Alex Rose "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp" Post

I had very little experience with the story of Aladdin before this story. I have seen brief clips of the movie, but really did not know the story line at all. My first impression was that the introduction was very short. We start with little to no background on Aladdin aside from the fact that he is “idle” and he had no father. The initial description of Aladdin portrays him as a disappointment to his family. He refuses to work for anything and does not ever hold a job. He is even duped by the magician. Overall Aladdin seems like he is kind of a loser.

After Aladdin obtains the magic lamp his life completely changes. Being the same lazy person that he was at the beginning of the story Aladdin is now successful because he has a genie who grants his every wish. Ultimately Aladdin marries the girl who he loves (although under some questionable circumstances that I will talk about later) and lives in a giant palace. He does all of this without putting in an ounce of work. The moral of the story seems to be working is unnecessary because if you wish for something it will come to you. The only trait Aladdin exhibits throughout the story is greed. Aladdin’s greed is the only reason the magician does not obtain the lamp in the beginning and the greed does not there. Every single wish that Aladdin has is for a material possession. The author seems to promote the idea that material wealth leads to happiness.

In addition to promoting greed the story has some interesting gender roles and expectations. First, the way Aladdin treats his mother is absolutely horrible and she does his bidding all of the time. Aladdin has never worked for anything, but he still is happy to order his mother to go stand in front of the king for a week to get his attention and ask about his daughter. Aladdin gives slaves and material wealth to his mother in the end, but she works tirelessly to fulfill his every need before.

The way that Aladdin treats the princess may be even worse. First Aladdin seems very perverted sneaking into the bathhouse to catch a glimpse of the princess. Then in his attempt to court her, wishes that she appears in her bed next to Aladdin so he can lay with her. The author writes that she is terrified, but Aladdin doesn’t care and sleeps soundly anyways. When Aladdin finally gets his way and marries the princess she seems to do nothing but make stupid mistakes, like give the lamp to the genie. The Princess needs Aladdin’s rescuing in the end, which reinforces the stereotype of the male saving the helpless female.

Overall, I thought the story was entertaining, but really disagreed with a lot of the morals behind it. I thought a lot about Giroux’s opinions on reading deeper into Disney stories because they shape the culture of children while reading this because while it is a children’s story it promotes seriously detrimental values.