The Lion King by Disney

by Candi
(Decatur, AR, USA)

The Lion King
By: Candi Bladen

Children’s books are usually written for the “fun” aspect of reading. To get them involved in a story and hopefully to get them interested in reading. This book has that “fun” factor and more. There are some real life lessons that can be learned about love, jealousy, and the circle of life, and how our actions not only affects ourselves, but can really impact everyone around us, and can have a lasting effect on those we may never meet. I find it interesting that the author was able to make such poignant points in a child’s book.

In the Pride Lands, a glorious event has taken place. The birth of a future new king (Simba) is born to King Mufasa and Queen Sarabi. He is their first born cub. There is to be a celebration for Simba joining the Circle of Life. Many animals from the savanna come from far and near to honor and respect their future king. I’m sure we can all remember either our own children or someone close to us who has had a child and what a wonderful feeling that is, and how excited we are to show them off to everyone. Yet, the one animal who should have been there chose not to come celebrate.

Scar, who is King Mufasa’s brother chose not to come. He is a very jealous lion who wants to be king, and realizes that with this birth, he will never be king. The plans that Scar puts into action to accomplish his ultimate goal and gain a position of power that is not rightfully his is quite moving. It makes us realize what lengths we as humans may be willing to go to achieve a status that we think we deserve. This book shows how we can become so self absorbed and filled with anger and jealousy that we don’t realize our full potential, and that we can end up focusing our energy on how we’re going to get what we think we deserve by undercutting or walking over someone.

Simba met two very unlikely and amazing critters that befriended and accepted him without question. They lived by the motto Hakuna Matata “no worries”. No matter what comes your way, you’ve got to put the past behind and move on. What a great motto for kids. Being a child can be grueling, especially if they’re not the popular ones. I think that this provides a positive influence, and by Simba also being friendly to critters that normally weren’t considered animals to be friends with shows how we have to put our expectations aside and look at life outside the box.

As Simba grew up he remembered the things that his father had taught him about the Circle of Life, and him taking his rightful place as king someday. He was very fearful and didn't feel he could go back. He was so plagued by fear that it stopped him from doing what he should have done long before. As a result of his fear, his family and friends possibly suffered longer than they should have. It shows that in spite of our fears or setbacks, sometimes we have to overcome those obstacles and go to great lengths to right the wrongs of others. The Circle of Life never stops turning, and neither do we.