Kelly Scipione
Social Psychology
Social Psychological Principles
Social Psychological Principles in the Movie Shrek (2001)
For most people, movies are made for entertainment. However, there are also movies that go beyond merely entertaining its audience. There are films that have been created making use of psychological principles, which enrich the movie-viewing experience of audiences. This paper will focus on the movie Shrek, which was released in 2001, directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson.
Shrek tells the story of a green ogre named Shrek and a princess named Fiona. Shrek was feared by all the people in the town of Duloc. He lived alone in a swamp, which he one day found to be swamped with fairy tale creatures. The fairy…show more content… Shrek told the donkey about the prejudice of people toward him. He told the donkey that people judge him even before they get to know him. People see him as a big, stupid ogre who will eat them. And for this reason, he doesn’t want to get close to anyone. The people of Duloc are prejudiced against Shrek because of how he looks, which is similar to how certain people are prejudiced based on the color of their skin. Prejudice is also shown in the movie when Shrek goes to the town of Duloc and a man wearing a big head gear sees him and runs away because he is an ogre. The man thinks that Shrek will eat him so he ran away.
Lord Farquaad has prejudice against magical creatures. This is shown when he has ordered that the magical creatures be exiled to the forest. This action also illustrates the discrimination that the magical creatures experienced due to Lord Farquaad’s personal prejudices. The magical creatures were showed to be treated like criminals, taken into carts and placed in cages. Furthermore, Lord Farquaad also has prejudice against ogres. He identifies and calls Shrek as “it”, connoting that he thinks of himself as superior to an ogre like Shrek. And when Fiona first meets Farquaad, she was explaining that she is just saying goodbye to Shrek, Lord Farquaad told her not to waste time on Shrek because it doesn’t have any feelings. When Fiona turned into an ogre on her