The Lion King (can you feel the interpersonal love tonight?)

Daniel Livingston

The Lion King

Blake Rodger

4/2/15

The Lion King

         The Lion King is a Disney movie that tells the tale of a pride of lions. This particular pride has a lot of family issues including a jealous uncle (Scar) that wants to become king of the land, but the only thing stopping him from become the next in line is his brother (Mufasa), and Mufasa’s son (Simba; next in line to become king). So in a jealous, and corrupt attempt to become king, he kills both Mufasa and Simba through the use of a herd of wildebeests. However, little does Scar know, the Son, Simba, survives the malicious attempt, but instead of returning to the pride, he runs far away into the desert. As he escapes he runs into the duo known as Timone and Pumba, a meerkat and a hog. They take Simba under their wing and help him survive and grow into a young adult, far from his real family and fellow lions. Meanwhile, Scar, along with the rest of the pride believe Simba is dead, so Scar takes over. His methods of leadership were corrupt and unfair, so it causes one of Simbas childhood friends (Nala) to search for help. Unto her surprise, she finds Simba deep into the forest, and with much persuasion, she is able to talk Simba into coming back to Pride Rock to to take over his rightfully earned spot at at King. Once Nala, Simba, Timon, and Pumbaa all return to Pride Rock, they realize how much things have changed and how Scar has practically destroyed their once pure pride. So after a long, epic battle between Simba and Scar, the dispute was settled by Simba throwing Scar off the rock, and claiming his rightful spot at King.

       This movie truly portrays the workings of people who would definitely benefit from taking HCOM 214. Even though they are only lions and this movie is fictional, the characters displayed classical signs of different personalities. For example, the main character, Simba, would be classified as having an avoidant personality where he runs away from his problems rather than going head on with them. As it was said previously, he simply just ran away to the desert instead of standing up for his family and immediately facing Scar. This kind of personality was again portrayed by Simba even when Nala tried to convince him to come back to Pride Rock. He thought it would be much more simple to just avoid his problems altogether.

      On the other hand, the character Scar also illustrates traits that we have studied in this course. His type of conflict personality would definitely be aggressive. So much that he got to the point of killing his own brother, but at that point, I would just consider that psycho, rather than aggressive. But still, I believe he would greatly benefit from taking HCOM 214. Interpersonal conflict and communication are two very important skills for not only humans, but for lions as well.

       Overall, I thought this was a very good movie, it's one my favorite Disney movies. It's such a classic that you can't not like it. Not only does it portray important values that continue to be vital throughout our lives, it's also very entertaining.