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Diversity In Disney Films

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Throughout his life Frollo tells Quasimodo outright that he is “deformed” and “ugly” and that he should be “grateful” that it is Frollo alone who can still accept Quasimodo’s deformities, which in turn causes Quasimodo to live in fear of being shunned for his monstrous features. For a time, Quasimodo listens to his “caretaker” and bides his time within the walls of Notre-Dame Cathedral, convinced that he is protected from the outside world. Nevertheless, Quasimodo still dreams of what it would be like to, "just to live one day out there." Being isolated in the the bell towers leads Quasimodo to developing an active fantasy life as a substitute for the one he’s hidden from. Though he may not interact with people outside of the cathedral, he …show more content…

Norden’s article, “Diversity in Disney Films : Critical Essays on Race, Ethnicity, Gender, Sexuality and Disability,” where he writes, “Since Quasi is the creator of the figurine, the film thus implies that this is how he sees himself. Indeed, he confirms the point later in the film when he gazes at the beast- like figurine of himself and says very matter- of- factly ‘I am a monster’ to his stepfather Frollo, who has conditioned him to think of himself in subhuman terms.” Though to most of society it’s common to attribute such extreme deformities to the concept of a “monster,” the damaging view based on appearances instead of intentions definitely permeates the surface as it wrecks Quasimodo’s world view. With other imperfections to a lesser degree, this same attitude is at the lies at the heart of such self-esteem wrecking …show more content…

With this in mind, Frollo comes across not only Quasimodo’s villainous caretaker and surrogate of society but rather a representation of our inner demons. He is the voice inside our head telling us that we are not good enough, that we are not worthy while ultimately bringing forth our darkest insecurities preventing us from seeing anything apart from our personal monstrosities. This is a very telling aspect of human nature in the sense that we can be overly critical of ourselves - more so than others - although thoughts such as these do not originate at birth and carry forward to adolescence and so forth, but instead are mainly driven by man made social construct imposed by our peers that influence our feelings such as these. Today’s society looks for a perfect representation with every human being and reject the ones who do not fit this profile. This network of social ideas that we hold today were not just created yesterday either, but rather have been a recurring throughout most humanities lifespan. People like Quasimodo have been subjugated long before Disney released The Hunchback of Notre Dame. One of the earliest, and perhaps most tragic well-documented cases of disfigurement comes from the life of Joseph Merrick, better known as “The

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