Introduction
Nature is an integral part of the world surrounding us, but many people take nature for granted. Nature is not just the environment around us or the source of life for us. Nature is more than just that. In its various manifestations, nature, in the form of water, trees and forests, plants and flowers, soaks in the world around them. People believe that the ability to feel emotions is only characteristic of human beings; that, however, might not be true. There are a lot of conversations about saving the planet and preserving nature; what is not considered, however, is that nature is just as alive as we are, and it can feel like we do.
Nature in Frozen 2
Nature, its forces, and its feelings are central to the animated movie Frozen 2. The ensoulment of nature and granting nature feelings was important in the franchise’s first movie as well: Elsa’s powers, which stemmed from the powers of nature, were related to her emotional state from the beginning of the animation. When Elsa was enraged, so were her powers and the nature around her; nature was merciless when Elsa became merciless.
Nature was feeling what Elsa was feeling, and it resonated with her emotions, and it expressed them in a precise manner. When Elsa finds peace at the movie’s end, nature reflects it. This core idea of nature’s anthropomorphism and its human-like ability to feel were later elaborated in the second part of the franchise.
In Frozen 2, Elsa is determined to understand her past: she is willing to find out where her connection to nature comes from, how she got her powers, and what happened to her parents. In the second part, nature and its capacity to feel play an even more critical role. Now, it is not just Elsa who is mysteriously connected to nature and possesses natural powers; it is the entire people of Northuldra.
Another essential element of the movie is the enchanted forest. The enchanted forest is home to the magical spirits of air, fire, water, and earth, which are integral to the balance of nature. The balance of nature is also intertwined with feelings and emotions, which are nature’s and humans’ capacity to feel. Besides, the forest’s spirits are shown to be sentient beings with their own emotions. They communicate with Elsa, and Anna guides them, helping them to understand the past.
The events of the past in the movie also disrupted nature’s balance, which led to disastrous consequences for the Northuldra people and the people of Arendelle. Nature and its spirits reacted to the injustice done to it by creating the mist that trapped everyone inside the enchanted forest. This demonstrates that nature is not just a soulless environment; it is an important character in itself. It can grieve, it can resent, and it can seek the justice that it deserves.
Nature’s capacity to feel is reflected in the scene where Elsa and Anna discover the ship on which their parents die. First, when Elsa and Anna arrive at the location of the tragedy, the natural landscape surrounding it reflects this tragedy. The trees around seem lifeless, just like the ship; it seems as though nature had soaked in the events there years ago.
Nature seems to be mourning the events of the past parents just like the sisters are mourning it. There is no sun. Everything around is dark and foggy as if nature has lost its ability to smile and feel happiness. Sunshine is usually connected to joy, while the lack of it shows the lack of it, and in this scene, it feels like the sun disappeared the day everything happened.
The grief is also reflected in the lack of bright colors: the only colors present in the scene are the shades of grey, brown, and black. When these colors surround one, one cannot help but feel that deep sorrow that nature transcends. Green is the color of life in nature: it represents youth, joy, and new beginnings. Grass is absent in the landscape where Elsa and Anna find the ship. The color green is entirely nonexistent. Blue sky represents joy like green does, and there are no signs that the sky would get cleared up in the scene. Overall, the whole view is blended into one grey smudge with different shades of these lifeless colors here and there.
When Elsa and Anna enter the ship and find the map, they discover that Ahtohallan, a magical river that can explain the past, exists. Their parents were trying to reach this river through the Dark Sea to understand the source of Elsa’s powers, and their demise found them in the Dark Sea. When Elsa realizes it, she says: “water has memory” (Frozen 2). Water can remember and feel. She implies that it keeps the events of the past in its core. Then she says, “I want to know what happened to them” (Frozen 2), and she brings her powers to feel what water can tell her.
Water has memory, indeed; it tells her the story of her parents. Water kept the sorrow of their demise all those years. When water tells the sisters what happened, it turns into ice. When water is in its liquid form, it symbolizes life; the flow of water is life itself. Ice and snow are more related to death than life.
Masaru Emoto’s Experiment
Japanese scientist Dr. Masaru Emoto conducted a real experiment to see if water has memory. His hypothesis was that water can retain information and memory from its surrounding environment (Does Water Respond to Your Emotions?), the same idea that the Frozen 2 ship scene was based on. Emoto believed that water could perceive people’s thoughts and emotions, just the way it kept the feelings of Elsa’s parents for years.
Emoto’s experiment consisted of exposing water to different kinds of stimuli. He exposed water to music, people’s words, and various situations in which people felt emotional. Water witnessed all sorts of stimuli, and the goal was to see how it reacted to these stimuli.
To prove that water could perceive what was happening around it, the scientist would freeze it after exposure to some stimuli. He would then look at its molecular structure in the frozen state under a microscope. After looking at the molecular structure, he saw that the form of the crystals varied depending on what kind of stimuli water was exposed to. When positive stimuli were involved, such as beautiful harmonious music and positive words in a calm tone, the crystals would take a symmetrical, aesthetically pleasing form (Does Water Respond to Your Emotions?). However, when the stimuli were negative, such as people talking aggressively, loudly, or heavy music, the crystals would be asymmetrical and not as aesthetically pleasing as in the opposite case.
Even though Emoto’s experiment did not find support among other scientists and faced much criticism, it suggested a very important idea. Nature, in general, and water, in particular, might have more life to them than people think they do. They might be able to perceive what is happening around them, which can affect humanity. This creates a life cycle: people are inconsiderate of whether nature can feel and disrupt nature’s balance and treat it disrespectfully. Their nature can feel this disrespect and is affected by it. The negative effect on nature affects humans in the long run as well. Thus, this vicious cycle never stops.
How Trees Can Feel
Trees, like water, might be more conscious than humans imagine them to be. People have always felt a strange connection to trees; these creatures seem mysterious to humans, and one cannot help but think that nature’s creations can have emotions, too. Many tales and legends include trees as protagonists: trees live a long time and become witnesses to all sorts of events throughout their life cycle.
One German forester, Peter Wohlleben, has dedicated his entire life to trying to understand trees (Grant). His view of the forest contrasts the way most people and the timber industry see it: trees are looked at as either “disconnected loners” or “wood-producing systems” (Grant). It was suggested, however, that trees can communicate with each other and they have more intelligence than was believed.
Peter Wohlleben’s observations prove trees’ capacity to feel and share emotions. Once, he found a beech stump of a tree that had been felled more than four centuries ago; when he scraped the surface, however, he found it was green from chlorophyll (Grant). The tree had been dead for a long time, but the other beaches around it were trying to keep it alive, which reminded the forester of elephants that refused to abandon their fellow dead elephants (Grant).
Later, it was found that trees “communicate through the network, and they send chemical, hormonal, and slow-pulsing electrical signals” (Grant). This suggests that trees are not loners and are connected. For example, they might communicate what they feel to one another when they feel distress. Their way of communicating and feeling might be different from that of human beings, but they are still found to be able to feel more than was thought. These findings could be helpful for humanity as they could change the relationship between humans and nature for the better.
Conclusion
Realizing that nature is affected by our physical and emotional actions could shift our perception of the cycle of life. It is necessary to understand that everything is interconnected on an emotional level, and emotional destruction is just as important as it is neglected in most cases. If we know it, living in harmony with nature and each other will be easier. And then, after that, we can save the planet too, because without taking care of nature emotionally, saving it physically would not make a great difference.
Works Cited
“Does Water Respond to Your Emotions? Dr. Masaru Emoto’s Studies.” Somarka. Web.
Grant, Richard. “Do Trees Talk to Each Other?” Smithsonian Magazine. 2018. Web.
Frozen 2. Directed by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, 2019.