Morality in 'Princess Mononoke'

       Princess Mononoke was not what I expected in any way shape or form. It is a story about a prince who becomes cured after defeating a demon when it tries to attack his town. He then leaves the town forever in order to try to remove the curse from his body or it will destroy him, he finds himself in the middle of a war between the forest and Iron Town. He is dragged into this war and needs to chose his side all the while fighting his curse. This is when he meets San, a human child who is raised by the wolf clan in the forest. The story had many moral issues that were portrayed. In my opinion there are two main moral issues that the producers try to cover in both their artistic choices and in their characters. The morality of life versus death, and the idea of nature versus industrialization.
       The first moral issue I want to look at is the idea of life versus death. In the begining of the movie Prince Ashitaka kills two rogue samurais and of course feels bad about it. A travelling Monk tells him howvever that everyone dies be it a royal or someone from the brothles, implying the idea that no one cares if one or two random people die, what difference does it make in the grand scheme of things. The moral issue is mentioned in the entire movie. In other areas, he saves the life of the leader of Iron Town even though she is the cause for the destruction of the forest, Ashitaka values life no matter who it belongs to. They also address the value of life given to animals versus given to humans, most of the humans in this story value easily their lives and the value of human lives around them more then any animal life they see. Ashitaka's first problem with this is San herself, since she is human by birth but is raised by the wolves against humans. The human regard her as a lowlife ready to kill her along with the animals despite the fact that she is human, it is her beliefs they want to kill. San is also conflicted with this problem when she is given the opportunity to kill Ashitaka, she wants to kill him and feels she should because he is human and works with them, however, she is torn because he is trying to help her and saved her life, she sees the good in him that is not common of the people in Iron Town. The producers challenge this view in the end of the movie in a very specific way, while he puts the conflicting views in the characters at the end, he causes the great boar and the mother wolf to be sacrificed for the forest, he has the spirit kill them for their life and in that one moment you see some of the Iron Town people shocked at this they ask why the spirit sacrificed their lives and in that one question you an hear the tone and expression that shows how they don't understand the sacrifice and why they should have died, even though they still think animal life is lower, their morality towards the expense of animal life is shifting. They no longer think the animals should have died.
       The second moral issue is that of nature versus industrialization. In the story it is very black and white in the most part, the humans who represent industrialization think the forest should go, and the animals who stand for nature think the humans should go, there is no room for both of them. Ashitaka, from the very begining constantly asks why the forest and people can't live together in peace and tries to show everyoe else how they could. He tries to convince San who truly hates the humans seeing as she was raised by the woves and takes lots of convincing to stop the war, she says at the end how she will never forgive the humans and still decides to live in the forest once the war is over, Ashitaka understands this and allows her because even though they now live in peace their are still grusges that will never be forgotten. One of the largest character developements however, is in Lady Eboshi, the leader of Iron Town. In the begining she thinks so little about the destruction of the forest and leads many battles against the forest creatures, in the end however, she says that it is time to start over, She is willing to respect the forest now and work together with it instead of destroying it, after everything shes been through she finally sees the life inside that is fighting for its survival, and see finaly sees that it deserves the chance. The producers already know which side they are on however, they chose the side that industrialization and nature could live in peace together because you can see it in two main aspects of the movie. One is with San herself seeing as she is a combination of natures upbringing in human form, she is a living example of how the two side can work together in peace. The second is with Iron Town, Iron town is known for making iron out of super heated sand, they use all of natures given materials for their living, they need the fire to heat the sand, and the sand itself to make the orin, their entire town is made of the wood from the forest, which is returned at the end of the movie I might add, and the food off their plates that they eat. The producers also show it in the upgraded rifles. They are a perfect combination of wood and metal that work together in harmony, just another example that nature and industrializtion can work together. Sure they used it to create a killing weapon, but that is just surface idea. Wood and metal working together in harmony is the idea behind it.
       So ya, after this story and seeing all the changes in characters developement that the producers create, it is really increadible once you figure out the ideas behind it. But whether or not art should have morality is difficult. Everyone sees morality differently, while I agree with the morals in this movie for example, there could very well be someone out there who completely side with the inhabitants of Iron Town and even afte the movie, still want to see the forest burned to a crisp. Someones idea of right versus wrong is completely different to anyone elses. This is why it would be difficult to show it in art, you could always go for the obvious good versus evil idea but really you never know. I think that artist should put their own morals views sinto their artworks and not create what they think the world wants.