Meneses, Maria Gwyneth D.

Topic Paper 4

2015-05362 April 23, 2019

What struck me the most about the movie Inside Out wasn't exactly a specific scene, but
rather bits and pieces spread throughout the movie. The duration of while I was watching, I was
able to observe and think about the interaction of emotions with age. At birth, Riley only had one
emotion: Joy. But 33 seconds after birth, Sadness also came. And then came along Anger,
Disgust and Fear. It is evident, therefore, that as Riley grew older, she began to develop and
experience more diverse emotions. This is in concordance with what studies have shown that we
do indeed begin to feel a wider variety of emotions as we grow older.

Evidencing the interaction of age and emotions even further was how later in the movie,
she also started having orbs of memories that had combination of emotions rather than just a
single one. During the earlier part of the movie when Riley had just seen her new home and new
room, Anger, Disgust, and Fear were all trying to take control of her emotions; thus, resulting in
separate orbs of memory that were differently colored. Later on, however, in the scene where
Riley finally admitted to her parents how much she missed their old home, the orb of memory
that was formed through that experience didn't have just one color, one emotion. It was yellow,
with a tinge of blue—joy with a hint of sadness. This, then, goes to show that as Riley and as we
begin to grow older, we also grow out of experiencing just the basic emotions and start
developing ones that cannot just simply be labelled as Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust or Fear (or
Surprise).

More than that, it was also shown how the interaction of age and the functions emotions
evolved throughout the movie. When she was younger for example, Disgust only functioned as a
way to warn her from things that could physically poison her—like broccoli, for her point of
view. But when she was going to start her first day at school after they moved out, it was shown
that Disgust also saves her from things that socially poison her, such as walking with her parents
to school, which she considered embarrassing. The same thing happened with Anger and Fear:
they also began to fulfill more roles and function for different situations.

This evolution of function was especially salient in Sadness. When Riley was younger,
Sadness mostly appeared only when she was physically hurt. Even Joy, who was able to explain

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the functions of Anger, Disgust and Fear, didn't know why Sadness was really there. She always
brushed off Sadness's sentiments and said, "Just think positive!" and other similar statements.
However as the movie progressed and Riley grew older, Joy, Riley, and even we as viewers
learned the importance of Sadness. In fact, I think the main point of the movie was to tell people
to embrace sadness because sadness becomes more and more important as we grow older.
During childhood, for example, we become sad whenever our parents wouldn't give us what we
want; thus, making us want to cry. During adulthood, however, sadness could mean an entirely
different thing and could urge a different action.

Lastly, the interaction of emotions with one's age was also manifested in how much
control one has over their emotions. This can be shown by the fact that while Riley's emotions
were still all over the place, her mom and dad's emotions were more...organized. A more
concrete comparison would be how easily Anger took control of Riley—he just pushed one lever
and suddenly Riley was filled with anger; while the dad's emotion had to go through a long
process and series of orders first before letting the dad be consumed with anger. The
manifestations of anger was also different for the two, with Riley exploding with anger while the
dad expressing a tempered version of what had been going on in his mind. Of course I cannot
completely say that her parents had more control of their emotions, especially since what was
going on inside the mom and dad's heads was only shown in one scene: during dinnertime when
they were asking how Riley's first day at school went. However, this slight difference between
how the emotion of Riley versus the emotions of her mom and dad can go to show how we
develop more control over our emotions, or at least control over the extent to which we handle
and express these emotions.

Another thing that struck me during the movie was the interaction of emotions with
memory; with the most salient interaction being the orbs of memory being colored (literally) by
emotions.This, then, suggests how memories are affected by emotions; and that recalling a
memory also involves feeling the emotion associated with that memory. This was especially
evident when Sadness touched an orb that used to be colored with Joy and Disgust said, "Oh no,
now Riley's gonna feel sad whenever she remembers that memory"—implying that emotions are
indeed inexplicably tied with recollection of memories.

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 Aside from the fact that memories are colored with emotions, the manner by which we
recall these memories are also dependent on how we feel about these memories. In other words,
which emotions we feel for that memory can affect when we would want to recall that memory.
The memory of her playing hockey with her family every Sunday at the lake, for instance, when
it was colored with happiness, was recalled by Riley to make a good impression with her
classmates. But when Sadness touched it and colored it blue, the memory became a sad
memory—something Riley wouldn't want to remember while introducing herself in front of her
classmates.

Furthermore, in the scene where Riley, her mom and her dad were having dinner after
Riley's first day of school, it was shown there how the emotions of Riley's dad had a pre-set
reaction to Riley's bad mood and disrespectful answer. His emotions were like, prepare the
"foot", which meant channeling his anger by sending Riley up to her room, a reaction that
probably worked in disciplining her in the past. This goes to show how—through memories of
what we've experienced and how we've felt before—can develop pre-set reactions to similar
situations. It's like being conditioned to feel a certain way and do a certain action based on
previous similar experiences.

Taking these all together, it really goes to show how emotions aren't stand-alone feelings
we experience day by day. Emotions can be largely affected and at the same time largely affect
various aspects of our lives, just as how Riley was greatly affected when she wasn't able to
manage her emotions properly. This then highlights the importance of being at peace and
embracing our emotions and being able to manage how we react to certain reactions.