Lion King Socioeconomic Topic

Gooding and Morton broach an interesting topic on race, class, and space in their articles. Morton's piece is a response to Gooding's paper, and I found that I tended to agree with the arguments and clarifications that Morton presented. I had never viewed the Lion King as a commentary on political issues, and much of what both writers suggested was plausible, but like Morton pointed out, I found the topic of history a bit difficult to digest. I saw the circle of life and characters like Rafiki as a form of culture and spirituality instead of a dearth of both as Gooding suggested. The suggestion that the hyenas represent the lower tier of the socioeconomic classes can be clearly seen by the clash with the lions, where the ostracized members revolt against the power of those in the center of the circle of life or the wealthy. Scar I suggest would thus represent a social movement leader who utilizes his coercive skill and power to promote anarchy and overthrow those in power to both help the plight of the hyenas and himself. But even throwing Pride Rock into anarchy and despair wouldn't necessarily represent a dearth of history as a brand new event is introduced. the circle of life would be history itself, constantly repeating itself and that the change in the course of events would simply represent a shift in political structure and social structure. I don't agree with Gooding's assertion that Africa is depicited as a land dearth of these topics, but I agree with him in viewing the inequality through the lense of the hyenas because theirs would be a more unbiased position to view through because of their exclusion from the circle of life and circle of well-being that the lions live in. By viewing the inequality topic through the eyes of the lions of Pride Rock, we introduce a bias of wealth where nothing appears to be wrong by looking from the inside out instead of the outside in.