Analyzing character arcs in Barbie
****Article Contains Spoilers *****
I liked the Barbie movie. While there were definitely a few things I could nitpick about in terms of story (continue reading for my nitpicks), overall, I thought it was a funny and enjoyable movie. I also think it’s worth celebrating that Barbie was the highest-grossing opening weekend for a female writer/director. A success for one female storyteller is a success for all of us!
Whatever your feelings about the Barbie movie, you can’t deny its popularity. But, why is the Barbie movie so popular? Let’s put on our storyteller hats and try to figure that out. My inkling is that it’s the themes of the Barbie movie that resonate so well with so many people (and perhaps infuriate others). Remember, the theme is the message or lesson of a story and it should tap into a universal truth about humanity or our world. See my post Why you need a theme for your novel for more details.
The themes of Barbie revolve around the position of men and women in our world, contrasted by their opposing roles in Barbie Land. Let’s look at how well Greta Gerwig expresses these themes through her characters and what they learn throughout the story.
Barbie’s character arc
If you’re looking for a great example of story set-up/status quo and inciting incident, look no further. The movie begins with a typical day for Barbie (and Ken) in Barbie Land. Everything is perfectly plastic, from Barbie’s flawless morning makeup to her daily outfit that regenerates in her closet. Barbie takes a waterless shower, drinks generic milk and her tip-toed feet are designed to be comfortable in heels! In the opening scenes, all is well until the end of the day when Barbie suddenly asks, “Do you guys ever think about dying?” Uh oh! The doll is malfunctioning.
Things get worse the next morning when she wakes up groggy, takes a cold shower, drinks expired milk and burns a waffle. Then, the heels of her feet begin to touch the floor. The worst has happened. High heels are no longer comfortable! The inciting incident is well underway and it’s time to visit Weird Barbie to figure out what’s going on. Weird Barbie offers a Matrix-style red pill/blue pill choice between staying in Barbie Land or learning about the real world. Barbie chooses to remain oblivious. Barbie wants everything to stay the same as it’s always been. However, it turns out that’s not possible and she’ll have to journey to the real world to set things straight.
Barbie’s want is established clearly in the first half of the film. What’s less clear is Barbie’s need in the second half and final scenes of the movie. Remember, in good stories, a character’s need becomes clear in the second part of Act 2. The need is tied directly to the theme of the story. The character should be learning the lesson or moral of the story in a very specific way. At the end of this movie, Barbie decides to become a real woman and live in the real world. This is after she discovers that the real world is not the idyllic place she imagined. Instead, it is run by a cruel patriarchy that diminishes the dignity and value of women. Why then, does she choose to become real and live there? What lesson are viewers to understand from this decision?
Barbie’s character arc shifted into a Pinocchio story where becoming real somehow satisfies Barbie’s deepest desire. It’s not entirely clear what this desire is. It’s a powerful character transformation because we begin with a doll who believes ignorance is bliss and wants things to stay as they are and end with an empowered, knowledgeable woman (who wears pink Birkenstocks and goes to the gynecologist!). You could say Barbie’s arc says something like, “Being a real, imperfect woman is more fulfilling than being a perfect imitation of a woman.” However, in my opinion, Barbie’s character arc falls short of bringing home the thematic messages. Ken’s arc does a better job at this.
Ken’s character arc
In Barbieland, poor Ken is an underappreciated hunk, clamouring for Barbie’s attention. He’s not the sharpest pencil in the box and he’s not that good at anything except for maybe “beaching” (and nobody knows what that is). We see Ken’s status quo in the scene where he tries to impress Barbie by rushing into a plastic wave only to make a fool of himself and fail once again to get Barbie to think of him as anything more than a friend. We know immediately what Ken wants: Barbie.
This presentation of Ken makes people uncomfortable (and it should!) because Ken is not his own person with his own hopes and dreams. Gerwig is purposefully drawing attention to the fact that women are often portrayed this way in stories. We should be uncomfortable with both men and women being presented this way. But, Gerwig is making a point with Ken. When he stows away with Barbie as she travels into the real world at the beginning of Act 2, he’s about to be exposed to a new world where men have the power and women are undervalued and underappreciated. Obsessed with this power, he brings it home, transforming Barbie Land from a safe matriarchy into a dangerous patriarchy marked by toxic masculinity.
So how does Ken’s arc reinforce the theme? Ken goes bad. Really rotten. But, it’s where Ken lands that represents the theme so well. When Gloria and the Barbies (and Alan!) dismantle the patriarchy in Barbie Land, Ken confesses that he was miserable throughout his entire powertrip. Ken’s arc says, “A patriarchal society marked by toxic masculinity is not only bad for women, but it’s bad for men too!” Bravo. This represents the theme in its most complex form. It should resonate as a powerful truth for both men and women. People who are offended by this movie aren’t getting it. Gerwig isn’t trying to promote reverse sexism, she’s trying to point out the dangers of undervaluing anyone because of their gender. Because Ken’s arc drives home the theme through Ken’s individual experience, it’s the most well-executed character arc.
Gloria’s character arc
In the set-up scenes, we’re introduced to disillusioned Mattel employee, Gloria. We don’t at first know her connection to Barbie and the main plot of the story, but we eventually discover that she’s responsible for Barbie’s rude awakening. Craving connection with a distanced tween daughter, Gloria has been playing with the Barbie they used to play with together (and also drawing Barbies who think about death). These events kick off Barbie’s crisis in Barbie Land. Gloria’s setup is strong enough. It seems that what she wants is to reconnect with her daughter and be as close as they used to be. At the same time, she seems to need to recover some power and individuality at her job.
My biggest qualms are that Gloria’s arc deviates from the setup in the second half of the movie and hammers us over the head with the theme through an on-the-nose monologue. During the climax, while Barbie glitches, Gloria initiates the takedown of the patriarchy in Barbie Land. Her rousing feminist monologue snaps the Barbies out of their brainwashed existence serving the Kens. Now, as a book coach, I would never condone such an overt outpouring of the story’s main messages. Storytelling is supposed to be subtle. We shouldn’t have to spell things out for our audience and our characters should embody the message of the story (show don’t tell, right?). However, I’ll give it leeway because you can do silly, unusual things in a satire and Gloria’s monologue has resonated with many women (evidenced by how widely it’s been shared). If you get the right message at the right cultural moment in the right genre, maybe you can be preachy about it.
I still recommend using your characters to communicate the message and I feel Gloria fell a bit short of her potential. The need or desire for Gloria to gain confidence, a belief in herself or dismantle patriarchy wasn’t well established in the beginning of the film, so it felt like it came out of nowhere. The mending of the fractured relationship with her daughter felt tacked on too because it was given more weight in the setup than the resolution. Simply put, the beginning of Gloria’s character arc didn’t match the end. I would have made Gloria the epitome of an undervalued, underappreciated woman in the setup (Ken’s counterpart in the real world) and then when she dismantles the patriarchy in Barbie Land, it’s her way of reclaiming her power. Then, I would have reflected that for her in the real world (did she get a promotion, quit her job, stand up to her boss)? These slight adjustments could have made her character arc much stronger.
Our job as novelists is to delight readers, so we need to understand what people like. Analyzing the character arcs in this incredibly popular movie can teach us quite a few things. First, stories are strongest when character arcs are tied closely to the theme or main message. Second, even if you don’t execute a perfect character arc for all characters, you still have a great chance of writing a beloved story! If you need help with character arcs and themes, I offer manuscript evaluations to help writers become great storytellers. Get in touch if you’re looking for help with your novel.
