Morton vs. Gooding-Williams

            I found both John Morton’s and Robert Gooding-Williams’s articles to be well-written, thought-provoking pieces analyzing The Lion King and its representation/message of class structure and society in the United States and elsewhere. While I found myself agreeing with the points made by Gooding-Williams, after reading Morton’s response, my view changed to think he made the more convincing argument. Gooding-Williams argument was an easier read, which might lend itself to be more convincing to some, but after getting past Morton’s more complex vocabulary, his argument that The Lion King is a story about how corruption in a hierarchal class structure is what leads to negative effects ends up being more persuasive.

            The part I found most convincing about Morton’s response to Gooding-Williams, is that Morton says Gooding-Williams was very narrow in his approach to viewing the story. He did not look at the bigger picture of the story and where Scar and the hyenas fit into that. Morton makes the very good point that Scar’s regime is a place where the people don’t work and their ruler, Scar, doesn’t show any regard for them. Where Gooding-Williams looks at Scar as the one who wants to bring justice and create a more inclusive society by “enfranchising” the lower-class hyenas, Morton correctly views Scar as a corrupt member of the upper class who wants to use this lower class solely to give himself power. If anything, The Lion King has a message against the powerful elite using and pandering to the proletariat in order to just give themselves power and give the people no benefits.

            I also found Morton’s article making me question Gooding-Williams’ point that Rafiki represents a “good soul” who is of the same class yet opposite side of the hyenas. Like Morton argues, a much more accurate representation of this would be Timon and Pumbaa, who are also scavengers that live away from society. It seems like Gooding-Williams simply based his argument on the fact that both these characters were voiced by black actors and talked in a different dialect than the lions. If anything, Simba’s two sidekicks are more of a representation of ‘betraying one’s own’ in order to win favor with the ruling class. But I agree with Morton in that they’re not a representation of this. Timon and Pumbaa represent a working class that actually works, instead of sitting around and waiting for help from a corrupt leader like the hyenas. The film shows how by working with people who are disenfranchised and out of society, yet are willing to work, they can create a better, more inclusive and productive society.