Why Are All The Cartoon Mother's Dead Analysis

In an article published to The Atlantic “Why Are All the Cartoon Mother’s dead?” by Sarah Boxer declares her point of why in a variety of kid’s movies the mother is deceased or missing and the father is present meanwhile in reality the stats are the opposite. She is coming off as a feminist questioning why mothers are not in a majority of Disney Movies and kid movies in general. In a matter of fact she addresses feminism in this article because she keeps throwing jabs about why fathers are the child’s only parent in the children’s movies. Such as, “Is the unconscious goal of these motherless movies to paper over reality? To hint that the world be better without mothers?”(Boxer). This explains my last thought of how she is addressing feminism

In a way she becomes a mother figure to Nemo. So if you think about, it isn’t really a motherless movie after all! In another movie Brother Bear there are no parents at all, a male bear meets a baby cub who guides the cub through the woods in search for his mother, and through this adventure becomes a brother figure to the baby cub. “The dead mother plot is a fixture of fiction, so deeply woven into our story telling fabric that it seems to unravel or explain.”(Boxer). It is possible to explain but you can’t get the real answer until you ask the director. But the reason why she stated this is to further her idea of feminism which she is trying to address throughout this whole article using the theme of motherless children movies. Another rhetorical question that Boxer included in this article is “Is it to encourage more men to be maternal? To suggest that fathers would be better than mothers if only they had the chance?”(Boxer). These questions add on to how she is addressing her feminist ideas through this article to make her point of feminism appeal stronger to her audience. In the entirety of the article Boxer uses the phrase “it looks like fun! Mothers are killed so fathers can take over. And when plucky kids and plucky dads join forces, it looks like fun!”(Boxer). She uses the phrase of “it looks like fun!” to portray the “fact” that when the mother is absent, the bond the father figure and the child share is “picture perfect”. She uses that phrase to show light on how when the mom isn’t there the father and child have fun and they live a perfect life which is why she says it looks like