Aladdin Analysis in regards to the Orient
Final Draft Essay #1
Jackson Smith
Dr. Albert
FYS Arabian Nights
16 October 2022
Aladdin Analysis
The wind blows with sand in the air while a merchant and his camel go riding in the hot and dry deserts of Agrabah as he begins to sing, “I come from a land. From a faraway place. Where the caravan camels roam. Where they cut off your ear if they don’t like your face. It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home” (Alan Menkin). This is the beginning of the hit Disney movie, Aladdin. What the narrator says is problematic because it is offensive to those of the Orient. This quote, stated within the first five minutes of the movie, is misleading because it paints people of the Middle East as violent, irrational, and socially isolated.
While riding into Agrabah on a camel, the narrator begins setting the stage for the rest of the film. When the narrator describes Agrabah- a fictional place somewhere in the Middle East. He describes it as a place that is far away and out of touch. Calling Agrabah a “faraway place indicates that the Middle East is unheard of and perhaps unknown to most people. This is no surprise considering the evidence found by Ernst that shows how Europeans and Americans lack education on Arabs: “This concept of the ‘mystic east’ which came from European Romanticism, contributed to a tendency to disregard more mundane factors such as technology, economics, and society”(Ernst 23). Ernst is explaining that European scholars simply did not indulge in the bright history of Arabs, and instead emphasized everything that was bad in Arab culture- not to mention This is a great reason why the Middle East is misunderstood by most Europeans and Americans. Introducing camels as a form of transportation, the narrator is saying that people in Agrabah use camels to get wherever they need to go. Then, the narrator focuses on the fact that people would be punished for not only crimes but simple things such as not having a nice face with obscene punishments. It is likely that the narrator speaks about violence in Agrabah to inflict a sense of fear into the viewer. He goes on to say that the city of Agrabah is “barbaric”, meaning that the people of Agrabah are savagely cruel, outrageously brutal, and lack morals. Could this insinuate that the people of the Middle East are the same way? In regards to the visual representation of the scene, the creators of the movie wanted to show that the climate of the movie is very hot and dry. They show the narrator riding into the city on a tired camel arising from red sunset through a golden desert. These are all aspects that can show viewers that visiting this “Agrabah” is a treacherous journey. Lastly, the narrator claims this place as his home, telling the viewer that even though all aspects of life in Agrabah are below average, the people of this city are complacent in their residence. All of these points can influence the watchers of the movie and persuade them to think that the Middle East is like this in real life.
Aside from the literal representation of the introduction, the viewer might take away some different aspects that are beneath the surface of what is being said. One can interpret how an individual from the Middle East might interpret this introduction. A person from the United States may perceive this scene in a different way as well. According to Islam in the Eyes of the West, by Ernst, “Yet at the same time, it is commonly accepted among educated people that Islam is a religion that by definition oppresses women and encourages violence”(Ernst 12). Ernst is explaining that anti-Semitism has no respected authorities, but yet among some intellectuals, the Islamic faith appears to be riddled with bad morals such as sexism and increased violence. When the narrator says that the people in Agrabah will cut off your ear, the introduction becomes problematic. It is clear that Agrabah was meant to be some made-up town in the Middle East, however, a person from the Middle East hearing this quote in an American-made movie might come to believe that Americans view middle Easterners asviolent and irrational. Perhaps the writers of Aladdin meant to use the word “barbaric” to describe the intense heat and weather found in Agrabah. Nevertheless, using descriptive words such as the ones used by the narrator sent the wrong message to the people of the middle east. There are plenty of other ways to describe a foreign place and make it appear mysterious or scary rather than “barbaric”. In the eyes of an American, the quote said by the narrator provides an opportunity to assume that people from the Middle East live in a dangerous land filled with dangerous people. It can lead Americans, or any non-Middle Eastern resident, to believe that the Middle East is simply a desert land ruled by violent Islam.
Ernst supplies substantial evidence as to how Arabs have become known to be terrorists. According to Ernst, “to the average American newspaper reader, ‘Arab’ ‘Muslim,’ and ‘terrorist’ have become almost interchangeable terms”(Ernst 26). For context, the author of this text is explaining that in the 1960s-70s, Palestinian commandos were committing several acts of violence that frightened Americans. These acts of violence occurred due to Israel’s conquest of the West Bank in 1967. Inheriting a colonial mechanism from the British, Israel controlled several Palestinian territories. This led to a lot of conflict between Jews and Arabs. Although this war was not being fought with a religious motive, Americans perceived the use of the words Muslim, Arab, and terrorist, interchangeably. Is it a coincidence that just twenty years later after this conflict, Disney releases a movie that displays Arabs as violent and barbaric? The timing of the movie release could not have been worse. It simply fueled the ongoing conflict between the Middle East and European powers. Just after Arabs were painted in a bad light because of the Palestinians’ revolting, Disney released a scene of an Arab riding a tired camel in the hot desert complaining about the violence that he lives in every day.
