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Greed : Motifs And Symbols In Spirited Away

Decent Essays

Motifs and Symbols
Motifs:

GREED
Both humans and spirits are greedy in Spirited Away, and their greed is always destructive. At the beginning of the film, Chihiro is greedy for her parents’ attention. She whines and complains, and covets the familiarity of her own town and home. Chihiro’s parents’ greed leads them to eat the food that turns them into pigs. The bathhouse workers’ greed blinds them not only to the goodness in their midst, in the form of Chihiro, but also to present dangers, such as No-Face. Even Haku is greedy for power to match Yubaba’s. Human greed is the reason that Haku can’t go home—humans filled in his river to build apartments. Yubaba is the greediest of all. Her greed leads her to serve those who ultimately cause destruction, such as when No-Face rampages throught he bathhouse. She’s so preoccupied with gold she initially overlooks the kidnapping of baby Boh, ostensibly her most precious possession. In every case, greed makes characters oblivious to what is truly important, preventing them from reaching their full potential as people and spirits.
FOOD
Food has enormous power in Spirited Away, and it can be a force of either good or evil. At the beginning of the movie, food sets Chihiro’s entire adventure in motion. When Chihiro’s mother and father gorge themselves on the food they find in the abandoned amusement park, they turn into pigs, and Chihiro must save them. In the spirit world, gluttonous No-Face can’t fill himself up no matter how much he

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