Shelley Quema

Professor Emily Prior

Sociology 001

21 May 2017

Project #1: Video/DVD Analysis

Movies can express many forms of sociological perspectives. The Disney movie, Frozen,

is about two sisters, Elsa and Anna, who brave through a journey of sisterhood. Elsa, the older

sister and soon to be queen of Arendelle, possess magical powers that she cannot control. When

the two girls were younger, Elsa had accidentally injured Anna with her powers while trying to

show her what she can do. The Queen and King feared that Anna would be injured again and

would remember Elsa's powers. So, they sought help from a troll that could heal Anna and erase

her memories of Elsa's magic and they kept the two sisters separated. When they are older, Anna

accidentally causes Elsa to reveal her powers in front of the people of Arendelle, which prompts

her to run away. Elsas powers trap their kingdom in a perpetual winter. Anna sets out on a

journey to find her sister and bring her home and help her control her powers. Through her

journey she meets Kristoff, his loyal companion reindeer Sven, and Olaf, a snowman her and

Elsa created when they were younger. All of them encounter many obstacles and try everything

in their power to save their kingdom from winters cold grip. Towards the end of the movie, Elsa

accidentally hits Annas heart with an ice crystal which causes Anna to promptly die. But Elsas

true love for her sister remained the strongest power which helped bring her sister back and fix

her kingdom.
 In the movie, Elsas father gives her a pair of gloves in order to minimize the use and

effects of her magical powers. Elsa expresses, conceal, dont feel, dont let it show. This scene

expresses the functionalist perspective. The functionalist perspective emphasizes the way in

which the parts of a society are structured to maintain its stability. Elsas father is providing

social order by making her conceal her powers in order to maintain stability in the kingdom and

family. He is functioning as his role as a father. As young girls, Anna always wanted to play with

Elsa. She is functioning as her sister role by wanting to play with Elsa all the time. Also, as Anna

sets out on the journey to find her sister, she is also functioning as her sister role. She is trying to

bring Elsa back to bring back social order in the kingdom. The kingdom as a whole also

performs similar tasks, shared beliefs/values, and language, furthermore expressing the

functionalist perspective.

The interactionist perspective generalizes about everyday forms of social interaction in

order to explain society as a whole. Simply, society is a product of our everyday interactions.

When Anna asks Elsa through the door Do you Want to Build a Snowman?, the door is seen as

a symbol. It symbolizes a connection between the two of them, with door being the thing that

connects them. Do you Want to Build a Snowman? is set up as a contract, meaning that Elsa

agrees to it for her and Anna to interact with one another. Their interaction creates shared

symbols and meanings between the two. The interactionist perspective states that people people

manipulate symbols and create their social worlds through interaction. As an outcome of their

agreement with building the snowman, Olaf is created. Olaf bonds the two sisters together

because of the meaning they associated with Olaf. Also, because of the fact Anna did whatever it

took to find her sister and bring her home shows us that she is a strong and loving sister.
 The perspective that is most represented in this film is the conflict paradigm. Conflict

paradigm focuses on power and the allocation of valued resources in society. Elsa is shaped by

the 3 aspects of this perspective: power, coercion, and authority. Elsa fears her powers and how

strong it can get which ultimately affects and shapes her to be the person she is. She is also

coerced by her magical powers because she is afraid what her power can do. In the clip, Do you

Want to Build a Snowman, Elsa says go away Anna. This is an example of the conflict

perspective because Elsa is fearful of what she can do to Anna which ultimately shapes who she

is. She does not want to harm her people like she harmed Anna when she was younger. Thus,

creating a gap between her and Anna as they grow up. She tells her father, please, dont touch

me, I dont want to hurt you. Because she has this power, she fears that it can harm the people

around her if she was given higher authority, thus authority shapes who she is.