Within just the first few minutes of the film, Moana reveals her internal pull toward the ocean.
Her father finds her by the edge of the water and scoops her up, taking her to the village,
where he feels she should be and thereby separating her from the ocean, where she feels called to be.
Moana says: “I wants go back.”
But why Moana?
Why do you “wants” to go back to the ocean?
Your father said “no”.
Look, you got a place to be as the next village chief.
But that pull toward the ocean never leaves Moana.
Even as a teenager she sings her sad teenage rebellion song “See the line where the sky meets the sea? It calls me”.
But what is the “it” that calls her?
Perhaps its not an “it”, but rather an
“id”.
[ECE Theme Song] "You down with ECE? Yeah you know me!" (repeated three times)
"Who's down with ECE? All the homies!"
This video will use Freud’s concepts of
the id, ego and superego to understand the mental complexity of Moana.
Sigmund Freud was a very influential figure for the field of child development.
Although much of his theory has been criticized and rejected,
he was one of the first to really stress the early years as formative for one’s future developmental outcomes.
Within the psychoanalytical approach, he proposed psychosexual developmental stages
whereby the interactions between one’s internal drives and one’s social environment established patterns
(positive or negative) that impacted
one’s future developmental trajectory.
Freud proposed that these interactions between internal drives and the social environment
flow between three major structures of the mind: the id, the ego and the superego.
The id is inborn and present at birth.
It is the source of innate biological needs
and desires.
The id desires instant satisfaction, it wants something and it wants it now.
Although the id is present in all of us throughout our lives, you can see the id clearly in infancy.
An infant has wants and expects those wants to be serviced immediately.
The ego acts as mediator between the id and the superego.
It realizes that the id has desires and needs, but may try to introduce logical reasoning to the id to stop or delay those desires.
It realizes that the superego is providing
conscientious concern based on societal expectations,
but may try to reason that some expectations may not be appropriate for every scenario.
So the ego is in the middle, trying to bring
logical reason to the id’s immediate desires and superego’s rules and regulations.
The superego is the final structure to develop.
You can think of the superego as the conscience--a moral compass that distinguishes right from wrong for us.
It is a moral compass set by others (society, culture, religion, parents, etc.,) with rules and regulations.
The superego buts heads with both the id and the ego.
When the id wants to satisfy an internal desire,
the superego reminds the id that there are rules and regulations that prohibit acting upon that desire.
When the ego tries to bring logical reasoning, the superego perceives thinking as bad
--there are rules and regulations and they must simply be obeyed.
When Moana sings the lyrics “It called me”, Freud might argue that it was not an “it” that called her, but rather an “id”.
Why did Moana desire the ocean?
I dont know.
I mean no one else on the island seemed to have her burning urge to cannonball into cold water.
Her desire just seems to be something innate, internal
and she made it clear that she is willing to do anything to scratch her itch for the ocean...sound familiar…(cough) the id.
Her father stating that its dangerous...Moana doesn't care.
Her mother’s story of how her father’s
friend died at sea...Moana isn’t scared.
Crashing her boat the first time she tried
to sail, getting her foot stuck under water and almost dying herself...
no lesson was strong enough to prevent her desire for the ocean.
Moana is the perfect representation of Freud’s psychological id structure.
She is purely driven by some internal desire where logical ego reasoning
and superego’s rules and regulations only get in the way of what she wants.
Moana’s father is the chief of the village
of Montonui and as chief it was his responsibility to look over the village, its people and the island they inhabit.
One rule he established to keep everyone safe was to prohibit sailing beyond the reef.
In fact, in the film, we only see those who
are fishing in the sea, everyone else seems stuck to the island.
A critical moment occurs when those fishing approach Chief Tui exclaiming that there are no fish in the water.
Moana is standing there as well and advises them to fish other areas around the island,
not knowing that they already had tried that.
Then Moana suggests that they go beyond the reef.
Her father quickly shuts down that idea: “No one goes beyond the reef”.
When Moana tries to reason that desperate times (no fish, no food) call for desperate measures
and maybe this one rule could be bent for
this unique situation her dad responds:
“We have one rule...A rule that keeps us safe”.
Chief Tui embodies the role of the superego because his decisions are not about wants or about reasoning,
his decisions are about conforming to the rules and values of society.
Moana suggests changing the rules to fit a changing food supply,
but Chief Tui does not allow thinking that challenges the established rules.
He does not even ponder the possibility--his response is quick and firm.
The id and superego are in constant battle and Moana and her father represent this battle perfectly
as they seem to be only able to disagree on everything.
Although one could reason that there a few character candidates to represent Freud’s psychological structure the ego,
I think the best choice is Moana’s grandmother, Gramma Tala.
Now Freud proposed that the ego is in the middle, mediating between the id and the superego.
Throughout the film, Gramma Tala seems to be teeter tottering between allowing
Moana (the id) to explore her internal desires for the ocean while simultaneously
not completely dismantling the walls of restriction enforced by Moana’s father (the superego).
There is one key moment in the movie that demonstrates why Gramma Tala is the ego.
Right after Moana attempts to sail out past the reef by herself, gets her boat flipped,
is momentarily stuck under water and then washed up on the shore.
Moana says: "He was right.
About going out there.
It's time to put my stone on the mountain."
Gramma Tala responds: "Okay.
Well, then head on back.
Put that stone up there."
Moana looked back and says, "Why aren't you trying to talk me out of it?"
Gramma Tala responds, "You said that's what you wanted."
Watching the movie it is clear that Moana
still has the itch for the ocean
despite verbally seeming to agree with her father about being correct about her future path as village chief.
This moment is key because Gramma Tala is not pushing Moana one way or the other.
She knows that Moana still has salt water
curiosity,
but as the ego, it is her job to try to reconcile both the id and the superego.
Rather than just give the id what it wants
in that moment, the ego may try to delay gratification
to see if it is something the id really wants
or could get it in a more appropriate way
and perhaps find a way to also get the superego to warm up to the id’s desires.
Immediately after Gramma Tala delays Moana’s internal desire,
she shows her the secret lair where her father has hidden the ships of their ancestors.
But why?
Moana just crashed trying to sail and now
her grandma shows her an entire fleet of larger ships, why?
As the ego, this was a move not only for Moana, but also for Moana’s father.
Gramma Tala knew Moana would be excited, but she also must have known that Moana would tell her father about the ships.
So what was Gramma Tala secretly up to?
Simple, to reconcile the goals of both the
id and the superego, like the good ego that she is.
So how could Gramma Tala make both parties happy?
Moana has the annoying burning desire to do anything related to the ocean so satisfying her is easy (check).
Chief Tui is more of a challenge but the secret ships represent a strong memory for him
--a memory of who his ancestors were and a memory of his joy of being on the water
--and the ships also represent a way to overcome the challenges of eating on the slowly dying island
(less fish and coconut are available for harvesting)--sailing beyond the reef could lead to catching more fish.
When that doesn’t work, her death sure seemed to be the perfect catalyst to bring both the id and superego together.
Sigmund Freud is known for much more than just the ideas discussed in this short video.
The movie Moana presents a few main characters that can be used to analyze Freud’s psychological structures the id, superego and ego.
Although this video used individual characters to represent each of the separate structures,
Freud proposed that each of us has all three structures working in our heads.
And that brings me comfort, knowing that when my id and my superego are in conflict and I question my identity in the middle of the ocean,
Gramma Tala is on her way, disguised as a manta ray, to sing me a song of consolation.
