Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development

Apply the theory to movie/characters

• A. Name of Movie
• Mulan
• Summary:

        When the Huns invade China by breaching the Great Wall, the Emperor realizes that this a greater than normal threat to both the country and to his personal safety. He sends a letter to every household in China requiring every family to send one male to fight with the army. Mulan is very worried when her family receive their letter because the only male in the family is her father, who is elderly and ailing, and already a veteran of the army who has served his country. Mulan cannot stop feeling anxious until one day, when her anxiety has built up to an almost unmanageable level, she comes up with a plan; she takes her father's old armor and she goes to join the army, disguised as a boy. She will represent her family as the "man" of the house. When her family awaken they realize what she has done; her grandmother is distraught and prays to the family ancestors to keep Mulan safe. The ancestors decide to send the great stone dragon to protect Mulan, and they also send a smaller dragon, who was a disgraced relative, to wake him. Mushu hurries to waken the stone dragon but in his haste ends up breaking him. He decides to keep this to himself and vows that he will be Mulan's protector. As training completes, Mushu sees it as his duty to get Mulan in the fight against the Huns, thus he forges a letter that forces the newly trained army to the front lines. While traveling among the mountains, Shang's army runs into the Huns. After fiercely battling with them and running out of supplies the army must figure out a way to defend themselves, their only solution is to take out the leader of the Hun army Shan-Yu. Mulan sees this opportunity to take out most of the Hun by shooting the last firearm into the mountain thus creating a land slide of snow burying the Hun underneath. Although her idea works, it doesn't come without an expense, at the moment the cannon is shot Mulan is inflicted by Shan-Yu. Although she is wounded in battle she finds a way to save Shang from death which comes in handy when she is discovered as a women and is spared her life. In the end, after being abandoned on the mountain Mulan finds out that some of the Huns have survived and are continued on their way to the Imperial city. She finds the empowerment in herself to rush to the Imperial City and warn the others about the danger that lurks in the shadows. Unfortunately for her, due to her gender many people do not take this warning seriously until the Emperor is captured and kept hostage by Shan-Yu. As Shang's army tried to break down the doors, Mulan invents an idea to scale the walls and distract the guards by dressing her three male companions Tao, Ling, and Chien Po up as women. The plan goes according to plan and the emperor is carried away to safety, but after Shang gets knocked out Mulan realizes that she cannot let herself leave him behind. By distracting Shan-Yu from finishing off Shan, Shan-Yu realizes that the revenge he seeks is not against Shang Tmperor and Shan-Yu's sword. After returning home, Mulan presents these presents to her father for forgiveness which later turns into a reunion with Shang and sets the scene for the two to be very happy for a very long time. 

• B. Character Name and Image
• Mulan 

• Mulan doesn't seem to fit in in her world. Everything a proper young Chinese girl is supposed to be -- graceful, demure, quiet -- she is not. But when her homeland and family are threatened by an invasion of bloodthirsty Huns, Mulan runs away to join the army in her father's place. There she learns that her courage, intelligence, and determination offer her a way to bring honor to her family and herself.
  Words to describe Mulan: heroic, loyal, brave, independent, outcast, clumsy, caring, strong.

• C. The characters moral dilemma and decision (what is going on).
• Mulan has to decide whether or not she wants to let her father go to war or go in place of her father to protect him, but risk her safety and her family name.
• Should Mulan let her father go to war and possibly die or go in his place disguised as a soldier, but risk her life and her family name.
• Risk Factors
• Mulan has no idea and experience so there is a chance  that she could hurt.
• Family Reputation is very important in hina, and if people find out that Mulan went through the war their reputation could be ruined.
• At this time, women are not allowed to fight in wars, so Mulan would be going against social expectations.
• Mulan's choice:
• is to disguised as a soldier and risk her life for her fathers safety and save her country even if her father didn't want it, go to the training camp and fight against the enemy.

• Connect it to Kohlberg's Moral Development theory clearly.
• The Moral decision of Mulan is connected from the stage of Post-Conventional Level, wherein the moral reasoning is based on the enduring or long lasting principles.  In which individuals have developed their own personal set of ethics and morals that they use to drive their behavior. Most of the time, their ethics and morals agree with social norms, practices and laws, but there can be conflicts between what is socially acceptable and what an individual believes. According to post conventional morality, when these conflicts occur, the individual should stay true to their own ethics.
• From post conventional level it also pertains to social contract and universal principles.
• Social Contract
• Mulan changed the law that only men can go to war.
• Universal Principles
• Mulan take the risk to protect her family specially her father and to save the country.