Shrek Analysis Essay

Shrek is an animated childrens film that tells the story of a misunderstood ogre who only wants to be left alone in his swamp because he feels shunned from the world. However, to reclaim his swamp, which had been overtaken by Lord Farquaad, he and his new talking donkey companion, Donkey, set out on a journey to rescue the princess Fiona from a dragon to become Lord Farquaad’s wife.
Two phenomenons occur throughout the film. The first is the appraisal of theory of emotions; when someone is making the effort to understand or interpret a certain situation or an event. The stimulus, or the situation, is interpreted with a cognitive appraisal and then creates a psychological reaction eliciting an emotional reaction (Frijda, 1986). The second is the effect of prejudices; when prejudices are pushed onto others, often creating a negative effect, leading to discrimination and stereotypes against the targeted. This ends up making said targets feel ostracized and unwelcome (Source).
Donkey likes to analyse shrek so that he can better understand the situation. As Donkey and Shrek are sharing stories one night, donkey pushes Shrek on why he wants to build a wall around himself and his swamp after he

This is a prejudice that has always been pushed onto him and he himself promotes as truth so that people who target him will leave him alone. However, Shrek in reality is none of these stereotypes and only promotes the ideas so that people will be too scared to try and kill him. When Shrek brings Fiona to Lord Farquaad, Farquaad says that “You don’t have to waste good manners on the ogre. It’s not like it has any feelings” he and many others have belittled Shek with this prejudice to make him angry and resentful. This causes Shrek to lash out at even those he cares about, such as Donkey and Fiona, shunning himself from society. This shows the negative effects of the prejudices against