Let down your hair

Hair can say a lot about one’s personality and through tangled we see her different hairstyles can be based around her changing and experiencing new things throughout her life. Tangled is a Disney animated movie based on the German fairytale Rapunzel by The Grim Brothers. In this movie Rapunzel has magical hair that allows her to heal and make the old young when she sings “Flower, gleam and glow, Let your power shine, Make the clock reverse, Bring back what once was mine, Heal what has been hurt, Change the fate's design, Save what had been lost, Bring back what once was mine, What once was mine.” This power was obtained through the magical golden flower that was said to have grown when a single drop of sunlight from the heavens fell. When the queen was pregnant with Rapunzel she fell ill and almost died, it was only due to this flower that she drank that she lived and that is where Rapunzel got

her powers from. The trouble was that Mother Gothel had hidden this flower from everyone for hundreds of year to keep her youth. When the flower was taken from her hidden spot she then went to go take a piece of Rapunzels hair in order to keep her youth. However, when she cut her hair the power died from it. This is when Mather Gothel took Rapunzel from the castle and locked her in a tower so that she could stay young forever.

We see Rapunzel trapped in the tower for the first 18 years of her life. She had a routine of painting, baking and reading the same books over and over again. The long hair that Rapunzel had could be seen as holding her down. One good imagery part of the movie is when Rapunzel has to lift her mother up the tower each day with her hair. Her mother is the one person that weighs

her down from being the person that she truly wants to be. This all changes when Flynn Rider, also known as Eugene Fitzherbert, shows up in the tower to get away from the kingdom police because he stole the lost princesses crown. When Rapunzel see’s Flynn for the first time (after she freaks out in fear) she demands that he takes her to see the “lights in the sky” also known as floating lanterns. This is where the true adventure begins. When their journey begins Rapunzel has this new found view on the world, just like a child seeing things for the first time. When Rapunzel begins to get into her first accouter in danger is when her secret is revealed to Flynn. This is

an important time in the movie because her true identity is revealed to Flynn and they are finally truthful with each other. As they go into the kingdom we see Rapunzel experiencing parties and celebrations for the first time. This is where her hair changes to more of a child hairstyle. Four little girls braid her hair with flowers intertwined in them like they had their own hair styled. The next change in hair is when she is released from her mother’s burden when Flynn cuts off all of her hair. Rapunzel’s hair loses all power and turns brown and the mother dies. This is when she begins to experience her life as it should have been with her real family. She is reunited with the king and queen and they live happily ever after.

There are many cases in the real world where we can see that hair truly can change a personality. One drastic transformation in celebrities can be found when we look at Miley Cyrus. She has gone from the good girl on Hanna Montana, to the stage where she was dating Liam, to her current unknown stage. Each stage can easily identified as a new stage in her life, her current stage is what she says she has always been hiding. Hair tells a lot about a person, it can show there mood or the personality of a person. Rapunzel changed as her hair evolved, she became herself once she found just the right style.

Ethical Questions:

                -Does the style of one’s hair truly affect their mood and personality?

                -Can a person actually tell who a person is through their hair style?