Hatred
In the movie, Princess Mononoke, one of the main characters, Prince Ashitaka is shown saving his village from a demon attempting to destroy his community. In the process of protecting his people, the demon took ahold of him arm and cursed him. Before the demon dies he states that everyone else will feel his hatred. Hatred is evidently one emotion that is depicted heavily in the film. The curse that is put over Prince Ashitaka is the overwhelming feeling of hate. This forces the prince to act out of character. When he leaves the village towards the Westerlands to bring peace to the evil, he finds himself caught in the crossfire of a rich mining town and the animal gods. Under attack, he unwillingly draws his bow and arrow and takes out a few humans in the process of passing through.
It is evident that the Prince did not want to kill the humans chasing him, but clouded by hatred his arm had a mind of its own. He warned them to go away, but it was too late. In this film I can see that hate is a very overwhelming emotion. This stable feeling of intense dislike causes one to think and act out of character, even when they are good in the core. Though, this being said peace can be achieved when we walk in hatreds shoes and identify the source of the hate.
Coexistence
In the film, the term “coexistence” is identified as a theme from start to finish. Although it doesn’t work consistently, Prince Ashitaka spends his journey trying to get Lady Eboshi and San to coexist in each others lives. This is too difficult for them because they refuse to look at each others similarities rather then differences. The Prince makes it his priority to bring peace among this war. He successfully does so, we know this because at the end Lady Eboshi promises to rebuild Irontown but as a better town, claiming that she is willing to change and come to peace with with San and the animal gods. Kindly unspoken, San agrees to leave the humans alone and coexist with the humans, bring peace to the Westernlands.
The use of coexistence in this movie is so critical because it teaches a lesson to the viewers. It show us that if we look past our differences we can all coexist together. The world is full of hate, and if we all took the time to indemnify the root of the hate and the anger, we could find a solution to put the world at peace. One person can truly make all the difference, though we all began to put each others shoes on and walk around in them for a little, we can begin to better understand one another.
- Hatred
2. Coexistence
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