Bambi the Movie \"Bambi\" Takes

Bambi

The movie "Bambi" takes the viewer from the birth of the young deer through all the growing up and maturing issues, and through terrible dangers and conflicts, which most humans also experience as they move along through life. After Bambi has negotiated all the dangers - including being hunted, shot at, and having his mother killed by a hunter - he and his female companion start a family of their own. They have twins in the forest, which has now become green and flourishing with plant life around all the burned out trees.

Moral development is part of the theme of the story, albeit unless a viewer is alert and looking for morality and child development themes, he or she might view Bambi as just another Disney animated feature film. But knowing ahead of time that Bambi has moral lessons of behavior - connected with family values - one can find a connection with the theories of Kohlberg, Piaget, Erikson and Freud.

In Kohlberg's Six Stages of Moral Development, "Level 1" is "Preconventional Morality." The first stage of Level 1 is "Obedience and Punishment Orientation," and in Bambi's case the interaction between parent and child is the same as in human instances. To wit, the child assumes "...that powerful authorities hand down a fixed set of rules," and the child figures out right away that he or she must "unquestioningly obey."

Early in the film, Bambi starts to run out into the meadow by himself, but his mother stops him. "You must never rush out to the meadow. There might be danger," his mom warns. "There are no trees or bushes to hide in." Bambi also gets a lesson in morality from Thumper, the rabbit; "If you can't say nothing nice...don't say nothing at all." Kohlberg calls this level of development "preconventional" because at such a young age children "...do not yet speak as members of society" (Crain 1985). Stage two of Kohlberg's Level 1 is "Individualism and Exchange," during which children learn there is "...not just one right view that is handed down" by those in authority. At one point early in his life, Bambi says, "We're not the only deer in the forest."

Eric Erickson's Stage One of a child's development into a moral person is called "Conflict: Trust vs. Mistrust." The initial bonding with the "primary caregiver" (mother) is all about trust and love. The child feels safe and able to rely on the mother, whom, Erickson writes, "is basically the only thing they know." It is about "touch and being there" and is apparent in the "tender stare" a mother gives a child. In the movie, when Thumper gets caught eating only the blossoms and not the greens his mother says, "What did your father tell you about eating the blossoms and leaving the greens?" Thumper trusts what his parents have told him (even though he obviously slipped a little by going back to his old habits) and he replies, as if memorized: "Eating grass is a special treat. It makes long ears and great big feet."

This response by Thumper also related directly to Kohlberg's "Level II - Conventional Morality" (Stage 3, Good Interpersonal Relationships). Children believe people should "live up to the expectations of the family and the community." The expectations in this case were that his parents told him not to just take the most delicious food, but to take the food that is nutritious and helps him grow.

In Erikson's "Stage Two" children are trying to become self-confident and do things themselves ("Autonomy vs. Doubt"), like tying their own shoes even if it takes hours. Parents should let them do things because, according to Erikson, "...failure to reinforce these efforts will lead the child to doubt themselves" and doubt a parents' trust in them. When Bambi ventured out of his little sleeping spot into the snow for the first time, surely his mom knew he would slip and slide and even get banged up a little. But she stayed in the sleeping nest spot and let Bambi learn for himself, which he did by slipping on the ice over and over before he finally got his feet under him and learned about the reality of slippery ice.

Jean Piaget put forward a theory for very young children, that he called "heteronomous moral orientation." He theorized that in the natural authority relationship between adults and children, "power is handed down from above," and children have no choice but to listen and watch as they learn about that power. In the film the big 10-point buck emerges from the forest and all the bucks and does stand absolutely still. Bambi is fascinated by this sudden calm and quiet. "Why was everyone silent" when the huge male deer approached, he asked. Mom explained that it is about respect for those older and wiser than you. The big buck was called "brave and wise."