MM Movie synopsis of Inside Out, JC Campbell, my life story analysis by Leader Rachel Lopez

Hello Prof. Jorge,

Here is my Movie Synopsis and Life Journey in relation to Joseph Campbell's "A Hero Has A Thousand Faces" framework. Have a nice weekend.

Do you ever look at someone and wonder what is going inside their head? Inside Out is a story about Riley and her emotions and how they struggle to adjust a new life. After Riley is uprooted from her Midwest life and moved to San Francisco, her emotions try to control the situation too much which creates more confusion to Riley.  An attempt to restore Riley's normal being is under the heed of her emotions.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL'S THE STAGES OF THE HERO'S JOURNEY --- Inside Out

1.       Ordinary World

Inside Riley, there is a Headquarters, where the control center operated by her five emotions.

a.       Joy - The leader responsible for making Riley happy all the time and keep things positive whatever the circumstances are.

b.      Sadness - She makes Riley cry and feel sad, Joy questions what good exactly she does.

c.       Fear – He keeps Riley safe.

d.      Disgust – She keeps Riley being poisoned physically and socially.

e.      Anger – He make sure everything is fair for Riley.

Inside Riley's brain are the core memories that came from important events in her life, almost Joy.  Each core memories power a different aspect of her personalities. These personalities describe how she reacts to her environment, which makes Riley, Riley. These are Hockey Island, Goofball Island, Friendship Island, Honesty Island and Family Island.

2.       Call to Adventure

Riley's parents decided to move from Minessota to San Francisco, where her father has a new job and her mother supported it but felt sad. Riley didn't like what she saw at San Francisco and she was put under stress. Her new house and room stink, friends are in Minessota and all their stuff were in the missing van. With all this confusion, all the emotions except for Joy find there was absolutely nothing to be happy right now.

3.       Refusal of the Call

With the change of the environment, Sadness does self-loathing but Joy trying to keep her out of Riley's control. On Riley's first day on her new school, she told something about herself, about Minessota.  "Everything is different now", the change is tough, she cried. While Joy trying to keep Sadness away from the control and touching the core memories, they accidently ejected from the Headquarters with Riley's Core Memories, and get lost to Long Term Memory.

4.      Meeting the Mentor

With only Fear, Disgust and Anger left in the control centre, all personality islands turn down. Without Joy, they couldn't make Riley happy. In Long Term Memory, Joy and Sadness stumble upon Bing Bong, Riley's old imaginary friend. Bing Bong knows that Joy needs to be in the Headquarters to prevent Riley's personalities falling apart. He is willing to accompany her through Train of Thoughts.

5.       Crossing the Threshold

Riley can no longer manages her emotions; she only feels disgust, fear and anger. She became disrespectful to her parents. She was scolded by her father and when he tried to console her, she couldn't feel anything, and Goofball Island was destroyed. She talked to her friend in Minessota, her friend couldn't stop talking about the new girl on their team, Riley felt bad, and Friendship Island was destroyed. Her mother convinced her to try out a new hockey team, with her personality island being down, she couldn't play right, and Hockey Island was destroyed. Anger came to the idea that Riley needs to go back to San Francisco, because everything was perfect there, even this means running away for Disgust and Anger.

6.       Tests, Allies, Enemies

Joy tried her best to save Riley's falling apart; she needs to go back to the Headquarters as fast as she could. Bing Bong leads them to take the shortcut to train station to catch the Train of Thoughts. Sadness being familiar with the Long Term memory island, she warned Joy about the danger of this shortcut Abstract Thought, but she didn't listen. Soon after they are in, the Mind Workers arrive to analyze the concept of "loneliness" but they see that there seems to be something inside, they activate it to clean it up beforehand.  Joy, Sadness and Bing Bong are suddenly taken through the 4step extraction process. 1^st non –objective fragmentation, 2^nd deconstructing, 3^rd two–dimensional and before they reach the 4^th stage of nonfigurative, Sadness realized they could exploit their two-dimensional state to get out. Still they weren't able to reach the train.

7.       Approach to the Inmost Cave

Bing Bong leads Joy and Sadness to Imaginary Island to reach the train. Everything there started to collapse. Bing Bong's rocket which is his last link to Riley not to be forgotten has been thrown into Memory Dump, which puts him in despair. Joy tries to cheer him up but he only finds comfort when Sadness talks to him. She lets him express his sadness and makes Bing Bong happy again; he leads them to the Train of Thought. However, the train stop as Riley goes to sleep. Bing bong, Joy and Sadness go to Dream productions to wake her up. Joy wants to wake Riley by exhilaration but Sadness idea by scaring her achieves it. They finally board the Train of Thought.

8.       The Ordeal

As Riley wake up from a bad dream, Anger, Disgust and Fear decide to put the idea of going back to Minessota on Riley's mind. Riley needs to ride the bus.  She gets the money from her Mother's purse, and Honesty Island was destroyed. The Train of Thought quickly destroyed by the destruction of Honesty Island. Bing bong and Joy falls down into the Memory Dump. They decide to use Bing Bong's rocket to get out of the dump but they couldn't get high enough. On their last attempt, Bing Bong lets go and falls back down as the rocket takes off, letting Joy succeed to reach the top. Bing Bong says his final goodbyes to Joy and accepts that his time with Riley has passed.

9.       Seizing the Sword, Reward

While she was in the Memory Dump, Joy saw the core memory that Sadness loves; it was when Riley really felt bad. Riley felt awful when she missed the shot and her hockey team lost the game. She wanted to quit. Her parents and friends came to help when they noticed Sadness in her. Now she understands the importance of Sadness.

10.   The Road Back

Joy takes advantage of Imaginary Boyfriends that state "I would die for Riley!" and used them as a catapult to allow her and Sadness to reach Headquarters.

11.   Resurrection

Riley's parents were looking for her but she didn't want to answer the phone.  She still rode the bus to Minessota, Family Island started to collapse. Anger, Fear and Disgust wanted to remove the idea they put in the control centre but it was stuck. As Joy and Sadness reach the Headquarters, Joy lets Sadness took the control centre, she was able to remove the idea. Riley felt Sadness; she came back to her senses and get off the bus. She goes home and started crying to her parents, she missed Minnesota, she missed her hockey team, and she missed her old friend. Her parents understand her and admitted that they felt the same too. A new Core Memory was made; it is a mix of happiness and sadness.

12.   Return with Elixir

Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust have their new control centre and this time they have their own control. Riley is playing hockey again and her parents keep supporting her. They have their great new house, great new friends, things couldn't be better.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL'S THE STAGES OF THE HERO'S JOURNEY --- Rachel Lopez

Do you ever look at someone and wonder what is going inside their head? I also had this same question. This is my Life Journey; I may not have the lots of twists and turns but I'm still excited to the future ahead.

1.       Ordinary World

I used to have a lot of freedom growing up. I could leave our house and go back anytime I wanted.  I could go out in far places without my parents consent. I wasn't a black sheep though; I studied hard and not let my parents worried too much on my finances. But the real freedom was when I'm on my third job that I needed to relocate. It was a spur of the moment decision which up to now I'm trying to cope up.

2.       Call to Adventure

I decided to move from North to South. It was hard because this time around I needed to take care of all the bills. It was a drastic change; it was too far to the life I used to be. I used to partying all night with my friends, but it was hard to reach them now. Work then home, I find life here boring.

3.       Refusal of the Call

I'm living alone but not lonely, maybe it's a call of maturity and I believed that. Stress is not welcome to my life, I should be positive with the change. After all I'm used doing things on my own; I don't need to rely on others for my happiness. 

4.       Meeting the Mentor

I started to go out with someone; he was so stressed out and found his escape with me. Another spur of the moment decision, to become someone source of happiness. He may not have the luxury of time but I got inspired on how he managed his stuff, he wanted everything to work out well for his sanity. I always remembered him with the words of "Limitless" and "Begin with the End in Mind."

5.       Crossing the Threshold

I wanted to pursue another degree, probably going to a Graduate School. But I took a hold of it because it will be hard for me and this someone to see each other. Still we grew apart; we decided to end our connection. It was a mixed of emotions but it can't be outburst.  

6.       Tests, Allies, Enemies

For someone who always suppressed her emotions, it was hard to share what I'm feeling at that moment. I thought I'll just keep myself busy at work. My boss in the US always believes in my potential to lead a project. I became a Test Lead for a New Product Development for a microcontroller product and got promoted. It was a surprised to me and my colleagues because I got this position too early. So I wanted to devote my time and be successful with it, but no way its stream out keeps pushing. Then an opportunity to travel to Thailand for a qualification support was asked. It was just a one week noticed that I could turn down if I wanted but I grabbed it. My boss was hesitant because everyone thought that this project was bound to doom. Come to his and others surprised, I made this project successful. I was in a good position now, but still it couldn't replace the mixed of emotions I'm having.

7.       Approach to the Inmost Cave

Probably I should share my emotions to others. I always keep my life private, I tend to wear smile all the time. I started to cry to a new friend but she shared my story to other, it made me mad, I couldn't just trust anyone. I thought maybe I should bring out my emotions to those I'm closest with even it means destroying my stronger mask. My family and my closest friend gave the sympathy I wanted; they gave me the attention that I denied myself I'm longing.

8.       The Ordeal

It was hard living alone, I find myself reflecting all the time. Why I can't be vulnerable? Why I don't get the sympathy I wanted? Why it's hard to share my thoughts and emotions? Sadness started to sink in me, what am I doing in my life?  I started questioning my disposition, which I couldn't comprehend at that time.

9.       Seizing the Sword, Reward

To understand myself, I should start to where my personalities were built. I went home and blurted my frustrations to my family. I let my guard down and started to open up.  They were not used on giving advices but they let me felt secured. I was so strong and confident that they didn't realized that I need some compassion. They begin to understand why sometimes I'm being aloof. It made them cried that they are not aware that I'm longing for sympathy, which I'm longing for a family.

10.   The Road Back

I was on my way home, when I heard a woman talking to the phone asking for financial support for her child blood transfusion. Then there was a man asking for financial offering after he preached. I don't understand at that moment why everyone gave money to this man while being deft to the woman's cry. Maybe because this woman was on distressed but she wanted it to keep it to her and family. When I'm about to leave, I found the courage to gave the money I have on my wallet, and she was surprised.

11.   Resurrection

I realized that it wasn't bad being vulnerable at times because you'll find then the people who care enough. I had a strong empathy now to those who can easily outburst their emotions. This not make them any lesser.

12.   Return with Elixir

I'm still living alone here in South with the same company I'm working.  I'm overwhelmed that I'm stepping on a new journey on being a MBA student. I'm not used on talking much and find it hard to expound my thoughts, but I'm looking forward that I'll do well. I'm positive and believing that I'll have a great future ahead. The only difference this time is that I can let my emotions out and my family is there on full support. I must say, things couldn't be better.

What is the new learning? What is the relation to what I already know? What have I done, am doing, will be doing for this topic?

Our experience defines our personalities. It delineates us, our interests and our passions. Our emotions drive our performance. As to Daniel Goleman, an effective leader knows the ties between emotional intelligence and measurable business results. Emotional Intelligence is the "sine qua non" of leadership, something that is needed. A group of five skills enable leaders to maximize their own and their followers' performance.

Linking the EI skills to the characters of the movie and its impact on my journey:

1.       Self-awareness

Being honest with ourselves and to others is what self-awareness about. We must know our own emotions, strengths, weaknesses, drives, values and goals. As to Joy, she didn't allow Sadness to take over with Riley, which I could relate on that. I felt bad but I don't let it show, I suppressed all other emotions and constantly trying to see only the bright side. Listening to our emotions allow us to experience a rational outlook in life. It will be a challenge that when I look at my inner self, I will be pleased to what I will find out.

2.       Self-regulation

To think before acting which frees us from being imprison of our feelings is what self-regulation about. It controls or redirects our disruptive emotions and impulses. When Anger takes over, we can't make rational decisions. Fear keeps us safe sometimes and Disgust makes it hard for us to grasp a new learning. We can't let this take over on us, when things are starting to fall, we must explore on the solutions.

3.       Motivation

Being driven to achieve for the sake of achievement and passion for the work itself is what motivation about. It isn't easy for Riley to let go of the things she used to have, she was discouraged.  Her mother noticed it and wanted to have the "smiling" Riley back; she went up with her and told her "Thanks".  With all this confusion, Riley stayed with them. As a leader, we must not fail to recognize the effort of our team doing a good job. One word of appreciation can make someone's day.

4.       Empathy

Understanding our team's emotional makeup is what empathy is about. This means considering other's feelings especially when making decisions. When Bing Bong felt depressed that Riley will be forgotten him soon, Joy tried to cheer him up with happy thoughts, that brought him more sadness. Then Sadness approached him, she listened to Bing Bong and gave him a shoulder to cry on. Bing Bong appeased with her gesture. A Leader must be willing to listen to his team, he must be open to others feelings with no judgment. It is good to have an environment that anyone can freely share their thoughts and emotions.

5.       Social Skill

Friendliness with a purpose to get the work things done through other people is what social skill is about. By building rapport with others, a leader can move his member toward his desired directions. At first Joy questions the existence of Sadness, but she still lets her around. When all other emotions started bickering, Joy had a brief moment of discontent. Though she feels that she has the answer to Riley's situation, she lets other emotions to take control. As a leader, we must know how to delegate responsibilities and let them get the results. Let our team does a good job and give them the chance to step up, at the end of day their success will reflect back on us.

We've been through better and worse situations, but how we perceive will make the lessons worthwhile. Expressing ourselves is a bold step on our conquest of being real. Let go of things that taking a toll on us, life may not be a straight forward path, but let us embrace this chance to connect deeply with others.

<Hi Leader Rachel, this is not part of the graded reflection paper.  #2 is about external and internal factors that shaped you -  well you may say that this paper is just about that, #3 is your passion>

Regards,

Leader Rachel Lopez