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Set in feudal China during the Hun dynasty, the film Mulan is about a girl who is on a journey to find

her purpose and prove her self-worth. The film revolves around the main characters journey to save her fathers life when the emperor gave an order that at least one man from every family in mainland China should fight in the war against the Huns. Mulans father was seriously injured during the last time he has served the army and he has been permanently crippled since then. Fearing for her fathers life, she then decided to take his place in the army by stealing her fathers armor and weapons, taking also his horse, Mulan ran away from home to attend a training camp for new recruits. This time, posing as the non-existent son of her father, she went by the name Ping. Answering her fathers prayers, their family ancestors sent forth a guardian to bring Mulan back home. Mushu was supposed to wake the guardian being sent but through a series of unfortunate happenings, and being afraid of the punishments the family ancestors might place upon him if they found out he failed wake the best guardian, he went to accompany Mulan in her journey in order to prove himself as well. Before all of this happened, Mulan was supposed to be examined by the match maker in order to find the right man for her to marry. In this scene the audience is presented a glimpse of the nature of the society Mulan lives in. It can clearly be observed that women were treated as second class citizen and deemed as inferior to men in terms of their role in the society. Women were only considered appropriate to be around the house doing chores and rendering service to their husbands. Men were considered as the authority in the household. This is also projected on a larger scale as every official in the government of China during that time were men. Later in the film, Mulans true identity got discovered when she got hurt in an attempt to save the lives of her companions during an encounter with the Huns. She was supposed to be beheaded but the general considered her heroic act and decided that it was enough to alleviate the punishment of

death for her. But after that time she was treated again as a woman with nobody paying attention to whatever she says. Although there was a redeeming moment at the end when she gained the respect she deserves by saving the people of China from the Huns, the culture of China and the way it affects women still remains. The Althusserian theory on ISAs or Ideological State Apparatuses states that there are institutions that define our ideologies and our way of life. This theory was originally by Marx but his theory was more about the government and authority. Althusser differentiated these from ISAs by labeling them RSAs or Repressive state apparatuses which function more on repression by means of violence and that the ideological function only comes second while the ISAs function more on ideological states and the functions of repression if there is any is more symbolic and not blatantly manifested. Althusser lists culture as an ISA and presents it as an institution that affects the ideologies of a person and the society he or she lives in. It can be observed in the film that the treatment of the people of China to women is deeply rooted in their culture. Everyone has the same mindset about the importance of women in the society and even the women in China have conformed to this ideal set by culture. In the movie, Mulan had no complaints about the way women were being treated and even felt disappointed when she failed to meet the expectations of the society of her. She only felt compelled to do things like pretending to be a boy because of reasons as grave as saving her fathers life. Another institution Althusser named as an ISA is family. In the movie, the importance and influence of family was clearly shown. Most of the acts done by the characters in the movie were for the benefit of their family and also to bring honor to their family which is also very

important for them. Religion is also another ISA that had an obvious influence on the characters in the movie. A lot of scenes in the movie have shown the characters praying to their ancestors for guidance. Their belief on things like luck also became very apparent in the movie through the character of Mulans grandmother who gave her different lucky charms in order to help her with her meeting with the match maker. The lucky cricket was also believed to have given luck to Mulan during her journey.

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