The monomyth: an archetypal analysis of the movie Moana

Abstract

Students encountered difficulty in understanding the real meaning of a literary piece and unable to identify patterns and symbols which lead them to confusion. This archetypal analysis aims to scrutinize the characters and situations particularly in the Disney movie Moana which will help to elucidate the more significant meaning of life. This study is qualitative archetypal analysis that generally studies reoccurring patterns of the phenomenon of interest at an intermediate level to uncover multiple models that describe the phenomenon under specific conditions. This qualitative study gathered information in focus group discussion, and in-depth interviews with twelve (12) selected English major students who had already enrolled or done with literary criticism. The results revealed what archetypes found in the movie Moana (2016) and the archetypes that reflect the goals and actions of the characters. We can infer from the study findings that the movie's archetypes were mainly the hero, mentor, herald, and quest. In addition, the archetypes reflecting the goal and actions of the characters were Moana as the Hero, Moana's pet Companions, and Tamatoa, the narcissist. Moreover, this study will be beneficial and would add up to literary students‘ knowledge and understanding of archetypal criticism and its associated properties.