Mulan: Honor, Horses, Huns, and Men(?) in the Heroine's Journey

Mulan is without question the best Disney movie. End of discussion. Among many of it's fantastic features, it also serves as both a useful and unique representation of the heroine's journey in modern media. Throughout this blog post, I will show how the progression of the film clearly tracks Schmidtt's diagram of the heroine's journey, and analyze what makes Mulan such an interesting delineation of the heroine's journey.

The Illusion of the Perfect World

In the opening scene, we see the Huns attack the Great Wall of China, initiating a conflict which will later drive the plot of the movie. Afterwards, we are introduced to Mulan, who lives in a small yet lively village far away from the violence. Mulan wishes to bring honor to her family by marrying a rich man and becoming a perfect wife, as all young women of her village aspire to. 

The Betrayal/Realization

After a series of cartoonish and silly mishaps with the matchmaker (the person who will choose Mulan's suitors) including setting her dress on fire, Mulan is kicked out of the matchmaker's house, embarrassed, and left with no husband. She realizes that she does not have "wife material", according to societal standards. She is seen unable to hold herself straight, speaks when she is told to be silent, and lets a grasshopper slip into the matchmaker's tea. Her father consoles her, but she is still left dejected.

The Awakening/Preparing for Journey

Mulan's father is conscripted to serve in the Chinese army to fight the Huns, despite his age. Mulan, thirsting for adventure and to bring honor to her family, cuts off her hair and steals her father's armor and sword, adopting the name Fa Ping to disguise herself. She is also accompanied by Mushu, the family's disgraced guardian (who can be seen as an analogy to the "spirit" later in the film).

The Descent

Mulan arrives at the army camp, where she begins a rigorous training process, all while having to maintain her disguise as a man. She, along with many other men, struggle to meet Shang (their leader's) high expectations, but slowly they begin to improve, and are soon ready to fight the Huns. Their musical training montage (set to "I'll Make a Man Out of You") serves as a second level of irony, as Mulan is literally learning how to act like a man as this phase of her journey progresses. 

The Eye of the Storm

Shang's troops head into the mountains, on orders forged by Mushu to reinforce the main army, which is currently further north. After a long journey, they instead find that this army has been brutally massacred. They continue on in a quest to fight the Huns. They are ambushed in a mountain pass, and they seem to be outnumbered and outfought, but Mulan begins an avalanche via a well-aimed cannonball, instantly killing many of the Huns, and changing the tides of the battle. Her brilliance is rewarded by Shang. 

Death/All is Lost

Enraged, the leader of the Huns hunts down Mulan on horseback and severely injures Mulan, though he later flees the battle. Mulan limps back to Shang but refuses treatment (for the gaping sword-slash in her abdomen, mind you) as this would reveal her real identity. Shang insists on helping her, but ends up discovering she is a woman. However, instead of killing her at the urging of the generals (which would likely lead to her death, the standard punishment for this crime), he expels her from the army. Mulan has lost all hope and all honor. 

Support

While Mulan and Mushu console each other (in a side plot, it is discovered that he forged the papers that ultimately led to Mulan's battle and subsequent downfall in a greedy quest to bring his honor back), they spot the remaining Hun forces heading directly for the Chinese capital. The pair decide to set their honor aside and rush to the capital to warn the emperor of the coming attacks.

Rebirth/Moment of Truth

Mulan arrives to late, and the Huns are already within the capital, disguised as members of the victory parade celebrating what was thought to be their defeat. Mulan's friends from the army seek her out, because of her demonstrated problem-solving ability, and help her formulate an attack. In a twist, they disguise themselves as female in order to sneak into the palace, where her friends rescue the emperor and Mulan takes on the leader of the Huns herself. After a dramatic rooftop swordfight between the two, Mushu shoots the Hun leader down with a firework rocket.

Return to the Perfect World

The emperor is deeply impressed with Mulan's heroism, despite her very obvious, for lack of better term, being a female. He offers Mulan a place on her council, a place reserved only for the wisest men, but she rejects, opting instead to return to her family. Her father is immensely proud of her, tossing aside her treasures earned from the war and embracing her as his daughter. Her honor is restored. 

A Brief Analysis

What makes Mulan so interesting as a heroine's journey to me is the intersection between it and Mulan's chosen identity throughout the film. Mulan does not chose to fight the masculinity nor adapt to it; she outright accepts masculinity and chooses it as her way of life from that point forward. In Mulan's world, there is no fuzzy in-between where masculine and feminine comingle. By wholeheartedly embracing the masculine within her, Mulan is ultimately able to overcome and accept the feminine side of her. Indeed, we realize by the end of the film that Mulan need not fully embrace one side or the other, and that it is society that ultimately adapts to accept Mulan. In other Heroine's journeys (particularly Legally Blonde) the masculine world must be infiltrated, but ultimately the feminine side of Elle (or whatever the main character's name is, I'm blanking) is what she embraces. In Mulan, the masculine world is infiltrated by her presence, but ultimately Mulan identifies with the masculine. In fact, there is an argument to be made that by the end of the film, Mulan is also infiltrating the feminine world via her adaption of the masculine. And I think this gets at a drawback to the heroine's journey: when viewed through any gendered lens other than the one for which it was intended, the heroine's journey begins to fall apart. Like many needlessly gendered concepts, it is imperfect, and, while useful, destined to unravel after too much poking and prodding. 

In conclusion, the heroine's journey isn't real and we're all going to die. Thanks for reading.