How the Grinch Stole Christmas connects to my English class - Alecxis Villapando

For this blogpost, I wanted to get into the holiday spirit, which is why I chose to write about my favorite holiday movie (a movie that I’m pretty sure most of us are familiar with): the live-action How the Grinch Stole Christmas directed by Ron Howard. This cinematic masterpiece includes archetypes, automatically every story line has them. We discussed archetypes at the beginning of the school year and from what I learned they are universal symbols in a story that are incorporated situationally, symbolically or through a character. 

How the Grinch Stole Christmas started out with a green creature, different looking from the rest, yet not like other monsters we’d imagine. He was actually kind-hearted and shy, until one Christmas he tried to make his crush this beautiful handmade gift, and instead his class laughed at him. After the relentless jokes, his anger came out and he began to throw things around the classroom. Soon flames broke out, the classroom was a mess, and his crush was scared of him. He fled the scene never to come back. Fast forward a few decades later, when Cindy Lou Who comes to revive the Grinch’s lost happy soul. Cindy Lou Who tried to convince the rest of her town that the Grinch wasn’t the villain they made him out to be, but of course they wouldn’t believe a little girl. In the end, Cindy got the Grinch to be a merry Who, which proved that she was right about him the whole time. This specific storyline follows the “Innate Wisdom vs. Educated Stupidity” situational archetype. Although I wouldn’t call Cindy a wise character, she was more open-minded than the older Whos/”Educated Stupidity”, including the Mayor of Whoville and her parents. 

Now that I’ve summarized the story, we can focus on the film’s characters, starting with the Grinch himself. He can be categorized as “The Creature of Nightmare,” “The Outcast,” or “The Evil Figure with the Ultimately Good Heart.” The Grinch doesn’t conform with the rest, not only because of his beasty look (in reference to “The Creature of a Nightmare” archetype), but because he’s the only Who that lives in an isolated cave outside of the town of Whoville, his heart is two sizes too small, and he hates Christmas. Furthermore, this entire time the Grinch did have a good heart, it was just his adamant attitude that didn’t allow his true compassion to shine through. 

  As mentioned before, another major character is Cindy Lou Who. Although she was still young and innocent she became the hero of the story; Considering she was the one to open up the Grinch’s mind to kindness and love which he lacked ever since he was a young boy.

Moving onto symbolic archetypes; In this case nature, objects, shapes, and colors. The setting of this story is in the snow-covered mountains. The snow itself isn’t a symbol, it just adds to the effect of Christmas time which is in winter for most places. However, the mountains, where the Grinch lives, resembles ambitions and goals, or lack thereof for the Grinch. As an outcast he lived at the top of the mountains because he wanted to be away from the joyful Whos as much as possible. Their ambition was to be a happy, united community, while the Grinch desired for independence and pessimism. 

In addition, an object archetype included within this story is heart, specifically the Grinch’s. At the start of the movie, we are told that his “heart is two sizes too small” and well a heart symbolizes love. With that being said, there wasn’t enough love in his heart, causing it to shrink. The reason for the size of his heart is because of his traumatic experience as a kid, when he tried to give a present to the girl he liked, but he got bullied instead. Ever since that day of embarrassment and rejection, he was never the same. 

    Moreover, a shape archetype that’s seen in not only this movie, but in all Christmas movies as well, is a Christmas tree which is in the shape of a triangle. A triangle represents strength and can also be seen as a “return to origins” (Archetypes handout 1). The Christmas tree was placed in the center of Whoville which can resemble the town’s strength. Not physically, but spiritually all the Whos acted as a family that couldn't be destroyed no matter what. For instance, when the Grinch “stole” their Christmas, they were all sad but not for long, many realized that Christmas wasn’t about the gifts or the food but it was about the people around them that created the whole Christmas spirit. On the other hand, if this archetype was to symbolize a “return to origins,” then it would remind us that before it was a gift-giving holiday it was Jesus’ birthday.

The last symbolic archetype worth mentioning is color. Of all colors, the Grinch was chosen to be green. That color usually symbolizes “growth...adaptability” (Archetypes handout 1). And as we know it, the Grinch is a very dynamic character. You can say he grew into a better creature or Who because of Cindy’s influence. Or, that he adapted to the Whos’ mentality of gaiety.