MAM-21U Essay 1, Why Are All the Cartoon Mothers Dead? Why Are All the Cartoon Mothers Dead? Sarah Boxer, author of Why Are All the Cartoon Mothers Dead, claims there is a troubling pattern of missing mothers in too many children s animated films. Have you ever noticed how mother characters are absent in cartoon movies? Disney discards mother characters in children s films. Ariel, the little mermaid, discovers a new part of life without a mother. Nemo, the lost and confused fish, takes on an epic, solo adventure without the help from his parents. Even Bambi, the innocent and loving deer, is left stranded after his mother s death. Author Sarah Boxer believes that the absent mother is a not so accidental fixture of children s fiction. The article opens with a graphic depicting a composite of cartoon characters weeping over a dead mother s grave. Pocahontas, Ariel, and Bambi are all seen sobbing over the dead mother s burial site. This is an emotional introduction to the article that follows. This picture is aimed to catch the reader s eye and convince them these cartoon characters are forsaken. This clear, emotional appeal puts the reader in a position to accept the ensuing argument. Boxer says she originally noticed this theme while riding charter buses, which featured cartoon movies. These buses played Disney animated movies on the long trips from New York City to Washington D.C. After multiple trips, Boxer noticed a pattern. All the Disney movies featured mothers that were either gone or useless. These movies had stricken her with curiosity. Why were fathers so heavily decorated and favored? Ten years later, she began watching more animated, children s movies with her son. She realized these movies, new and old, possessed the same pattern. Boxer begins to recognize the movies had twisted their plots. They have either
killed the mothers on-screen or made them mysteriously disappear. This flash of awareness demonstrates a personal appeal to readers. The readers can connect to the recognition, and this helps Boxer verify her case. Boxer s next appeal is to a kind of historical logic. Cartoonist Alison Bechdel dared the movie industry to think of an animated, Disney cartoon movie where a mother figure was present from start to finish. There are not many movies that can accomplish this task. Boxer believes that this storyline started its journey long before Disney s first animated films, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Cinderella, and The Little Mermaid. Marina Warner, author of From the Beast to the Blonde, states: One of the First Cinderella stories comes from the ninth-century China. The dead-mother plot is a fixture of fiction, so deeply woven into our storytelling fabric that it seems impossible to unravel or explain (Boxer 98). Another idea supporting this pattern is the reality that storywriters don t care about mother characters. Nobody bothers with the dead mother because everyone s focus and attention is drawn towards the person, force, or thing that sweeps in and benefits from the death. Boxer directs the reader to note these undeniable discoveries. The movie Finding Nemo plays this card. The single father, Marlin, overcomes all his superstitions and anxiety to protect his son. Marlin replaces the non-existent mother character so well; he finds ways to replace everything his son lacks- a playmate, a buddy, and a mother. Boxer wants the reader to see that such a small absent detail can play a huge role in the film. This movie is a perfect example for how a character benefits from tragedy. Marlin and Nemo begin to grow up and move on without the mother, and this is a clear support of her not so subtle argument that men/fathers benefit from these motherless films.
From this comes Boxer s primary argument. Her [mothers] death is just simply assumed. Writers are eliminating mothers to have the fathers take over and replace them. Disney s 2010 film, Despicable Me, was about a wicked man named Gru who adopted three orphan girls. Gru becomes a great parent to the three girls, despite his evil tactics. He proves to the audience that he is a super villain gone super dad. The movie Barnyard displays the same effect. The father bull teaches his son to become a responsible and tough bull, needing no room for a mother cow. This, and countless other movies, demonstrates how a father might start out rocky, but always ends up balanced. Boxer wants readers to recognize that screenwriters are purposely leaving the mother character out of films. She wants the audience to see the importance and significance of it by discussing movie examples as support. After considering all of these motherless movies, Boxer begins to think maybe men have womb envy. Are these movies a signal to all fathers out there to channel their inner, secret maternal traits? Or are these movies a prediction of what reality is truly like. Statistics show that only 8% of U.S. households, with kids, are guided by single fathers, 25% by single mothers, and 67% by both parents (Boxer 99). Boxer shows parallelism between Mickey Mouse and fathers in films. Mickey Mouse is similar to single dads; they win the audience over with their charm, wit, and comedy. She picks Mickey to prove a point. Mickey Mouse is the cartoon everyone loves. Due to his flawless personality, he is capable of handling a mother s role. Boxer is attempting to show the audience that sexism is being discussed. Anything a woman can do, a man can do also. One movie that does seem to throw all these movies out would be, The Incredibles. This movie gives hope that creators can write more movies about strong-bonded families instead of broken families. Mr. and Mrs. Incredible are both active and stable characters. They are relatable and survive the entire movie. They are superheroes physically and emotionally. The mother,
elastic girl, is the guardian that defeats all obstacles in order to save her husband and family. Boxer uses this as an example to prove that the mother role is very important. Elastic girl demonstrates the same heroic characteristics as a male hero, outside of her daily savings, such as delivering school lunch money, helping the kids with homework, etc. She believes this is a wonderful and one-of-a-kind example. There are not too many other films that have the same dynamics and ending the Incredible family has. Boxer s admission that she can see both sides of animated presentations only strengthens her position that most of the popular children s films do eliminate the mothers in favor of fathers. Mother characters are isolated from story plots due to a series of reasons. Boxer wants to gain awareness and perception with her article. From her understanding, this development is embedded into the industry, and there is no avoiding the trend. As emphasized, there is no true story behind the inspiration of these plots either. Maybe it s a fixture of fiction or maybe it s an underlying sexism mechanism. Only Disney will know, but Boxer s claim is made relevant through her use of emotion, personal appeal, logic, and a balanced arguement.
Works Cited Boxer, Sarah. Why Are All the Cartoon Mothers Dead? The Atlantic. (2014): 96-106. Print.