Frozen

Frozen is an animated film that tells the story of two sisters. The older sister, the Queen,
named Elsa, possesses powers that can control the snow or winter. Anna, the younger sister,
however does not have any powers and is unaware of her sister’s powers, because when they were
still children, Elsa accidentally froze her brain and to save her, the head of the trolls have to wipe her
memories of her sister having that kind of powers. Ever since then, the sisters were separated from
each other and from the world. They grew up and Elsa hasn’t spoken to her sister from that day on
and Anna still has no idea why her sister suddenly shut her out. When it was time to crown Elsa as
the Queen, because their parents died while out in the sea, Anna can’t contain her happiness
because that will be the only time that they will open the gates of their castle again in many years.
She took the opportunity and finds her true love, and luckily she met Hans, a prince from the Southern
Isles, and they immediately clicked and decided to get engaged the very same day. They went to tell
Elsa about their marriage and since Elsa knew that it was too fast and sudden, she did not bless their
marriage and had an argument with her sister. Anna goes to stop Elsa from walking away and
accidentally grabs her gloves which helps Elsa control her powers. In devastation, Elsa accidentally
showed her powers and the whole kingdom was surprised and afraid, including her sister. Elsa was
worried so she went away from all her people and isolated herself in the North Mountains and
unknowingly leaving her kingdom in eternal winter. Anna feels responsible and decided to go after her
to apologize and to ask her sister to bring back summer. While on the search for her sister, she got
separated with her horse and walked in the cold and fortunately found a store. While looking for the
things she need, a man, named Kristoff, walks in the store and plans to buy things he need for his ice
business. He doesn’t have enough money and ended up getting thrown out of the store. She
witnessed all that and decided to buy his things as well in return of taking her to the North Mountain.
Kristoff agrees with her deal and takes her to her sister. But on the way, they encountered some
wolves and while running away from them, Kristoff’s sled was ruined. Anna felt guilty and says that it’s
okay if they don’t want to go with her anymore and that she’ll just replace his sled and everything in it.
But Kristoff and his reindeer, Sven, also felt guilty that if she goes alone, she might be in danger again
and still comes with her. As they were walking to find Elsa, they stumbled upon a snowman, Olaf, who
was built by her and was brought to life. Olaf helps them and shows them the way to Elsa. Anna
finally found her sister and convinces her to go back to Arendelle, their kingdom, and in frustration,
Elsa accidentally let out her powers hitting Anna’s heart, putting her life in danger and only an act of
true love can save her. Kristoff takes her to Hans, her fiancé, to help her only for Anna to find out that
he only wants to take their kingdom and he doesn’t love Anna at all and left her to die. Hans went to
kill Elsa and Anna saw him pulling out his sword to kill his sister and goes to sacrifice herself for her
sister and turning into ice at the same time. Anna came to life again because of her own act of true
love for her sister.

The writer of this paper chose this film because in the character of Anna, she can apply some
of the stages of development from Erik Erikson’s psychosocial theory. Erikson’s theory was shown on
the first part of the movie where Anna wakes her sister up and invites her to play in the middle of the
night. She was at the stage of pre-school where she always wants to play and explore things. In this
stage, initiative or guilt is developed. The key question to be answered in this stage is “Am I good or
bad?” In Anna’s case, this was the time when she was separated from her sister and the rest of the
world. The theory says that children who try to exert too much power experience disapproval,
resulting in a sense of guilt. Anna was trying and trying to play with her sister but always getting
ignored and getting a no for an answer. For the writer, Anna developed a sense of guilt because of all
the rejections she received from her sister. Same goes in the next stage which is the school age;
Anna felt inferior instead of feeling industrious and competent. Because they were separated from the
world, she doesn’t go to school and doesn’t have that much of activity since her sister won’t talk to her
and she doesn’t have friends to talk to. The theory of Erikson says that failure to cope up with new
social and academic demands results in feeling of inferiority. This was showed in the part of the movie
where Elsa was crowned as the queen and in the party; Anna was asked to stand beside her and felt
“wrong” to stand that close to her and moved a few inches away from her with feelings of uneasiness
and inferiority. The writer also saw Anna being a young adult in Erikson’s stages of development. This
stage is conflicting between intimacy and isolation. The key question in this stage is “Am I loved and
wanted?” The theory states that young adults need to form intimate and loving relationships with other
people because success leads to strong relationships, while failure results in loneliness and isolation.
This was showed in her character when she reconciled with her sister and at the same time started a
romantic relationship with Kristoff. Her intimate and loving relationship with them was strong and she
doesn’t feel lonely and isolated because of her loved ones.

With this, the writer thinks that at some point in our lives, the psychosocial theory of Erik
Erikson may be seen or experienced. Though it is just a theory and still not proven to be true, some
parts of this can be true. She also thinks that Erikson is right about one thing though; that a person’s
behavior is based from cultural influences and with the help of social agents.