stray thoughts about the structure of encanto from watching it for the third time in three days (heavy spoilers):
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1. you can read the moment when the miracle candle appears as the moment abuela makes an unconscious contract in the sarah peyton sense:
"i vow to protect my family from harm, at all costs"
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so instead i want to thread in another idea / frame i got from @Malcolm_Ocean, sarah peyton's "unconscious contracts." there are other ways you could talk about this like schemas, i like this language because it feels respectful and true to the experience
sarahpeyton.com/category/how-t
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there's an important thing here about how the intent behind the vow is noble and heroic and beautiful and good; the problem is that, as we see in the movie, "at all costs" involves doing a lot of emotional harm to her family in the name of protecting it
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(this thing about nobility and heroism and beauty and goodness is maybe the main thing missing from "trauma" language; "trauma" focuses on the harm that was done, not on the incredibly powerful magic you summon in response to it)
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the candle is the physical manifestation of the strength of abuela's vow; it weakens as her resolve to maintain the vow weakens, and it goes out entirely during the scene where mirabel gets through to her that *she* is the one harming the family, which *breaks her vow*
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this is why - i missed this completely the first two watches but it was pointed out in the theory vid - the candle *does not come back* at the end of the movie, even when the house and magic do
abuela releases the vow because it costs too much and she doesn't need it anymore
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2. the last scene when the house comes back to life is actually the first time (that i can remember) that the candle and the house get distinguished as symbols; prior to that the two have gotten stronger or weaker in lock-step
so, what does the *house* symbolize?
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in reply to my original guess: i think a simpler guess is that the house symbolizes the social dynamics and health of the family as a whole (it's the *magic* that symbolizes the ground of being)
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THE HOUSE IS A METAPHOR FOR THE GROUND OF BEING
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"the House Madrigal" can mean either a literal house, or the archaic sense of "the family Madrigal" ?
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is the archaic sense the song?
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I was reinforcing your tweet, like "the house (building) symbolizes the house (family)"
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Not so archaic, we have The House Of Gucci
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