“Simba’s Revolution,” written by John Morton, is a clear and
concise response to arguments made my Gooding- Williams. In his argument, Morton agrees with some
ideas presented by Good Williams, but corrects these arguments to make them
more understandable and realistic. The
idea that the Lion King proposes the
segregation of social classes is a topic that Morton addresses. The hyenas live in the elephant graveyard,
which is many ways which represents a ghetto.
Led by Mustafa’s evil brother Scar, the hyenas are violent savages. Pride Rock is associated with hunting and
grazing as a source of income. However,
the hyenas in the elephant graveyard are just scavenger with no real job or
steady food source. This shows that
hyenas could represent the ‘unemployed’ low class. Much of the corruption of the elephant
graveyard is said to represent the poor conditions of an inner city. I agree with all of Morton’s points and I
think he did a great job of supporting them.
His ideas are not too radical that it is hard for readers to follow. These
points are somewhat made by Good- Williams, but Morton only focuses on the
strong and reasonable arguments which makes his point more effective. Morton states that he intended to disagree
with Gooding Williams on two main points, “1) his picturing of Disney’s Africa
as a place without history, to which Scar’s revolution is a counter-trend; and
2) his nearly exclusive depiction of inequality issues through the medium of
the excluded hyenas” (312). Morton also
challenges the ‘circle of life’ idea and introduces the idea of the ‘circle of
death.’ This refers to how the hyenas
are scavengers who basically feed off of death.
Scar is considered a political revolutionary, but I do not think that
this is because of his class status. I
think that Gooding- Williams’s argument is flawed because The Lion King is
depicting Scar as evil, not just poor.
He is trying to over through Mustafa and Simba because he is evil, and
that has nothing to do with his class status.
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