Gender and Eve Returns Wall-e Essay Example

Gender and Eve Returns Wall Gender and Eve Returns Wall-e Essay Gender and Eve Returns Wall-e Essay The first half of Wall-E completely reverses Hollywood’s idea of the boy/girl romance. Wall-E and Eve each take on roles opposite their portrayed gender. Wall-E though assumed to be a lovable male displays stereotypical female characteristics and behaviours such as his weakness, his cleaning, and the longing he has for companionship. While Eve, though sleek and beautiful like our image of the â€Å"ideal woman† is much more the stereotypical male, arriving and immediately wreaking destruction, she is devoid of emotion, and displays lots of physical power. Wall-E and Eve both take on characteristics typical of the opposite sex making us question our ideas of â€Å"romance. † Wall-E opens our eyes to more possibilities; maybe romance isn’t based around so many gender stereotypes but simply by the way we feel about another person – or robot. Wall-E’s weakness and fear of Eve’s arrival is demonstrated by his shaking and hiding behind nearby garbage cans. Though Eve’s immediate destruction of anything that moves, would strike fear into the heart of any semi-intelligent being. Wall-E, having been built simply for cleaning is small, and seemingly insignificant. While Eve’s sleek form is not only efficient but built for destruction. With her convenient built-in cannons, she’s every boys dream robot, and what girl doesn’t adore Wall-E’s adorableness. Eve’s physical strength is shown time after time, when she pops bubble wrap with a machine gun like quickness. When teaching Eve to dance Wall-E is cute and certainly more elegant than Eve who is more clumsy than elegant. She jumps so hard she shakes Wall-E’s little living space and twirls so fast she breaks Wall-E’s eye. : Another example is when Wall-E tries to hold her hand after she has the plant, and just closing herself back up she slams his hand so hard it appears she may have really hurt him. Despite her outbursts of anger and her clear physical power that she holds over him, Wall-E adores her anyway. Wall-E spends his days tidying and cleaning, occasionally collecting trinkets and toys throughout the day, much like a woman taking advantage of garage sales ad bringing home multiplies of things she already owns. While Wall-E spent all of his time before Eve cleaning and collecting, Eve shows up with only 1 goal – find plant life and bring it back to the humans in space. She is goal oriented and not very interested in anything that side-tracks her, going so far as to destroy things that slow her down – such as the entire ship when she becomes attached to its magnet. Eve is quick to anger and quick to shoot anything that so much as moves without hesitation and with no concern what she leaves behind her. After she deems Wall-E no longer a threat and stops trying to blow him up, she completely ignores him following her in order to work on her mission. But being ignored does not deter Wall-E who adores her not only from a distance but enough to protect her best he can from the sandstorm. While Wall-E is lonely and longing companionship, it seems the only emotion Eve feels –when she feels any at the beginning of the movie is anger. Wall-E’s loneliness is shown when he folds his own hands together and in his silently following Eve everywhere, despite her obvious disinterest. Wall-E even records the love song and gazes at the stars before Eve’s arrival, as if asking a higher source to ease his loneliness. Eve is not even slightly interested in Wall-E’s attempt at friendship – or more in the beginning. She is quick to anger, again with the ship magnet and does not feel remorse or concern for anyone – or anything she may harm. Blowing up several things in Wall-E’s vicinity in attempt to get rid of him, she is not worried about the consequences – as she doesn’t even wait to see if he is ok or not. As if following her around and being ignored weren’t enough, when she does pay attention it is to fire at him, and being nearly blown to pieces every time he moves too quickly doesn’t seem to derail Wall-E’s adoration for Eve as he sticks around to save her from the sandstorm and tries to woo her with the trinkets and old love movies. Eventually Eve returns Wall-E’s feelings, though not as strong so early on, she does let him try to impress her. She even begins to giggle when poor Wall-E gets hurt dropping things on himself – which displays some elements of a Hollywood romance, but they both still display characteristics primarily opposite what is typical for their respective genders. Despite their differences, and their seemingly reversed gender roles, it seems we cannot stereotype romance. Wall-E is quick to fall in love with Eve even though she is much stronger, faster, braver and better equipped than him and Eve takes a little more time, but sees the charm in Wall-E’s gentle but protective nature. Wall-E and Eve are an improbable but adorable romance proving that the â€Å"cool guy† isn’t always the one who ends up with the pretty girl.