Folktale Motifs in Spirited Away

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Folktale Motifs in Spirited Away One of the motifs chosen to discuss are the character motifs. In Spirited Away there were elders which were Chihiro’s parents. They fell into a trap once they started eating the foods that were meant for the spirits, because of this they could not stop eating. As a result they got transformed into pigs, and were stationary inside of a pig pen while Chihiro went on an adventure to save them. The person that got the most out of the story was Chihiro the hero. She went through many challenges and obstacles so that she could rescue her true love and parents. Chihiro had to find a job, remember her name as well as remember which pigs were her parents. The hero went through great lengths to help master Haku her true love. For example she fought off the 3 heads along with the bird so that they would not feed off of injured Haku. She was also warned by the boiler room man to be very careful that Haku was very dangerous although he was injured. Yet she insisted on giving him the food from the river spirit which helped to heal him. Chihiro placed her life in danger to help her true love. Next the true loves of the hero’s affection were her parents and Master Haku. She puts on hold saving her parents to save her true love Haku by asking the witch’s twin sister to forgive him for stealing the golden seal. Once she returns from saving Haku she saves her parents by remembering which pigs they were, and was rewarded by going back to the human world. Another character motif present in the film is the villain which was the witch Yubaba. She dislikes humans, and transforms them into animals. Yubaba tries to interrupt the hero’s journey by stealing her name, and giving her the most difficult tasks to complete. She also hurts the hero’s true love by putting a slug into him and by controlling him. There were several helpers in the film
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