Reaction paper 2 - Grade: A PDF

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WHALE RIDER REACTION PAPER Melissa Aguerre

1010*04 Leisure and Recreation in a Multicultural Society

The movie “Whale Rider” was about a tribe in New Zealand, Maori, in which only males can become chiefs and lead the tribe. When Koro’s son has children, he had twins, a boy and a girl, but the baby boy dies during birth, leaving the baby girl, Paikea Apirana. Since all the chiefs had been first-born males, it seemed that she broke the direct lineage between the tribe and their predecessors. Therefore, when Pai’s father left, Koro, Pai’s grandfather did not feel it was right to teach her what she needed to know to become chief. That did not stop her though, with the help of her grandmother, uncles, and a boy training to be chief, they taught her everything she needed to know to become chief. Her grandfather did not agree and tried to stop her many times, impeding her learning, but Pai was determined. She passed every test and overcame every struggle, almost losing her life while doing so. In the end, her grandfather realized that she would be a great chief due to her determination to be one, female or not. One of the main themes of the movie is how tradition can change. Since the beginning of the movie Koro kept emphasizing that the chief had to be the first-born male. That is how it always had been and how it had to continue to be, because that was tradition. He started an all-boys school to teach the boys of the tribe what they needed to know to be chiefs, and his best student was Pai. This was ironic because she was not one of his students. She was sneaking into the school and learning by herself. There were countless times where he berated her about breaking tradition and disrespecting their ancestors. At one point, he made her yell “I am sorry” countless times because she learned how to fight with a traditional weapon. He was more worried about the learning of the boys, who were not truly interested, than his own granddaughter. This brings up another theme, which is the treatment of women.

Throughout the movie, you can see how women were seen as people who took care of the house and lived to take care of the men and children. But as the movie progressed, you saw the women taking control of the situations and being treated how they deserved to be treated, not how the men wanted to. Not only did Pai break that hold, but so did her grandmother, Nanny Flowers. Throughout the movie she begins to break away farther and farther from her husband when she feels he is being unfair to Pai, or even to herself. She puts her foot down in the house when he threw a cup and broke it on the floor and she helps Pai learn the things her husband said he did not want her to learn. This movie is a great example of the growth of women and progression of their characters, especially in a male dominated tribe. As much as there are themes, there are also issues and conflicts in this film. For example, Koro did not want to accept Pai when she was born. This was because she was breaking the “direct lineage” to the initial ancestor, Paikea the Whale Rider”. This was an ongoing conflict the whole film, which was resolved when he finally realized that tradition should not always stay the same if circumstances do not allow it. Also, the struggle between Porourangi and Koro was a conflict within the movie. Porourangi did not want the position as chief, much to his father’s disappointment. To get away from the judgment, and the place in which his wife and son died, he moved all the way to Germany. This may have also been a reason why Koro was unsure about allowing Pai to be chief. Not only was she female, but her father quit and gave the position up, so there may have been some hurt and misdirected anger. Most of the conflicts in the film are resolved by the change in attitude of the characters, mostly Koro. Once Koro opened his eyes to the fact that his granddaughter

was a better option for chief than the rest of the boys, he still had to fight through breaking traditions and what he thought was right. Pai changed because she grew as a person. She stopped letting what her grandpa said define her, and she began defining herself and taking it upon herself to act like a chief, even if she was not one. Koro believed that training the young boys in the tribes on the rituals and ceremonies would present him with a new chief. He believed the boys would begin to show interest in becoming chief and he would not be considered a failure, since his sons did not want to become chief and his first born did not produce a son. I believe a very symbolic scene in the movie was when all of the boys dove into the ocean and did not retrieve Koro’s whale tooth necklace. Later, Pai was hanging out with her uncles on the boat and said she would get it back herself. She did what all of the trained boys could not do, and on top of that, she brought back a lobster for her grandfather’s tea. She proved that she could pass every test set forward for the next chief, unlike the boys, and she still would not be accepted as one since she was born a female. It symbolized how she could be better than all of the other prospects but still overlooked due to her gender. Overall, I feel that this movie really touched up on any subjects that are often overlooked because we live in such an advanced society. Our society respects traditions, but also understands that things change over time and traditions can be modified. Unlike in the Maori tribe, which they see tradition as sacred, and they would lose everything if they broke it. I enjoyed this movie because it showed us how determination got Pai what she wanted. She got the respect and love of her grandfather as well as the title of chief. At first, I was having a hard time understand Koro’s point of

view and why he would be so hostile towards a baby girl, especially his granddaughter; but after watching the whole movie, I understood that it is hard straying from what one has known and has believed their whole life, and although I still did not agree with him, I understood why he was the way he was. In the end, the movie really made me understand the cultural differences between old school tribes and our new world views....