Identity is something that defines us, but it is individual for all, and can change in different ways. A big part of identity is, self-concept, which is defined By Leadership, teams, and communication as “a person’s subjective description of who the person thinks he or he is.” For Carl in the movie “Up” his identity is something that is a prevalent theme for him, as it changes.
Identity is an aspect that does not normally change, but what causes these changes to occur, specifically in carl from the movie “Up” is his age, important memories, and specific events that occur.
To begin, one of the key aspects that changes Carl’s identity is the loss he experiences throughout his life; specifically, Ellie, Carl’s significant other. Both Carl’s social identity and self-concept are influenced in this situation, as Ellie plays a primary role in shaping these. Carl stumbled upon Ellie in an abandoned house when they were both at a young age, and he was in awe of her. Ellie was the adventurous, daring, and leader in the couple, while carl was shy and timid, and desired to be more like Ellie. She is the one who would persuade him to do things that were out of his comfort zone. For example, Ellie convinces him to walk along a thin piece of wood to get his balloon, which ultimately results in him breaking his arm. Together, they grow up and share their life with one another, working side by side, and getting married. During this time, Carl’s identity is shaped in the sense that she completes him as an individual, and compliments him, as well. Carl’s social identity has been built around Ellie. His self-concept, what he considers himself to be, is: he is a loving husband to Ellie. They both have the goal of going to paradise fall—they shared everything together. Carl fits into the category of being a husband, and then identified himself as such by shaping his life around Ellie, she is a part of his self-concept and social identity. As time goes by this identity of Carl, which means the relationship only gets deeper and is more developed as time goes by, which strengthened his self-esteem. Eventually, when he loses Ellie, an important part of his identity is missing. As a result, Carl’s character changes from this joyful person, to a depressed, grumpy old man who has nothing to do, not even his job. In the movie it is emphasized that the only thing he has left of this past identity is the house and certain belongings of Ellie’s.
The second aspect that can change Carl’s identity is memories, that remind him of Ellie. Self-concept and attitude is the make-up of who you are. For Carl, his memory of Ellie sparks a change in his attitude, which inherently makes it a change in self-concept. Another situation where memory changes Carl’s identity is when Russel discloses something about his life, which adds on to Carl’s self-concept. When the construction worker breaks the mail box which was one of the few things he had left from Ellie, he hits the worker in anger and as a result he is forced to move out to a retirement home. In the process of looking around for his belongings he finds Ellie’s adventure book, which was a sacred thing to her and as he looks inside he notices a picture of a house on paradise falls and he also remembers that he had crossed his heart, that he will take Ellie to paradise falls. In this moment, that memory serves as a realization that the only thing he had going for him in life was gone and had nothing to lose anymore. As a result, Carl’s attitude changes and he becomes daring and adventurous like Ellie which leads him to tying millions of balloons to the roof of his house and steer it to South America where Paradise Falls is. Carl’s actions display a change in his self-esteem and attitude as a person, as he was all sad, depressed, lonely, getting old in a sense, and losing faith in life. When this memory of Ellie is introduced it was a light bulb for him, and he has almost instantly forgot that he is an old man and was in a depression and has adopted a new self and regained a bit of his adventurous spirit from the past which was similar to that of Ellie’s. Another major instance where memories changes carl’s identity is when Russel uses the technique self-disclosure, which “is the process of revealing information about yourself to others that is not readily known by them”. When Russel describes his emotional and quite private back story, which is the disclosure to carl about how his father didn’t really teach him much and was not there for him. This private information that Russel reveals, shows how their “relationships deepen and trust” is formed. As for Carl, this brought up memories about how Ellie used to guide him and bring the best out in him. Consequently, Carl decides to tackle the idea of becoming Russel’s role mode, friend, adventure partner and father figure. Which is just before the beginning of Carl’s self-concept change, to now alter his self-concept to becoming a role model, and a caretaker. What fully changes Carl’s identity in the scene is when Russel uses the same gesture as Ellie when they swore Carl to keep a promise. This gesture that was so little had an extreme impact on the way Carl thought of the Russel. Due to the fact that Carl had lost his wife, and is ever longing for her, he sees a piece of Ellie within Russel. This emotional memory was a factor that persuaded Carl to becoming Russel’s role model and mentor, ultimately changing is self-concept.
Thirdly, Carl’s identity changes through certain events, and in this case, as well another part of his identity is solidified through the actions he commits to. To start, the thing that changes Carl’s identity is through the events he encounters. When Carl finds the adventure book and finds that there was a new part of the book he had never seen before, in it there was a little note from his wife saying “thanks for the adventure now go have a new one! Love Ellie” and in that same moment, Russel ties himself to a few balloons with a leaf blower to go save the bird, which Carl left behind. Carl with his new love for the boy and this trigger from his wife’s words decides he must save the boy. But in order to do so, he must forgo a part of his past identity by throwing out all of his belongings no matter how precious in order to lose weight to make the house float again to save Russel. When carl makes that step to give up his belongings he initiates a new step in his character development through his Identity. When he now therefore realizes that he no longer has Ellie, a part of his self-concept is no longer true because he is no longer a husband, he was a husband in the past when his wife was alive. When his wife tells him to go to take a new adventure, it only assists carl to make the decision and proceed to become the new Ellie for Russel, just like she was for him growing up. He inherited Ellies role for him and decides he will try to bring the best out in him, teach him, befriend him and become a mentor. Even though Ellie was the same age roughly as Carl, she was the one who showed him how to do things, she was born leader in a sense. Since Carl learned all this from Ellie he wants to lead Russel and guide him to be more adventurous and be there for him back like Ellie was when he was younger. This event was a process through which he either holds onto his past identity that was ever so much faded or he relieves his past which was most valuable to him. As a result, of relieving his past, and committing to his new self-concept as mentor and friend. This even leaves carl at the end to completely give up his house to save the Russel, the bird and the dog.
It is clear that in “Up”, Carl’s Identity does indeed fluctuate, but with good cause, it only happens when the passing of his wife occurs, when he is brought to remember parts of his past that were very important, and the situations he faces. It is through these circumstances, that one can understand what self-concept really is, and the importance it his in our lives, whether we decide to acknowledge them ourselves, or they just are there, and we know that subconsciously. An idea that I think is important specifically about identity, is that some people say I was born this way, or I was born to do something, but in reality, these identities that we supposedly start with can very well change.
Appendix
Up is about a man named Carl Fredricksen who is first seen as a child in movie theatre watching the adventurer and explorer Charles Muntz. He was famously shamed for supposedly faking a discovery of a large bird which lived in South America where he fled to find it. After leaving the theater Carl stumbles upon an old house, where he hears phrases of the explorer Muntz, inside he meets new friend and fellow adventurer, a girl named Ellie. In the process of meeting her, he loses his balloon through a large whole on the ceiling where Ellie convinces him, to walk across a thin wooden board to retrieve it, causing him to brake his arm. Later that night, while in bed, Ellie sneaks into his bedroom with his balloon and introduces him to her Adventure book, which to her she had never shown to anybody in her life. In this book, she shows Carl pictures a picture of house on top of a waterfall, Called Paradise falls where she says she wants to move there someday. After her leave, Carl can’t believe his eyes, he is in love with her. After this night, a brief cinematic goes through showing how they eventually get married to one another, moving into the house that they met each other in and going through their life until ending it with the Death of Ellie. From this, it fast wards to the present, where we see Carl as old man, who is lonely, and depressed and is annoyed by the huge construction site around his house. One day he meets Russel a wilderness explorer, who is need of his badge that he can only achieve, by helping an elderly person out, and Carl tells him there is a snipe that is ruining his garden and he needs him to find it. Shortly after, a construction worker breaks Carl’s Mailbox which him and Ellie made, resulting in him hitting the man, landing him in court. Forcing him to move to a retirement home. While cleaning out his house in his final night he stumbles upon Ellie’s Adventure book, and remembers that they were someday going to move to paradise falls. Carl unable to keep his promise and unwilling to go to the retirement home, decides to tie his house with millions of balloons and take it to Paradise falls. Only to realise, that Russel happens to be on the porch, and is now a part of this journey. Upon reaching south America the two landed a bit short of the falls and are forced to walk the house there. In the process, Russel coincidentally stumbles upon the snipe, which Muntz and his dogs had been searching for age’s and this shocks Carl, as it was said the snipe didn’t exist. Along their journey, Carl and Russel also meet one of Muntz dogs, Dug, who happens to befriend them and joins their travels to Paradise Falls. As they were on their way, the snipe separates and the other three continue, as they do some of the Muntz other dogs catch them, and take them to their master, which Carl in happiness finds out it is Muntz. When Muntz finds out that they have befriended this bird he starts showing a very aggressive side to him which eventually, showed deadly intent, especially when he sees that the bird was on top of their house by chance. In just enough time, Carl grabs Russel to quickly get out and run for their lives, in their escape the bird gets injured and needs Carl and Russel to help it go back to its babies. Carl promises to Russel to do so, on that night and he also finds out more things about Russel he hadn’t known before. Muntz eventually catches up to them, as he is about to take the bird he shoots many of the balloons and begins to set the house on fire, leaving Carl to either save his house or the bird. In choosing the house, he is left angered especially since he had broken Russel’s promise, and vows to take the house to the falls even if it kill’s him. Eventually, reaching the falls, and angering Russel for leaving the bird behind. Russel ties himself to balloons with a leaf blower to fly himself to Muntz Air balloon ship, where Carl with the dog in a change of heart Empties his house of all his personal belongings to get the house floating again to save Russel and the bird. In doing so, Carl loses his house and saves the bird and Russel, and Muntz is defeated and they return home. At the end Carl instead of giving him the assisting elderly badge, he gives Russel a special badge of Ellie’s that he received from her.
Bibliography
- Beebe, Steven A., et al. Interpersonal Communication: Relating to Others. Sixth Canadian Edition ed., Pearson Canada Inc., 2018.
- Docter, Pete and Bob Peterson, directors. Up. Walt Disney Pictures, 2009.
- Khan Academy, Khan Academy, www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat/individuals-and-society/attributing-behavior-to-persons-or-situations/v/self-concept-self-identity-social-identity.
- Lumen Learning. “Introduction to Communication.” Lumen, Lumen Learning, courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-introductiontocommunication/chapter/self-disclosure/.