The Power of Imagery
by Jackson Smith
In the story, Aladdin, directed by Ron Clements, a poor street rat roams the streets of Agrabah striving for a better life. He survives by stealing from vendors and living off of scraps. Further, into the story, he meets a girl named Jasmine and discovers that she is a rich princess that lives a polar opposite life than he does in that she is rich, protected, and sheltered from the harsh realities found within the dangerous city. Aladdin becomes motivated to get close to the princess. Aladdin disguised himself as a prince -with the help of the genie- along with an entirely fabricated persona; going by the name of Prince Ali Ababwa. In the song “Prince Ali”, Aladdin rides into the palace in Agrabah dressed like a rich prince. The scene shows that regardless of how much status and control a person pretends to have, it does not have the same power as an authentic reputation does.
The street rat formulates a plan to obtain Jasmine’s love. Aladdin arrives in Agrabah on an enormous grey elephant accompanied by a parade of people with instruments as well as other animals. To top it all off, he has a dramatically choreographed song and dance to enhance his self-proclaimed superiority. The genie changed Aladdin’s clothing drastically. As seen in the picture, Aladdin is wearing bright colors including white and gold. On top of that, his turban contains a vibrant purple feather, and a glowing red gem, all of which tell the princess that Prince Ali comes from a lot of money. Looking at the photo closely, we see that Aladdin has increased confidence now that he is all-powerful and surrounded by fans. A town that has been filled with gloom, danger, and sadness has now been brightened by Aladdin and his camaraderie. Everybody in the city of Agrabah is interested in the new prince that has entered the kingdom.
This image ties into the rest of the plot and evolution of the film. Aladdin wanted to make his entrance into the palace as grand as possible so he could make princess Jasmine fall in love with him. Throughout a large portion of the movie, Aladdin refused to tell Jasmine the truth about how he became a prince thus leading her to believe that he is someone else. He even takes Jasmine on a magic carpet ride convincing her that he can be the one to show her the world that she yearns to explore. After several lies, the princess eventually warms up to Prince Ali, but it was not long until she would find out that Aladdin has been tricking her into falling in love with his fake identity. Once Jasmine comes to this realization, she is furious with Aladdin and demands he tells the truth.
On top of the conflict with Jasmine, Aladdin’s fake identity leads to deeper conflict with other characters in the story thus proving that his fabricated status and identity can’t solve his problems. Aladdin, dressed as Prince Ali Ababwa, arrives at the palace just in time to greet Jasmine. Jafar becomes enraged by this and orders the guards to kill Aladdin by throwing him into a river. Aladdin breaks Jafar’s staff when he leaves and tells the Sultan the truth, but Jafar manages to flee. Once he obtains the lamp, Jafar tells Genie to place the palace among the mountains and makes a wish that he will become the sultan. Jafar aspires to be the most formidable sorcerer in the universe after Jasmine and her father reject his demands that they submit to him. Jasmine is informed of Aladdin’s secret, and then Jafar sends him to the far reaches of the planet.
Aside from how Aladdin’s fake identity ties into the entirety of the film, there are multiple key takeaways that the director of the film could have wanted the audience to absorb. Aladdin became so involved in trying to fall in love with the princes that he let his ego take over. He assumed that if he had all of the status and confidence in the world that the princess would have no choice but to fall in love with him. All of the lies that Aladdin told Jasmine could have been avoided if he simply came clean and told her who he really was. Not only that, but Jasmine wouldn’t have gotten mad at him for the things he did. It is clear that if Aladdin took a different approach to meet Jasmine, things could have gone for the better. Perhaps he could have met her in the street again and gotten to know her in secret. Furthermore, if Aladdin didn’t disguise himself as a fake prince, he would have been able to avoid all of the conflicts with Jafar. Jafar wouldn’t have gotten jealous of Aladdin and he wouldn’t have thrown him into the water. Since Aladdin pretended to be someone he wasn’t, he almost drowned to death.
Indubitably, the author proved a major point in that fake status cannot allow a person to have true authenticity. This idea was extremely apparent in the character arc of Aladdin. His disguise leads to several conflicts in the story that essentially develop the plot in its entirety. If Aladdin hadn’t faked his identity, the majority of the conflict in the film would not have occurred. Aladdin would not have broken his trust in Jasmine and he also wouldn’t have gotten attacked by Jafar -not to mention he wouldn’t have drowned in the bottom of the sea. Regardless of his disguise, at the end of the film, the audience realizes that Jasmine loved Aladdin for him and not for the fake persona that he put on for the majority of the movie. Only when Aladdin became the true hero at the end of the film using his courage and wit, was he able to truly have his happy ending. Having status is a good thing. However, being somebody you’re not can lead to several conflicts.
