I did a Breakdown of the Mental Issues shown in Encanto
I spent 3 hours writing this oh my... okay here we go:
Let’s start off with Mirabel and her relationship with Abuela. In the beginning of the movie, it shows young Mirabel and Abuela chatting before the gift ceremony. Abuela tells Mirabel the story on how the Encanto grew and tells her that each gift makes you special, this is the beginning of the pressure. She says “Your gift will be just as special as you are” This may be showing the first sign that Abuela only worries about the pov of the madrigal family having a big part and expectation, not towards the village, but towards Abuela. Soon in the movie, Abuela tells off Mirabel that she shouldn't help with preparations because she doesn’t have a gift and that she's possibly useless. In the song “Waiting on a miracle” Mirabel explains that she wishes Abuela could see that she can be more even without a gift. She sings that she's been trying to look away from that and be happy on her own, but is starting to get sick of hiding those feelings away. Near the end of the movie before Casita breaks down, she is yelling to Abuela that nobody in their family is good enough for her(Abuela). Which seems to be true.
Mirabel seems to know that those “expectations and pressure” affect the rest of the family. I’ll explain those now.
First off.. Bruno. It doesn’t start with Abuela.. But really the people around him. They made him feel like his power made bad things happen, but really he was showing them the future, and they took it as a bad hope. The reason he hid away was because the last vision he gave, it showed Mirabel and the Casita breaking. Afraid of what Abuela and the others would say, he left. He really loves his family though, as he states.
Next, Pepa. First an explanation.. It seems that when Pepa’s clouds and rain come along, Abuela tells her off and make “Clear Skies”. So basically Abuela doesn’t want to allow Pepa to show her angry/poor emotions, forcing Pepa to bottle them up, In Abuelas fear of the family not being seen as reliable or perfect (I’ll explain in the Abuela section). Felix, Pepa’s husband, encourages her to show her true feelings. As it is shown in the lyrics of “All of you”, it goes: Bruno sings to Pepa “Pepa i'm sorry about your wedding, didn't mean to be upsetting, it wasn't a prophecy i could just see you were sweating, and i wanted you to know, that your bro loves you so, let it in, let it out, let it rain, let it snow, let is gooo~”, and Felix continues by saying “That’s what i’m always saying bro!” towards Pepa. This shows that they really don’t think it’s good for her to keep them in. In the end of the movie, it shows that she starts to embrace her weather and flow with it, and is seen dancing under a hail cloud with Felix happily after the Casita is brought back.
Julieta is seen as the healer in the Encanto, but she realizes that Abuela is too hard on Mirabel. The afternoon of Mariano’s possible proposal, Julieta and Augustine chat to Abuela about her being too hard on Mirabel and that she should calm down. “Think about the family” Abuela says. Augustine replies with “I was thinking about my daughter”. This is another sign of Abuela being blind about her own family's issues.
How was Luisa doing? The night after Mirabel sees the cracks in Casita, Luisa states that she felt weak, and that she knew about the magic going down. Dolores said that Luisa’s eye was twitching all night, possibly in a state of feeling anxious. The day after, after the Madrigal’s breakfast, Mirabel chases down Luisa, seeking answers about the magic dying. When Mirabel catches up it is shown Luisa is nervous about something when she yells “nothings wrong” and proceeds to explain that she shouldn't be feeling like that because she says she is the strong one and nothing should be bothering her. In the song “Under the surface” She explains that she’s under continuous pressure from the village and family. That feeling is suffocating her she says and that she could blow up at any minute if it continues. Mirabel says to her that she's carrying too much, and that she is allowed to feel that way and it doesn’t make you any weaker. In the song “All of you” Luisa seems disappointed in herself when she says “Yeah but sometimes I cry..”, and Isabela and Mirabel hug her singing “So do I~”.
Isabela grew up being known as the perfect and beautiful flower lady. This had its toll on Isabela herself though. She always felt the need to pursue that saying, to not disappoint Abuela, and that probably pressured into holding a smile all the time and to be perfect. For the “sake” of the family, she was going to agree to Mariano’s proposal, but she admits she never wanted to. She then gets angry when expressing these feelings, thus creating Cactus out of her own feelings. She gets happy about it and starts singing “What else can I do?” after discovering her potential after hiding in her feelings all the time. “What could I grow if I just knew it didn't need to be perfect? It just needed to be? And they’d let me be?”. She proceeds to grow a variety of plants of different colours, and they appear to be plenty of succulents/cactuses/or other foreign plants, according to her current feelings. Abuela does get angry about this saying she's out of control, and Mirabel defends her. In the end of the movie though, she does embrace herself and her plants, and no longer needs to be seen as perfect anymore.
Now, Abuela herself. After falling in love with Pedro Madrigal (Abuelo), she gets married and has triplets (Bruno, Pepa, and Julieta). But suddenly they had to flee their original village and move quickly. It then shows that the ambushers were chasing after them and Pedro sacrifices himself. Alma Madrigal(Abuela) is left in despair and grief. The candle lights up and creates the Encanto and Casita itself. This left her with the pressure to “Please the miracle” persay. With every gift, and those people with the gifts, she would be able to make the miracle happy. But When Mirabel didn't get hers, she lost sight of who the miracle was for. She seemed to have forced her family to be perfect and decent the whole time, but she never realized it was hurting them. They all forgave her in the end, but how can they? After she mentally disturbed them all. Of course she had a reason but they all probably have “Generational Trauma”
Generational Trauma can be described as the result of parenting or family issues. Symptoms can be low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, insomnia, anger, and self-destructive behaviors.
I have read a post regarding this and can be described as:
Abuela emotionally abuses her family, Julieta has pressure of helping to heal others and their emotional problems, Pepa’s feelings were constantly being invalidated, Bruno and Mirabel are seen as “bad seeds”, Isabela has a problem with perfection and was being pressured to look and act a certain way, Luisa carried burdens, Dolores could hear everything but nobody really listened to her own stories of feelings and pain, Camilo always tries to lighten the mood, and Antonio always made Mirabel feel like she’s apart of the family. (@la_mslopez on Instagram)
I entirely wrote this to show to my siblings :D anyways, I love the movie and related to it in aspects apart of it.
