The parents of Chihiro are not spoken about enough. Their salvation is actually a very common folklore trope, so let's find out more about them!
While Spirited Away (2001) is very unique, it was still created within our world, by a person who grew up watching, listening to, and reading stories that already exist every day. As a result, certain existing motifs and tropes may have found their way into Hayao Miyazaki's work.
We will spoil a minor detail in Spirited Away, so make sure to watch this 2001 classic first and only then come back here.
Not much is said about the story of Chihiro's parents. They eat a lot of food in the strange amusement park, which turns them into pigs. After that, they are mostly off-screen until Chihiro is presented with the final test of Yubaba, the witch who has trapped Chihiro and is probably responsible for the parent's transformation. The test is to recognize her parents among the rest of the pigs (possibly other victims of Yubaba), which Chihiro does with exceptional ease. This is a moment we want to talk about because it is actually a trope in the classification of folklore tropes.
Yes, there is a classification. Even though it is not the most compelling read. Still, it shows us that the trope of recognizing loved ones among identical things they were transformed into is quite common.
This trope appears all over the world in folktales, especially in European and Eastern European fairy tales. However, it is usually played a little differently. As you can see in the classification (if you took a look), the trope is actually a subtrope. It usually involves a magician and their understudy, who are forced to stay with the magician while learning from them.
The understudy is usually turned into an animal and presented with a group of the same animals (often ravens) to the person who tries to get the understudy out from under the magician's thumb.
Sometimes, the savior has some help from the understudy, but the power of love is often enough for them to recognize the understudy and save them.
Now, Chihiro's parents are not Yubaba's understudies, and, in fact, they forget everything once they are restored to human form, which is probably for the best. But Yubaba is a witch, and she has so many people trapped that pig demonstrations should take place every day.
In other words, it is not the exact same trope, but one can argue that it emphasizes Chihiro's overwhelming love for her parents. Thus, the inclusion of this fairy tale shorthand for love shows how Hayao Miyazaki builds upon culture and weaves tropes into his own narrative. And it works brilliantly.
The parents of Chihiro are not spoken about enough. Their salvation is actually a very common folklore trope, so let's find out more about them!
While Spirited Away (2001) is very unique, it was still created within our world, by a person who grew up watching, listening to, and reading stories that already exist every day. As a result, certain existing motifs and tropes may have found their way into Hayao Miyazaki's work.
We will spoil a minor detail in Spirited Away, so make sure to watch this 2001 classic first and only then come back here.
Not much is said about the story of Chihiro's parents. They eat a lot of food in the strange amusement park, which turns them into pigs. After that, they are mostly off-screen until Chihiro is presented with the final test of Yubaba, the witch who has trapped Chihiro and is probably responsible for the parent's transformation. The test is to recognize her parents among the rest of the pigs (possibly other victims of Yubaba), which Chihiro does with exceptional ease. This is a moment we want to talk about because it is actually a trope in the classification of folklore tropes.
Yes, there is a classification. Even though it is not the most compelling read. Still, it shows us that the trope of recognizing loved ones among identical things they were transformed into is quite common.
This trope appears all over the world in folktales, especially in European and Eastern European fairy tales. However, it is usually played a little differently. As you can see in the classification (if you took a look), the trope is actually a subtrope. It usually involves a magician and their understudy, who are forced to stay with the magician while learning from them.
The understudy is usually turned into an animal and presented with a group of the same animals (often ravens) to the person who tries to get the understudy out from under the magician's thumb.
Sometimes, the savior has some help from the understudy, but the power of love is often enough for them to recognize the understudy and save them.
Now, Chihiro's parents are not Yubaba's understudies, and, in fact, they forget everything once they are restored to human form, which is probably for the best. But Yubaba is a witch, and she has so many people trapped that pig demonstrations should take place every day.
In other words, it is not the exact same trope, but one can argue that it emphasizes Chihiro's overwhelming love for her parents. Thus, the inclusion of this fairy tale shorthand for love shows how Hayao Miyazaki builds upon culture and weaves tropes into his own narrative. And it works brilliantly.
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