disney. They include: “sexism, racism, conservatism, heterosexism, andro-centrism, imperialism (cultural), imperialism (economic), literary vandalism, jingoism, aberrant sexuality, censorship, propaganda, paranoia, homophobia, exploitation, ecological devastation, anti-union repression, FBI collaboration, corporate raiding, and stereotyping” (Byrne, McQuillan 1).
As regards representation of race, Byrne and Mc Quillan, observe negative criticism provoked by representation of “happy plantation workers” in Song of the South and pay attention to Disney’s apparent “difficulty with black characters in the animated films” (95). They also suggest that the level of “Disney filmic racism” has widened ever since, referring especially to
Aladdin and the “Arab boycott of Disney products in response to persistent negative portrayals of
Arabs in Disney films” (7). Further, they are concerned with the process of Native American portrayal in Peter Pan and Pocahontas pointing out a huge difference between the two representations in time. “Peter Pan’s monosyllabic, grotesquely bright red, misshapen, savage
“injuns” become a tribe of bronzed, articulate, civilized, beautiful people [in Pocahnotas]...As red turns to copper, the role of “Indians” changes in relation to the demands made on Native
American cultures by white consumers and the debts they owe” (106). They accuse Disney of heavy stereotyping and appropriating Native American characters in every possible way.
Portrayal of races in Disney is of concern to Nóra Borthaiser who, in her critical study, suggests that “the evil characters in the film [Aladdin] have typical Middle-Eastern features”, while good characters have “Western profiles” (Borthaiser).
It may well not be true and, perhaps, we can really agree with Brode and describe
Disney's portrayal of Native experience as non-discriminating and well-meant, nevertheless, what exactly is the picture of Indigeneity that Disney films communicate to their audience? Is the
53 intention of promoting tolerance and cross-cultural understanding successful? As Lorri
McDougall aptly points out “Writing that is not racist in its intention, can be racist in its function”
(Mc Dougall quot. in Groening 5). Further, as Foucault says, “The best of intentions can become the tools of oppression” (Foucault quot. in Groening 5). Borthasier is not the only one to suggest that Disney's interpretation of non-white races is mere re-telling of the Western story.
Appropriation of the Indigenous voice has been an important issue in post-colonial studies and is of main concern to Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin who in their famous book The Empire Writes Back lay the foundations for post-colonial criticism and provide valuable material for understanding the mechanisms of post-colonial societies. Appropriation of voice involves creation of a Native character by non-Natives on the basis of shared stereotypes or imposing Western values on Indigenous traditions. As a full-length animated feature set in a
Pacific Northwest, Brother Bear emphasizes Native American culture and is among the works that deal with the post-colonial subject.
Since the American filmmakers decided to create Indigenous characters, Inuit hunters, they could not avoid the problem of portraying a different culture. Constructed images of
Indigenous people in post-colonial times “need to be interrogated for their accuracy” (Emelobe
211). Indigenous characters created by whites on the basis of common stereotypes are subjected to various interpretations. Such characters displayed to the (white) public allow for the reinforcement of popular stereotypes. The Indigenous person is offered, or rather imposed on, the
“white” view of himself, or, as Fanon puts it: “...he looks at himself through the white man's eyes” (Fanon quot. in Nayar 8).What is the picture of the Inuit and how far is their voice appropriated? The question I will try to answer is: Do Kenai and his brothers represent the
54 Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest or are they “imagined and invented” characters, as
Emeka Emelobe suggests is the case in Hollywood's representations of Africa (217)?
I will draw on Renée Hulan’s book Northern Experience and the Myths of Canadian Culture and examine representations of Inuit culture in Brother Bear. Special attention will be paid to common stereotypes of the Inuit as a people who belong to the past and have special access to the spiritual world.
The idea of the North is often romanticized and the North is presented as the place of a great challenge and spiritual renewal which reinforces the perception of the Inuit as a non- developing culture. I will focus on the tendency to present Indigenous cultures as “static” and
“frozen-in-time” as the opposite is true.
Finally, I would like to see how much effort the filmmakers put in the creation of
Indigenous characters and environment and what kind of narrative the story tells. Like other cultures, Indigenous culture is reflected in stories, language and the way people communicate. I will examine the means employed to encourage cross-cultural understanding and see how successful they are in portraying Inuit culture and values. I intend to draw on the previous analysis of Inuit tales and rely on a post-colonial theory.
55 4. 2. Ambiguity
The first issue in Brother Bear I would like to address here is the issue of ambiguity.
Taking into account the fact the story of Brother Bear is, according to its authors, inspired by
Inuit and Native American legends, thus it is supposed to be something that really happened in distant history, the number of ambiguities is rather disturbing. Whether it is the ambiguity of source, time, place or language, it leaves a slight sense of confusion in its audience.
56 It seems quite impossible to trace the source of the writers‘inspiration, since no particular legend or tale is revealed in available resources. As we learn from Sitka, the narrator, at the beginning of the film: “This is a story from long ago when the great mammoths still roamed our lands” (Brother Bear 00:47). The first sentence uttered in English is, however, immediately followed by several sentences uttered in “native language”. Given the fact that an ordinary viewer has no access to the official script, he is not likely to either realize or find out what language is
Sitka speaking, even if this kind of information was included in it. The audience is left with a vague feeling they are watching a story about an unspecified Native American, perhaps Inuit, tribe. It takes some detective work and a piece of luck to discover the main characters are most likely to be Inuit: Brother Bear is included among Inuktitut-langugage films according to
Wikipedia (“Inuktitut-language films”). Further, even if we consider Kenai and his brothers to be
Inuit people, their origin still remains rather a vague notion. Reneé Hulan notes that “Like the
‘Native’, the people of the ‘North’ are not always differentiated from each other in literary representation but treated as having one pan-northern identity” (Hulan 29). This is exactly what happens in Brother Bear. Despite the fact that Inuit culture is “not monolithic but rather varies from region to region and can even vary in practice from Inuk to Inuk” (The Inuit way 2), we are being introduced to a Native American character without a greater awareness of where he comes from. This is what Hulan aptly describes as “timeless images” (Hulan 76). This kind of inexplicit identity can reinforce the stereotypical images people create about Indigenous people. However,
“Identity, even for indigenous groups, is never static, but is ‘articulated’ and fluid” (Ashcroft,
Griffiths, Tiffin 164). On the contrary, The Inuit way: a guide to Inuit culture, a document created to introduce modern Inuit culture and overcome cultural differences, is a proof that it is of special
57 concern to Inuit people not to be seen as 'frozen in time': “Inuit culture is not monolithic but rather varies from region to region...nor is it culture frozen in time” (The Inuit way 8).
At this point, I would like to make the observation that the importance of setting stories in a particular area appears to be quite different in Inuit and Native American context. They, in their written form, always state the place of their origin either under the title or at the beginning of the story. Since Inuit stories were mostly handed down through word of mouth and were meant for a particular audience, no description was necessary, I suppose. However, various Indigenous tribes are proud of their stories and would claim particular ones to be their own as in the Inupiaq story
The Epic of Qayak: “Many tribes in Alaska feel that Qayaqtuagaqniqtuq is their own story.
Claiming it as their very own, they say, ‘It came from our river!’ ” (Oman XVI). Thus, instead of a vague piece of information “This is a story from long ago” in Brother Bear, The Epic of Qayak begin as follows: “In the lower valley of the Kobuk river lived two families…” (Oman 5) or elsewhere: “Some went inland to the East, some went toward the North and one man and wife went South to the mouth of the Selawik River” (Oman 5).
By setting the story in distant past and pre-contact period, the filmmakers avoid some problematic issues, especially the period of colonization and inclusion of white characters.
Omission of white characters in the film emphasizes the past. Further, by setting the story in distant past the film confirms Renée Hulan's assumption that “Non-Inuit writing on the north is often preoccupied with two supposed elements of Inuit experience: Inuit access to the Stone Age past as a “contact-traditional” hunting society, and Inuit access to exotic spirituality” (Hulan 60).
Brother Bear provides excellent examples of both by taking place a long time ago and being the story of an Inuit hunter who gets turned into a bear by Spirits.
58 The ambiguity of place, already criticized by Borthasier in Aladdin, happens in Brother
Bear as well. The only idea of place we get from watching the film is an abstract idea of the
North, which is supported by the occurrence of mountains, snow, caribou and, presumably,
Northern lights.
The animation of countryside and landscape in Brother Bear is breathtaking, to be sure.
The thrilling view of the natural environment is just beautiful – glaciers, soaring mountains, tundra, winding canyons. What I consider to be problematic, however, is the small degree of authenticity. The film draws much of its inspiration in “romantic images of America's wilderness: the Hudson River School of painting” (Wakabayashi 16). As Disney chairman and CEO Michael
Eisner recalls: “...the concept for a new movie began with a simple but grand setting in mind – the Rocky Mountains and the American West” (Wakabayashi 16). The animation process happened in several stages and different types of locations were put together while creating the setting for the film. The group of creators visited Sequoia National Park in California, The Grand
Tetons and Yellowstone National Parks in Wyoming, Kenai Fjords and Denali National Parks in
Alaska (Wakabayashi 57). What we can see in Brother Bear is a mixture of various environments, their aim being to depict “living, breathing land” (57), not a particular place.
Furthermore, it confirms another argument made by Hulan that “representations of the north have drawn on discourses…, such as the nineteenth-century Romantic fascination with the relationship of mankind to the natural environment” (Hulan 5).
4. 3. The Indigenous Way of Telling Stories
59 There are different ways of telling stories. The Inuit way of telling stories, as previously described, is a very special one. What are the unique features of Inuit writings and oral literature?
And where lies the difference between Western (Disney) and Indigenous storytelling?
Our culture reflects in the way we tell our stories. People with no story do not know where they came from and where they are going. “Indeed, literature and the art of 'storytelling' are in some way the X-rays both of our culture and our collective unconscious, and can trace our inner life both as individuals, as societies and as the so-called global 'village'” (Natale and
Buchhotz 14). The previous quote resonates with the idea of stories reflecting Indigenous peoples' culture. As Renée Hulan points out: “southern writers write as if they can imagine the
Inuit to be whatever they want…” (Hulan 75). The decision of the Disney company to make a story about Inuits from the pre-contact period confirms another Hulan's claim that “The preference for past tradition, evident in the popularity of Native storytelling, places native people in the museum with all the other extinct species” (75).
I like what Trinh T. Minh-ha, an Indigenous writer and filmmaker, says on the subject of creating her stories and films:
Never does one open the discussion by coming right to the heart of the matter … to allow it to emerge, people approach it indirectly by postponing until it matures, by letting it come when it is ready to come. There is no catching, no pushing, no directing, no breaking through, no need for a linear progression which gives the comforting illusion that one knows where he goes…One can only approach things indirectly… (Trinh T. Minh-ha in Chambers and Curti 3,4)
60 Indeed, the most prominent feature in Indigenous writing, especially in longer stories, is starting a story not in a linear fashion. The Epic of Qayak illustrates this quite clearly. The story sometimes jumps back as certain situations repeat. The linear fashion is also broken by including stories from times when Qayak was not even born yet as in “The story of big flood as it was told by Qayak’s wife” or someone else’s story starts to be told as in “From another storyteller: How a young orphan boy grew up to be the Umialik whose daughter became Qayak’s wife” (Oman).
There are two occasions in Brother Bear when the audience is presented with a storytelling event: at the beginning of the film and at the Salmon Run gathering.
To the filmmakers’ credit, Brother Bear’s story does not start in a linear fashion either. It starts to unfold when Sitka, the middle brother, tells a story of three brothers. The story is told retrospectively from an internal point of view and we can tell he is directly involved in the story.
There is a little discrepancy in Sitka’s being part of the story “from long ago when the great mammoths still roamed our lands”. However, including a storytelling event, one of the most important elements in Inuit culture, is a brave attempt to make the film more authentic.
After Sitka’s introduction, Brother Bear story develops in a rather predictable way. When
I say the story is predictable, I mean it is such from other than an Inuit persons’s point of view. I daresay so drawing on the previous analysis of Inuit and Native American folktales because I believe, the story includes a lot of deviation from Indigenous culture. In comparison to
Indigenous tales it is too straightforward, I think. Trinh T. Minh-ha quoted in Ann Kaplan’s book
Looking for the other, described her approach to the creation of her films as follows: “... the films are made to offer spectators many entries, many exits. There are multiple foldings, not simply
61 different interpretations” (Kaplan 197). Seeing Brother Bear from this perspective, it fails to meet the expectations.
4. 4. Language
“Language is the most complete embodiment of a culture and a story without its original language is only a shadow of the original” (Chadonnet quot. in Oman xii). The previous quote is made by Ann Chadonnet in the preface of The Epic of Qayak and applies to aboriginal stories translated into other languages. In the course of time, the Inuit have undergone an extensive change. In order for the stories not to be lost, they needed to be collected and written down. Once they were removed from oral tradition and put down on paper the problem of oral versus textual narration arose. She points to the fact that some cultural details are doomed to get lost in translation, especially because traditional Inuit stories have been handed down orally in a way that “the storyteller employs dramatic pauses, differing tones of voice, dialect or accents and laughter” (Chadonnet quot. in Oman X).
Ann Rooth observed the oral styles of narrative technique in Northern Alaska and she found it very different from the ordinary way of speaking: “They spoke slowly, pitching their voices rather low. Sometimes they whispered, thus stressing the mystery of the stories… she told the story in a slow and suggestive manner without gestures and without mimicry” (Rooth, The importance of storytelling 57).
My argument is that creation of a film that tells a story of Indigenous people in English is, and will always be problematic in terms of authenticity and communication. Joseph DeVito makes the distinction between high-context and low-context cultures which is based especially on 62 the amount of shared knowledge and information. While a member of a high-context culture relies on information shared, for example, through previous communications, assumptions or knowledge of others and uses a minimum or no words, a low-context member will explicitly state most information verbally (DeVito 44 - 50). Drawing on the analysis of the five Indigenous stories and available information on the Inuit’s way of communication, they represent an example of a high-context culture. This means that understanding messages communicated Disney way is most likely going to be difficult to a member of a high-context culture. As De Vito points out, it may even “prove insulting, insensitive or unnecessary” (DeVito 47).
Considering language, Brother Bear does not even try to pretend to employ or imitate the aboriginal style. Rather, as Trinh-T. Min-ha maintains: “it grasps the native’s point of view and realizes his vision of his world” (Min-ha in Kaplan 197). The immediate feeling one gets when watching the opening scene of Brother Bear is that of watching three American boys in Inuit clothes riding their kayaks. Let me demonstrate the means of expression used in Brother Bear.
The following dialogue takes place in one of the opening scenes:
[A ….of caribou running in the boys' direction]
Kenai: Get down, get down!
Sitka: Kenai!
Kenai: Never try to milk a caribou.
[They fight]
Sitka: [Prepares to spit on Kenai]
Kenai: No, no. Don’t, don’t.
Denahi: Hey, will you two knock it off?
63 Kenai: That’s all right Sitka. After today, he won’t treat me like that anymore.
Sitka: Oh, right…the big manhood ceremony.
Sitka: There he [Kenai] is. Ha ha! Come here, loverboy.
Kenai: Uhh. Leave me alone!
(Brother Bear 02.01)
[After receiving his totem]:
Sitka: Aw, Kenai, wait. I’m sorry.
Kenai: What?
Sitka: Your totem… I think it’s really great.
Kenai: You do?
Sitka: And I made you something.
Kenai: Really?
[giving him flowers]
Sitka: Now when you skip around loving everybody…you’ll smell so sweet.
Denahi: Isn’t it nice, instead of fighting you’re giving each other flowers.
Sitka: He’s so in touch with his totem already.
Kenai: Hey, dog breath, go take care of the fish.
Sitka: Sure. Kenai loves me, he loves me not…
(Brother Bear 08.55)
As obvious, there is no room for silence. Words are approached directly without hesitation. Utterances are explicit as opposed to Indigenous stories where there are always hidden
64 messages and words unspoken or carefully chosen. A remarkable demonstration of Inuit communication on screen can be seen in a film by Zacharias Kunuk, Atanarjuat: The Fast
Runner. It retells an old Inuit legend and is acted in Inuktit by Inuit actors (Atanarjuat: The Fast
Runner). The difference in the main characters' interaction when compared with the Western style, is immense. While Indigenous people leave spiritual topics, sacred objects or dangerous animals out, the boys in Brother Bear boldly discuss the sacred ceremony while fooling around.
Kenai even tries to trade his totem, the Bear of Love, it not being what he expected. The way people (and animals) communicate in Indigenous stories is less explicit.
“Northern peoples employ circumlocution when discussing beings or activities that embody spiritual power or luck in the hunt. A bear, for example, is too powerful to mention directly, so he might be referred to as ‘that big brown one’. The indirect reference shows polite deference and avoids alarming a potential quarry. ” (Tyler and Brooks in Oman X)
I consider the following scene from The Epic of Qayak to be an excellent example of high-context communication. For instance, when Qayak comes to the village of his future father in law, Umialik, he does not go directly to his house. Rather he visits an old couple and waits for
Umialik to send for him. When he enters the house, he makes some observation but no words are spoken. His future wife only gives him “a brief smile” (21) and goes on sewing. What is said is said only in Qayak’s mind. Although Umialik must see him because “his feet [are] against the wall, he lay facing the door” (22), he does not say a word and Qayak wonders: “Isn’t he going to say something to me?” (22). Not even after a few months in Umialik’s house is Qayak addressed directly: “Maybe tomorrow he will address me directly” (22) he says in winter. When Umialik
65 finally speaks to him, the other boys notice this and “with not a single word they leave” (23).
There is a lot of noticing and observing in the aboriginal writings and very little noticing and observing in Brother Bear. In fact, very little information in the film passes, either to the audience or to the viewer, without words. People and animals are either engaged in dialogues or music accompanied by lyrics is playing. The following quote illustrates well the communication that takes place in The Epic of Qayak.
“Sometimes people communicate without words. They communicate with their eyes or with actions. There are three good examples of speaking only in the epic [of Qayak]..: “they understood this and returned her love, showing it in obedience and in their shining eyes, never, never, in words.” (Tyler and Brooks in Oman XVIII)
Main characters in Inuit or Native American folktales are never as chatty as Koda, Kenai’s little companion in bear form, or Rutt and Tuke, the two moose brothers. Further, an Indigenous character would probably never use as much irony as the characters in Brother Bear.
Rutt: Yeah. Hey, my name’s Rutt. This is my brother Tuke.
Tuke: How’s it going, bear?
Kenai (bear): Don’t call me that.
Rutt: Sorry, uh, uh, Mr. Bear?
Kenai (bear): I am not a bear. I hate bears.
Tuke: Well, gee, eh? You’re one big beaver. No kiddin‘, eh?
…
Tuke: We understand, we’re not moose, either. We’re like, uh…we’re like squirrels. Yeah.
66 (Brother Bear 27.50)
Irony is something that cannot be found in any of the Indigenous stories I analyzed for the purpose of this thesis. Although I understand the filmmakers’ intention to include humor and make the film funny and attractive for a wide audience it is in stark contrast to the true
Indigenous way. The same applies to simile and metaphors: “…figurative devices such as metaphors and similes are rare in Indigenous Alaskan stories” (Chadonnet in Oman VIII).
Similarly, informal expressions such as “no kidding”, “knock it off” or “how is it going” can hardly be considered to be a part of Inuit storytelling. As Steven Holden in his review points out “…a semi-Arctic pre-Columbian paradise where all members of the animal kingdom except humans speak the same language. But that language often has a jarring contemporary ring. Who knew that 10,000 years ago the word dude was as ubiquitous as it is today?” (Holden)
To compare the language of Kenai and his brothers with language of the main characters in Indigenous tales, one observes the Inuit characters created by Disney are not only extremely talkative but also emotional. Inuit characters in Indigenous tales, on the other hand, are careful with words and rarely express their feelings, likes or dislikes, through them. With respect to expressing emotions among contemporary Inuit, there is an apt description of how they display their emotions in a document introducing modern Inuit culture: “Inuit often express their emotions very subtly, in the tone of voice or the lifting of eyebrows…Inuit are adept at picking up the slight intonations and facial expressions from each other that reflect emotional states”
(Inuit Way 44).
4. 5. Spirituality
67 Is the world of Inuit spirituality presented to us in Brother Bear in an authentic way or is it, perhaps, presented as more spiritual and natural? In the very beginning of the film, a strong focus on Indigenity and spirituality is by the font of subtitles, music and the Indigenous voice speaking in the background in what is most probably the Inuktitut language. By emphasising spirituality and vast empty spaces, the North, as Hulan suggests, is being presented as a place “in which the individual fulfils a quest for self-knowledge or self-wisdom through the contact with aboriginal people” (Hulan 60). Although there is no contact, Disney’s presentation of the North as a place of challenge and great adventure fosters such imagination. Considering the genre, there is probably nothing wrong with the world being full of magic (Brother Bear 01.02). A shaman woman appears in the opening scene and the narrator explains that “The lights are the spirits of our ancestors and that they have the power to make changes in our world” (01.22) and “one thing always changes to another” (Brother Bear 01.40). With respect to what has been said above about
Inuit spirituality, it basically captures well the Inuit belief that every living being has a soul. Also the fact the shaman is a woman corresponds to common Inuit practices, according to Christina
Pratt.
What is, however, in stark contrast with the Inuit way and has already been discussed, is the idea of transformation. Transformation, in all Inuit and Native American tales, happens very naturally. What is regarded as natural by any Inuit character, seems to be a deep source of trouble to the main character in Brother Bear who does not even know he was turned into a bear.
Similarly like the Ugly Duckling, Kenai finds out about his change by seeing his mirror reflection in the river, his shock being immense. Furthermore, by throwing his totem animal away, Kenai’s authenticity as an Inuit boy is seriously shaken.
68 To say Disney portrayal of Inuit spirituality is fake would be too strict. The film includes some important elements of Inuit beliefs such as transformation, totem animals, spirits and travelling of souls. I believe, the animators succeeded in presenting the basic animist belief about the ever changing world. At the point when Kenai is being turned into a bear, the idea of transformation is obvious (Brother Bear 19.53). I would rather say, the portrayal is shallow. It is obvious the story writers desperately needed a story worth telling, a story of bears. Everything else, spirituality including, is just a prop and is missing its true nature.
4. 6. Animation
As has been briefly discussed above, the idea for a new film was inspired by the grand setting of the American West and the Rocky Mountains and “romantic images of America’s wilderness: the Hudson River School of painting” (Wakabayashi 16). The idea of a great mountainous landscape was followed by the idea of a bear as the main character. Nature and animals were the main focus of the creators of the film since its very beginning (Wakabayashi
18). Watching the film, it is obvious the creators wanted to stay authentic and involve the audience as much as possible. It was really important for them to seek authenticity and show bears as they really are and not as if they were “humanized” (54). There is a strong desire to
“adhere to the exact behavioral traits of bears” (54).
Emotions are at the center of the animators’ attention. The images of a natural environment and dramatic landscape are supposed to make you “feel like you’re outside and experiencing the landscape” (55). Wakabayashi describes first discussions about the plot of the story as follows: “…we like to be moved in some way. We like movies that take you some place 69 emotionally and that either make you laugh or cry or feel life as deeply as you can…For the makers of Brother Bear, this appeal to a core emotion would be the film’s single most important guiding force” (39, 40). I am not sure if this is the case for an Indigenous audience. Do they like to be moved as well? And what is it they find moving?
Putting different types of locations together makes it obvious that authenticity was not among the main Disney’s goals. What makes one wonder, however, is the enormous emphasis put on an authentic depiction of a natural environment, landscape and animals in comparison with the complete lack of ambition in portraying Indigenous people. This is also obvious from the visual development of Kenai who underwent a considerable change in the process of creation (see fig. 1 and 2).
70 Figure 1: “Character Development art by Harald Siepermann”. Scanned from Wakabayashi, Clark
H. Brother Bear: A Transformation Tale. 2003. Print.
Figure 2: “Animation art of Kenai by Jim Jackson”. Scanned from Wakabayashi, Clark H.
Brother Bear: A Transformation Tale. 2003. Print.
4. 7. Music
Music and songs, composed by Phil Collins and Mark Mancina and performed by Phil
Collins, Tina Turner and various other artists, accompany the film in a mainstream pop or pop rock fashion that does not offend anybody. The songs are professionally written and the lyrics help to get across the message of love, brotherhood and forgiveness. At the point of Kenai’s transformation into a bear, The Bulgaria Women’s Choir sing a song composed by Phil Collins in,
71 presumably, a Native American Inuit language and create what could be called “Native atmosphere”. The soundtrack version includes only the English version of the song.
The songs offer an interesting mix of instruments: “The instrumentation runs the gamut from Japanese Taiko drums to those from Native American cultures, as well as Hopi instruments and woodwinds made from drilled animal bones – all together with Western instruments” (Pinsky
224). It is needless to say that the type of music Brother Bear features has nothing in common with the way the Inuit perform their songs. In order to be able to compare the western with Inuit style, here is Henry Rink's description of Inuit singing performances:
“…the words themselves being rather trifling, the sentences abrupt, and the author evidently presuming the audience to be familiar with the whole subject or gist of the song, and able to guess the greater part of it. Every strophe makes such an abrupt sentence, or consists of single and even abbreviated words, followed by some interjectional words only used for songs and without any particular signification. The gesticulations and declamation, accompanied by the drum, are said to have been very expressive, while the melody itself was rather monotonous and dull.” (Rink 66)
Inuit singing and drum beating serve a different purpose. According to Ann Rooth, songs are very important to the Athabascan Indians and the Eskimos (Root 91). There seem to be two different kinds: private and secret or known by all or most members of the village. They have a magical power and can be used for “weather magic” to give hunters good weather (91). Another reason for using songs was to solve conflicts. When there was a problem between two men, they secretly composed a song to ridicule their opponent. The songs were performed at a camp gathering and the wives of the men would take turns in singing their songs while the men were beating a drum and dancing in the middle of the igloo (The Inuit way 18). 72 Obviously, Disney is miles away from the distinctive way Inuit perform their traditional drum dancing and singing. The only feeble attempt made in order to sound more “Native” is the
Transformation song which is sung by the Bulgaria Women’s Choir in, what is presumably, one of the variants of the Inuit language (Pinsky 224). The songs, like the language and animation, serve the main purpose of the film: to arouse people's emotions. Although the music may appeal to a Western ear, it can hardly be considered authentic in terms of Inuit culture.
4. 8. Conclusion A half truth is often a whole lie.
(proverb)
In April 2015, approximately a dozen Native actors left the set of a new Hollywood comedy by Adam Sandler because they felt insulted by the misrepresentation of Apache culture.
The members of the Navajo nation felt offended “by the stereotypes portrayed and the outright disrespect” (Shilling) paid to them. Even though, cartoon characters cannot walk off the set, the 73 effect on members of the culture they represent can be similarly harmful. The central focus of this chapter was to reconsider Disney's claims of communicating cross-cultural messages, teaching tolerance through an encounter with varied human ethnicities and promoting diversity.
Understanding cultural differences and reinforcing cultural stereotypes are two sides of the same coin. We can understand differences and enjoy each other’s uniqueness only if we are presented true images, otherwise what we get is a distorted picture of the Other, leaving aside that, even with the best of intentions, “the Other” might get hurt.
The aim was to examine Brother Bear in terms of authenticity and the cultural message it passes on to its audience. I wanted to see if the film confirms the claim of the Walt Disney
Company of promoting multiculturalism through understanding differences.
In order to be able to assess whether Disney's depiction of Indigenous culture is accurate,
I needed to explore various aspects of Inuit life. In this respect, I found very useful a document created to introduce and promote Inuit culture, The Inuit Way, and also Ann Rooth's accounts of her expedition to Alaska in 1966. The Northern Experience by Renée Hulan proved to be very helpful in terms of putting forth common stereotypes associated with the North.
The filmmakers inspired by the grand setting of the American West decided to make a new film featuring a bear as the main protagonist. Inspired by Inuit and Native American legends they created a story about an Inuit tribe that takes place in the distant past somewhere in the
Pacific Northwest. What I suggest is that the filmmakers did not succeed in their interpretation of the North. In fact, they did not put much effort in providing an authentic portrayal of distinctive features of Inuit culture. To avoid some painful or problematic issues, the film creators set the story about an Indigenous boy in an unspecified time and place. Considering the number of ambiguities, it seems to be the filmmakers' intention not to present a specific culture. Unlike with
74 bears, whose physiognomy and behavioral traits are depicted with admirable precision, the elements of Inuit culture and the Inuit's beliefs and values seem to be portrayed more or less superficially. In fact, it is not the Inuit that the audience is presented with but their fake image based on common cultural stereotypes. They are romanticized in terms of spirituality and through settings. The filmmakers follow a common concept of the Inuit as a people who belong to the past, by which they suggest their identity is somewhat static. The true nature of Indigenous culture in Brother Bear is slightly distorted in areas such as language, narrative and spirituality with the depiction maintaining a Western point of view.
The filmmakers' goal to arouse emotions was achieved through outstanding animation and sweet music as opposed to the simplicity of Inuit tales. The film features a broad and thrilling view of the natural environment and it is easy for the audience to imagine that they are outside, experiencing the landscape. The mainstream music and lyrics are rather catchy, but they are not reminiscent of Inuit drum dancing and singing either. The means of expression Indigenous people use in their stories are in stark contrast with the way they are used in Brother Bear. Indigenous elements in the film form the background for a story that could otherwise happen elsewhere were it not for the filmmakers' fondness for the vast spaces of the Pacific Northwest.
Given that Inuit culture can be considered to be a high-context one, it suggests not only a different type of communication and values but probably a slightly different story. I believe the film does not succeed in communicating traditional Inuit values: teamwork, cooperation and self- reliance. Instead, it more or less provides a mixture of Indigenous elements like transformation, bears, shamans, coming-of-age, totem animals, drums or spirituality, that appear to be conceived from a Western perspective.
75 My point is that a folktale cannot fail to present any particular culture, since it is tied to a certain place and people who speak a certain language. However, a fairytale can do that because it is not, like a folktale, tied to a particular place. Instead, it happens in an unreal world with unreal characters. With the Disney Company's choice of making a new film featuring Indigenous characters, the filmmakers could not avoid the difficulty of portraying a different culture in a post-colonial time.They either honestly wanted to bring different cultures closer to the large audience or, more or less consciously ignored the true nature of the Inuit and picked what they found most convenient for the film. Would it not be more honest if the film's creators had abandoned the plan to present Indigenous people and decided to make a fairytale instead? For now the message Brother Bear communicates ranges somewhere between cross-cultural and confusing.
As Mark Pinsky suggests, “...children and their parents, clearly received and understood
Brother Bear's messages – love, forgiveness, brotherhood – from a culture far different from their own” (225). He thinks it was Walt Disney's dream, to communicate lessons to children across cultures. However, that raises the question as to what kind of lesson is communicated to what kind of children? What the Western audience receives is a distorted picture of the Inuit, and similarly, the Inuit are confronted with artificial images of themselves. Understanding becomes misunderstanding.
Whether the film's creators' intention was reduced to making the film more attractive and exotic or they just wanted to present a different culture, I think they barely scratched the surface. I believe it was unnecessary and it boomeranged in the form of a weak story line. Had they not been so shallow, picking pieces of different Indigenous cultures that suited their purpose, the story could have been stronger and more authentic.
76 Although the filmmakers did not succeed in an authentic presentation of a different culture, I believe they managed to convey a message about understanding and accepting difference. Even though the transformation element does not serve the same purpose in Brother
Bear as in the Indigenous tales, it serves well the purpose of seeing the world from a different perspective. Had the filmmakers gone a bit deeper beneath the surface of visual art, the effect would have been more noticeable. I suggest the Walt Disney Company take a step further and show interest in getting to know a different culture. This way they can get across a message about cross-cultural understanding more effectively without offending anyone.
Works Cited
Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin. The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-colonial Literature. London: Rutledge, 1989. Print.
Atanarjuat: Fast Runner. Dir. Zacharias Kunuk. Isuma Igloolik Productions. 2001. Film.
Byrne, Eleanor, and Martin McQuillan. Deconstructing Disney. London: Pluto Press. 1999. Print.
Boal, A. Rainbow of Desire. London: Routledge, 1995. Print.
77 Borthaiser, Nóra. “A Whole New World (?)”. Americana: E-journal of American studies in Hungary, Vol IV. No 1. 2008. Web. 23 Mar. 2015. http://goo.gl/Ezu6GV
“The Boy Who Almost Turned into a Bear”. The University of Maine. Maine Folklife Center. Web. 13 Dec. 2014. http://goo.gl/lgoLQb
Brode, Douglas. Multiculturalism and the Mouse. The United States of America: the University of Texas Press. 2005. Print.
Bruchac, Joseph. Flying with the Eagle: Racing the Great Bear Tales from North America. Bridge Water Books. Aleph. 1993. E-Book.
Chambers, Iain, and Lidia Curti eds. The Post-colonial Question: Common Skies, Divided Horizons. London: Routledge. 1996. Print.
DeVito. Joseph A. Messages: Building Interpersonal Communication Skills. Harper Collins College Publishers.1993. Print.
Duffy, Deidre, and Simon, Bailey. Whose voice is speaking? Ethnography, Pedagogy and Dominance in Research with Children and Young People. Academia.edu. Web. 19 Feb. 2015. http://goo.gl/ZyZlp8
Campbell, Joseph. The heroe with the thousand faces. Novato, Calif. : New World Library. 2008. Print.
Emelobe, Emeka. Filmic Representations in Post-colonial Discourse. Western Delta University. Nigeria. Web. 17 Feb. 2015. http://goo.gl/p5TKst
Grimshaw, Patricia. Missionaries, Indigenous Peoples and Cultural Exchange. Brighton [u.a.]: Sussex Academic Press, 2010. Web. 10 Feb. 2015. http://goo.gl/7WKf2c
78 Griffiths, Gareth. The Myth of Authenticity in Chris Tifin and Alan Lawson (eds) De-Scirbing Empire. London: Routledge. 1994. Print.
Groening, Laura. Listening to old woman speak: Natives and Alternatives in Canadian Literature. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. 2004. Print.
Holden, Steven. “Brother Bear: To a Grizzly, Humans are the Hairy Monsters”. New York Times Review. The New York Times Company. 2003. Web. 3 Apr. 2015. http://goo.gl/rIlF0z
“How Muin Became Keeper of the Medicines”. Muin'iskw. Web. 13 Dec. 2014. http://goo.gl/089aqk
Hulan, Renée. Northern Experience and the Myths of Canadian Culture. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. 2002. E-Book
“The Hunting of a Great Bear”. Native American Lore Page. 1996. Web. 13 Dec. 2014. http://goo.gl/D6iKxt.
“Inuktitut-language films” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 6 Apr. 2012. Web. 18 Mar. 2015. http://goo.gl/rdZN3u
The Inuit Way: A Guide to Inuit Culture. Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada. Canada. 2006. Web. 25 Feb. 2015.
Izard, Ralph. “Walt Disney: Master of Laughter and Learning”.Peabody Journal of Education, Vol. 45. No 1. Jul. (1967). Jstore. Web. 2. Dec. 2015.
Jackson, Mame. Inuit Art: Collected Readings for Art History 11.314. Ottawa: Carleton University Press.1995. Print.
79 Kaplan, E. Ann. Looking for the Other: Feminism, Film and the Imperial Gaze. New York: Routlege. 1997. Print.
Kunuk, Zacharias. The Art of Inuit Story-Telling. Isuma Producitons. Isuma Distribution International Inc. 2006. Web. 2 Mar. 2015. http://goo.gl/h7AqSa
Natale, Antonella Riem, and Miroslawa Buchholtz, edit. Postcolonial Subjects: Canadian and Australian Perspectives. Truń. 2004. Print.
Nayar, Pramond K. Postcolonialism: A Guide for the Perplexed. London: Continuum 2010. Web. 13 Feb. 2015.
“Mooin the Bear's Child”. Native American Lore Page. 1996. Web. 13 Dec. 2014. http://goo.gl/D6iKxt
Nowlan, Alden. Nine Micmac Legends. Hansport: Lancelot Press Limited. 1983. Print.
Oman et al. The Epic of Qayak: The Longest Story Ever Told by my People. McGill-Queen's University Press. Aleph. 1995. E-Book.
Pitseolak, Peter. People from our Side: A Life Story with Photographs and Oral Biography. McGill- Queen's University Press. 1993. Print.
Pinsky, Mark I. Gospel According to Disney: Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust. London: Westminster John Knox Press. 2004. Web. 17 Dec. 21 Dec. 2014. http://goo.gl/aSmcne
Pratt, Christina. An Encyclopedia of Shamanism, volume one. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group. 2007. Web. 21 Mar. 2015.
Rasmussen, Knud. Eskimo Folk-tales. London. 1921. Web. 13 Nov. 2014. http://goo.gl/MOeH6i
80 Rink, Henry author, Brown, Robert editor. Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo with a Sketch of their Habits, Religion, Language and other Peculiarities. London.1875. (Reduced to HTML by Christopher M. Weimer. 2003). Web. 13 Nov. 2014. http://goo.gl/0PYhpK
Rooth, Anna. The Alaska Expedition 1966: Myths, Customs and Beliefs among the Athabascan Indiansand the Eskimos of Northern Alaska. Berlingska Boktryckeriet, Lund. 1971. Print.
Rooth, Anna. The Importance of Storytelling. Uppsala. 1976. Print.
Schilling, Vincent. “Native Actors Walk off Set of Adam Sandler Movie After Insults to Women, Elders”. Indian County. 23 Apr. 2015. Web. 24 Apr. 2015. http://goo.gl/M85Nbq
Schroeder, Tali. Inuit Myth in the Film “Brother Bear”. Oglethorpe Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 1: Iss. 1, Article. 2012. Web. 21 Feb. 2015. http://goo.gl/o3ftbe
Siddon, Tom. The Inuit. Ottawa: Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Developmnet.1990. Print.
Swanton, John. “Inviting the Bears”. Tlingit Myths and Texts.1998 – 1999. Web. 13 Dec. 2014. http://goo.gl/a9gnAC Wantasen, Lydia. Walt Disney as the Icon of American Popular Culture. Sam Ratulangi University. Indonesia. Web. 20 Mar. 2015. http://goo.gl/pnVebD
Wayakabashi, Clark H. Brother Bear: A Transformation Tale. New York: Disney Editions. 2003. Print.
Willerslev, Rane. Soul hunters: Hunting, Animism, and Personhood among the Siberian Yukaghirs. University of California Press. Aleph. 2007. E-Book.
Wolfson, Evelyn. Inuit Mythology. Enslow Publishers, Inc. USA. 2001. E-Book.
81 The Primary Sources
Brother Bear. Dir. Robert Walker and Aaron Blaise. CA:Walt Disney Feature Animation, 2003. Film.
“Brother to the Bears”. Nowlan, Alden. Nine Micmac Legends. Lancelot press limited, Hansport, N.S. 1983. Print.
Bruchac, Joseph. “The Bear Boy”. Flying with the Eagle: Racing the Great Bear Tales from North America. BridgeWater Books. Aleph. 1993. E-Book.
Bruchac, Joseph. “Racing a Great Bear”. Flying with the Eagle: Racing the great bear Tales from North America. BridgeWater Books. Aleph. 1993. E-Book.
The Epic of Qayak: The Longest Story Ever Told by my People. Oman et al. McGill-Queen's University Press. Aleph. 1995. E-Book.
“The Woman who Adopted a Bear”. Wolfson, Evelyn. Inuit Mythology. Enslow Publishers, Inc. USA. 2001. E-Book.
Resumé (České)
Práce se zabývá čtyřicátým čtvrtým animovaným filmem z produkce studia Walta Disney
Medvědí bratři. Film se odehrává v pravěku na severo-západním pobřeží Tichého oceánu a vypráví příběh Inuitského kmene a chlapce, který se promění z člověka na medvěda a vydá se na cestu sebepoznání. Tvůrci filmu, inspirovaní Inuitskými a domorodými legendami o medvědech vytvořili příběh zasazený do prostředí původních obyvatel Severní Ameriky, ve kterém představují řadu prvků
Inuitské kultury, jako jsou například transformace, duchové zvířat, totemy a cestování duší. První část
82 práce se zabývá příběhy Inuitů a původních obyvatel Severní Ameriky. Hlavní motivy – transformace, pomsta, bratrská láska, dospívání a role medvěda - jsou podrobeny analýze, aby bylo možné posoudit, nakolik film odráží podstatu zvolených pěti příběhů původních obyvatel. Na této analýze staví druhá část práce. Druhá část práce se zabývá reprezentací Inuitské kultury ve filmu
Medvědí bratři. Kriticky zkoumá tvrzení společnosti Walta Disneye o předávání multikulturního poselství, a zkoumá film z pohledu autenticity vyobrazení Inuitů, která se publiku nabízí.
Přizpůsobení původní kultury západním hodnotám ve filmu je zkoumáno v několika oblastech. Těmi jsou – jazyk, hudba, animace, vyprávění příběhů a spiritualita. Ze závěru vyplývá, že i když se motivy obsažené v původních příbězích na určitých místech s filmem setkávají, z převážné části jsou přizpůsobeny západnímu stylu. Přesto, že se filmovým tvůrcům Medvědích bratrů nepodařilo vystihnout podstatu původní kultury, dokázali publiku předat poselství tolerance a chápání rozdílů.
Resumé (English)
The thesis deals with Disney’s forty-fourth full-length animated feature Brother Bear. The film is set in the Pacific Northwest in the prehistoric past and tells a transformation tale about an
Inuit tribe and an Inuit boy who turns into a bear and sets out on a journey of discovery. The film’s creators, inspired by Inuit and Native American bear legends, created a story set in Native
American environment featuring a number of Inuit elements such as transformation, animal
83 spirits, totem animals or travelling of souls. The first part deals with Inuit and Native American stories. In order to see how Brother Bear reflects the nature of Inuit and Native American folktales, the central motifs, such as coming-of-age, transformation, brotherhood, revenge and representation of the bear, are examined in five Indigenous tales. The motifs are compared with the film’s story with the central focus on the main hero in a coming-of-age process. The analysis provides a good starting point for a further elaboration of the subject. The second part deals with
Inuit representations in Brother Bear. The Disney’s claims of communicating cross-cultural messages are reconsidered and critically examined. The film is examined from the perspective of authenticity and cross-cultural messages it passes on to its audience. Appropriation and imposing
Western values on Indigenous people in Brother Bear are examined in several areas. They include language, story-telling, animation, music and spirituality. These are explored to see whether they reflect Inuit nature or maintain a Western concept. The meaning and message of the motifs in Brother Bear appear to be slightly shifted in comparison with Indigenous tales.
Although they meet at some point, the underlying concepts are in most cases different. Even though, the filmmakers did not succeed in an authentic presentation of the North and a different culture, they managed to convey the message about understanding and accepting difference.
84