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Simba's Trauma in The Lion King

 Avirat Kampani

The lion king is a classic Disney movie that tells the story of a young personified lion cub. For this analysis the main source will be the 2019 rendition of the movie. Simba is a young lion cub who is meant to become the next king of the pride after his father. Unfortunately, one day when Simba was practicing his roar in a canyon there happened to be a stampede of wildebeest. Simba’s father Mufasa rushed to rescue him and was able to successfully rescue the cub but Mufasa struggled to climb out of the canyon. As Mufasa reached the edge he saw that his brother Scar was waiting for him, but instead of helping him, Scar pushed Mufasa off the edge back into the stampede and eventually to his death. Scar was also the one that started the stampede. Simba was not aware of these details nor did he witness his uncle betray his father, all Simba saw was his father fall into the stampede and be trampled to death. Once the stampede was over Simba even went to go check on his father but only came upon a lifeless body. Simba’s uncle scar then proceeds to blame Simba for the death of his own father, this causes Simba to run away.

During the stampede the audience can see that Simba is panicking and running from the wildebeest. This can be analyzed as a nervous system response to a stressful situation. This response can be categorized as hyper arousal where an individual triggers their fight or flight instinct to a dangerous situation. This immediate response to stress consists of panic, fear and anxiety for one’s own wellbeing. Simba being a cub could not do anything other than flee. As this scene progresses Simba is shown entering the Hypo arousal stage, when one’s life is in danger, they can freeze shut down or feel hopeless as Simba searches for places to hide, he eventually finds himself suspended on a tree branch where he is helpless. Simba’s father on the other hand enters the other spectrum of the hyperarousal stage where he chooses to fight once he sees his cub in danger. Mufasa begins to head towards the danger, shoving, swiping away and evading all the stampeding wildebeest to save his son. Mufasa’s arousal remains towards the lower end since he does make grounded decisions in a stressful situation and chooses to fight through it.

The most traumatic event was when Simba saw his father dead after the stampede. As he approached his father, Simba called out for him even though he witnessed his father fall from a great height and get trampled, he chose to deny the fact that his father had died. Simba even went up to the body poking and prodding his father as to wake him up. His denial slowly turned into a morbid acceptance as he proceeded to try and lay with his father but is interrupted by his uncle. Uncle Scar then gaslights Simba into believing that all of this is his own doing and that he got his father killed. Simba is then told to run away, once again triggering his flight response to the stressful and traumatic event. As Simba runs away, he is chased by a bunch of hyaenas and nearly falls to his death off of a cliff. His response to cope with these events in that moment was to keep going and run away until he couldn’t go any further and once again reached the hypo arousal phase where he feels hopeless. As Timone and Pumba find him nearly being eaten by vultures, he seems hopeless and doesn’t even care about the vultures, he seems ashamed, and shut down, even prepared for death. All these characteristics signify that his arousal was at its peak and decreasing.

To cope with these events Simba seems to hide that part of his life and takes comfort in the phrase ‘Hakuna Matata’ (Favreau, 2019) the phrase meaning no worries. For the rest of his life living with Timone and Pumba, he makes this his motto. This helps him cope with his feelings by avoiding them. The lifestyle that he adopts after the traumatic events is one that is completely different to his lifestyle before. For years he changes his diet, his way of living and stays away from his home. All of these can be analyzed to be factors of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Simba runs away from his responsibilities, his life as a prince and from the thoughts of the death of his father, because he suffers from survivor’s guilt and anxiety from the thought of his loved ones believing that he was the cause of his father’s death. Survivor’s guilt is a symptom of PTSD brought forward in survivors of traumatic events because they feel guilty that they survived and others died (Tips for Managing Survivor’s Guilt, 2021). This factor is seen in Simba when he feels guilty for the death of his father not knowing that his uncle was the one that killed his father, his survivor’s guilt was also not only brought upon by his mind and thought process, it was inculcated by his uncle. Simba is also deeply saddened whenever he is reminded of his past life as can be seen when he shares his father’s ideology about the stars with his friends Timone and Pumba. He constantly refers to the incident as an accident and says that he did not mean for it to happen which shows that he feels responsible for the incident. Another instance of Simba’s change in outlook and dismissal of his past life is the difference between the songs ‘I Just Can’t Wait to Be King’ (Favreau, 2019) and ‘Hakuna Matata’ (Favreau, 2019). The earlier song is one that Simba sings about his excitement for inheriting the role of king and assuming the responsibilities that come with it, while the latter is a song about not having a care in the world and having no responsibilities. This change in character is further emphasized when he is asked to return to become king and he would rather stay in his care free paradise.

As a result of consecutive life-threatening events and the death of his father that he believed to be his own doing gave Simba a form of PTSD where he avoided thoughts of his past life and the traumatic events, but they still haunted him and inculcated a form of survivor’s guilt within his mind.

 

Citation:

Tips for Managing Survivor’s Guilt. (2021, February 20). Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/survivors-guilt-4688743#:%7E:text=Coping-,What%20Is%20Survivor’s%20Guilt%3F,save%20the%20lives%20of%20others.

Favreau. J (Director), (2019), The Lion King [Film], Walt Disney Pictures

Dennis, J., MA. (2019, September 6). Five Things The Lion King Teaches Us About Trauma. Mindful Counseling. https://mindfulcounselingutah.com/blog/2019/9/5/five-things-the-lion-king-teaches-us-about-trauma#:%7E:text=Simba%20is%20prince%20of%20the,gets%20him%20to%20run%20away.

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