Synopsis
John Henry is an animated short film from Disney American Legends. The film portrays the strenuous life of blacks after the abolishment of slavery. They were free but they had to work on the railway for each of them to get a parcel of land. Fortunately, John Henry comes in with his extraordinary strength and helps them to complete the railway despite the challenges.
Relevance to the Study
The short film is a clear depiction of the tenets of the Foucauldian perspective on discipline and the Jungian male-masculine archetypal characters. First, John Henry is constrained to certain boundaries due to historical factors, loyalty to family, and his people. The historical concept of slavery gives John various disadvantages that he should overcome by staying disciplined. First, he has to work harder to acquire the 50-acre plot of land by building a railway line. In this manner, his activities and ambitions are set on solving various challenges that come along the way with the threat to snatch the offering of land from him. In the same manner, he has to push himself with discipline so that his immediate family and his community get the promise of the land as well. Therefore, since he is the one with the capability, he does not need surveillance to work hard and attain the set goals, but the demands of the society around him makes him disciplined.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The short film also accurately portrays the four male characters that Jung enumerated; thus it will be important in shedding light on the Jungian theory. As a king, John Henry gives his family and his community a sense of vision, empowerment, and protection since he uses his skills and energy to wither all the challenges that come in their way to secure the Promised Land. As a warrior, John Henry depicts an aggressive and courageous attitude as he chooses to challenge the steam drill machine that was sent by the authorities and defeats it successfully. When it comes to the magician, John Henry does stunts that the others cannot. In this way, he can carry the community along to success. Finally, Henry is a lover as the film depicts him falling in love with a girl right from the beginning. He shows immense affection to the girls, and they are seen together during the various tribulations that John and the community go through.
