Whale Rider Analysis

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Pai says, “There are many types of leaders” (Whale ). In the film, Whale Rider a young girl who is part of the Maori tribe and is the first born child, which in the tribe is meant to be the new tribe leader. Because she is a female, she cannot be a chief. It has to be a male to take on the role. Pai does show the skill and qualities to be a leader and that she was destined to be the new chief. Others may disagree, like her grandfather who stays with the old traditions. In Campbell's article, “The Four Functions of Myth” the four function are shown throughout the film of the Whale Rider. The film shows an insight of how the Maori tribe came to be and the society’s values and each individual’s values. Campbell’s four functions of myth are found …show more content…
“Validating and maintaining some specific social order, authorizing its moral code as construct beyond criticism or human emendation ” (Campbell 59). Campbell's third function is to help the certain individuals know their place in the community and experience the bad and the good in the family in order to see what need to be changed and turned for the better. In myths, there are traditions that people have always followed one with a higher power and following orders. For example, like the ten commandments, these are certain guidelines that people follow or like in the bible. Times are changing and so is the world and some of those guidelines wont fit in today's world. In Whale Rider, Pai was looked at in the tribe as being the child that shouldn't have been alive by her grandfather who wanted her twin brother to be alive. Koro does care for Pai but hasn't really fully accepted her full potential. For example, when she was talking to Koro and the boat wasn't working because the rope broke in two pieces he went to the shed and she tied the rope together and made the boat worked. Koro got mad at her and said that it was dangerous and not to do it again. He didn't like that Pai was able to outsmart him because he is chief he should be the wisest man. Another example is …show more content…
In the mystical function, Pai learned about her culture and rode to the sea on the back of a whale as a sense of rebirth and a new era has begun, the first female leader of the tribe. The cosmological function, She was going against ancient ways with the fighting stick and created a new tribe. Sociological function, Pai was looked down upon for being a girl and the women had to listen to the males because of traditions and Pai knew this had to change by doing her own ways and break traditions. In psychological functions, she did the things she knew was right and followed her heart by going against Koro ancients rules and by doing so she was able to have Koro finally accept her by seeing her full potential. She was destined to show that women are able to do the same things men can do. In a tribe full of men she was the only one with enough courage to go through the obstacles that was suppose to be men work. Pai the same name has her ancestor who rode on the back of the whale ages ago, but this time it is the start of a new era with a female
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