The Negative Effects Of Encapism In Pan's Labyrinth

Pan’s Labyrinth takes place in the years after the Spanish Civil War. The movie follows a young girl named Ofelia as she moves to the countryside with her pregnant mother Carmen to live with her new stepfather, Captain Vidal. Vidal is a very cruel man and the surroundings of the mill are no place for a child. Ofelia creates a fantasy world to escape from the troubles around her. In her fantasy, there is faun who gives her three tasks that she must complete to return to the underworld. She completes two of the three tasks but refuses to complete the last, which is sacrificing her brother’s blood. She has taken her brother inside the labyrinth, but since she will not sacrifice her brother the fawn refuses to help her. Vidal catches her and takes

Escapism is a coping mechanism for challenges in one’s life (Waqar). People like Ofelia, use escapism to temporarily forget or lessen the harsh reality facing them. Sometimes are tragic or life changing events people need to step away from reality before it takes a toll on them mentally. Ofelia goes through many life changing events throughout the movie such as a big move, having a new stepfather, and the death of her mother. Escapism made these events easier to cope with and deal with for Ofelia. It can help one’s mental state to block out reality for a little while and not have to focus on yourself. Ofelia imagines up the root that she puts under her mother’s bed. To Ofelia the root is helping to improve her mother’s health until it is thrown into the fire and her mother dies from childbirth. Escapism can also be positive when reacting to a certain situation that might be aggravated with interference (Waqar). Ofelia’s mother is having a very sickly pregnancy and by Ofelia creating her fantasy world she is not a distraction to her mother, and her mother can focus on her health inside of being bother by Ofelia. Escapism is positive as long as it is it is used in

It might take your mind off of a subject for a certain amount of time, but the situation cannot be solved unless you take action. For instance, you have a paper due but instead of writing the paper you scroll through social media. The social media takes your mind away from the stress of the paper, but the paper is never going to get done until you put the social media away and begin to write the paper. If you continue to scroll through the social media and not write then you make the paper harder on yourself because you give it less time and thought than it needs. The paper represents reality and the social media represents escapism. Overall, escapism needs to be used in moderation to be effective, and excessive use is damaging like the overuse of social media. In conclusion, escapism was a very prominent and reoccurring theme in Pan’s Labyrinth. Escapism can have both negative results and positive results. Escapism can be a healthy escape from the troubles of life, unless it is used in excessive amounts. Those like Ofelia who use escapism for their problems need to find a healthy medium between escapism and reality. Ofelia’s death at the end of the movie shows how disastrous escapism can be when there is no healthy medium. Running from reality does catch up with you in the end, so escapism when used as a coping mechanism needs to be used