The Grinch is believed to hate Christmas because he felt alienated from society due to his nature and strange appearance. He is a green monster whose entire body is covered with bright green fur and comes out of his cave during Christmas to wreak havoc among the residents of Whoville. People always knew that he never wanted to be social during Christmas time. They always told stories of how his shoes where too small to fit, and how his head wasn’t screwed on all the way. Projection was portrayed in this movie. The definition of projection is when one person makes other people feel the same way as you do. The Grinch was the problem for himself, he wanted the Whos so feel miserable to he can feel happy during Christmas. The Grinch thought if he took the presents and the Christmas trees away, he hoped the Whos would feel miseable like he had been during christmas time. It would make him feel better seeing the Whos crying wishing they had their presents back to make them happy, but that wasn’t the case. There was also a part on the movie where the Grinch was shown biting his nails or chewing on a toothpick.
This would be related to the oral stage. He has probably been by himself all his life because he doesn’t feel accepted from society. He never had a loving, caring person to help his needs. He feels the satisfaction from his mouth area. Biting his nails is a way of asking for help, and distracting himself from the world. Displacement was shown between the Grinch and his dog, Max. The Grinch used his anger about the feelings he had for Christmas towards Max. Max was defenseless, he couldn’t protect himself from the Grinch. Max was forced to become the reindeer to the sled and pull heavy bags of presents. Max was also in charge of throwing the heavy bags of presents on the sled while the Grinch was stealing them from the houses. Another example from Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs was self-actualization needs. The definition of this is when someone finally realizes something, they come to terms with that problem and they learn to accept it and make it positive. Towards the end of the movie, the Grinch finally realizes that Christmas isn’t a bad thing after all. Even after he stole all of the presents and Christmas trees he noticed that the people in Whoville were still happy and singing together. Hearing that made his heart grow three times bigger, and it made him like Christmas.
He realized that recvieing presents and having a huge Christmas dinner weren’t the only reasons people were so happy, he realized that after those people had nothing, they still came in the middle of the town , being happy and joyous around each other. An example from Sigmund Freud is denial, which was also portrayed in the movie. Denial is when someone refuses to believe in something, not thinking it will change or effect that person. At the beginning of the movie, The Grinch reminds himself that around Christmas time, the people in Whoville are always happy and singing and are joyous, he always looks at the dark side of things. The Grinch believes that he will never be happy again and not be able to experience the Christmas joy like the rest of the people in Whoville. Christmas is a good feeling and sense of community that lives inside all the Whos, gifts or no gifts. That’s just why the Grinch’s plan fails, nothing he ever does could take that community spirit away. The Grinch never took Christmas away from the Whos in Whoville, he wanted them to be depressed and sad so he could feel better about himself. There are many more reasons to be happy during Christmas.
