An Anthropological View on the Nightmare Before Christmas Essay Example
An Anthropological View on the Nightmare Before Christmas Essay Example

An Anthropological View on the Nightmare Before Christmas Essay Example

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  • Pages: 2 (341 words)
  • Published: November 12, 2017
  • Type: Essay
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Feeling fatigued by his cherished Halloween Town, Jack longed for change and wandered about with a melancholic demeanor. He soon chanced upon the doors to the parallel holiday lands, and was particularly drawn to the one adorned with a peculiar tree embellished with shining glass balls and lights.

Jack was an outsider when he entered a peculiar land beyond a door. This new place was filled with strange things such as cold soft snow, little houses adorned with bright flashing lights, and decorated pine trees with oversized socks. He had never before seen anything like it. While exploring this town, he discovered their equivalent of him, "Sandy Claws". Unlike Jack, Sandy Claws was not morbid or scary. Instead, he was jolly and cheerful but still respected in the same manner as Jack. This contrast demonstrated just how different these two cultures

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were. After returning to Halloween Town, Jack tried to inform his fellow citizens about his findings but their ethnocentric minds found it challenging to comprehend such unfamiliar customs. For example, when he shared the concept of stockings, they questioned whether there were still feet inside them, as that was their norm. The people of Halloween Town had only been exposed to their own culture and had not experienced anything like the foreign customs of the other town.

When tasked with recreating Christmas, the creators took the liberty of altering their instructions based on their own ideas of improvement. The resulting little duck toys, for instance, were adorned with sharp teeth and coated in blood stains and bullet wounds. Cultural relevance was key in their approach; without elements of horror and disgust, gifts were deemed insufficient. Jac

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acted as an impartial anthropologist, objectively examining all that was presented to him. His scrutiny resembled that of a scientist's. Unfortunately, when Jack relayed this information to his people, the value of our social sciences was lost in translation.

Regardless of their efforts, individuals tend to have a bias towards their own culture which results in perceiving other cultures as distorted and inappropriate.

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