Grasshoppers are the Power Elite in A Ant's Life

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    This picture shows a scene from the movie A Bug's Life. This movie is set on Ant Island. It follows the main character Flik and journey protecting his ant colony. The antagonist in this movie is a grasshopper named Hopper. He is the leader of the grasshoppers and throughout most of the movie has control over the ant colony. In this scene, Hopper is giving a speech to the rest of his grasshoppers. He is explaining the power that the ants hold in numbers, but the other grasshoppers do not understand. He explains it to them by giving an example. He takes one nut and throws it at one of the grasshoppers. He then asks if it hurt when the nut hit them. They laugh and say the but didn't hurt. Hopper then opens a tube and lets hundreds of nuts falling on top of the other grasshoppers. He then asks if that hurt. Obviously it did hurt because the other grasshoppers were buried in nuts. He then explains that the ants are the same way. If only one ant attacks the grasshoppers, the ant will not survive. On the other hand, if the whole ant colony attacks the grasshoppers, the grasshoppers become out numbered and the ants would win. Hopper then goes on to explain that they need to keep this thought out of the ants mind. If they continue to gaslight the ants and tell them that they are inferior to the grasshoppers, then the ants will never revolt. 

    The concept I will be connecting the movie A Bug's Life to is the Power Elite. This concept was created by C. Wright Mills in his book called, The Power Elite. This concept goes into the American political system, and how it is used to benefit the already powerful people. Mills claims that America is controlled by the Power Elite. These are a small group of very wealthy and powerful people. He also claims that these people make decisions that largely benefit themselves, and in turn harm society. Mills talks bout "There Big Three" groups of the power elite. These three groups are political, military, and economic power. The large issue is that America's "democracy" is overrun by this concept. If the Power Elite control the country, then the larger mass of people have now power. They can do nothing against the Power Elite. 

    This concept can be contrasted with the movie the Power Elite by looking at the power the grasshoppers hold over the ants. The grasshoppers can be seen as the Power Elites in this movie because they use their physical prowess to dominate the ants and "bully" them into being the weaker group. They keep the ants in line so they don't recognize their true power. Hopper in one seen actually beats up Flik to show the ants that they don't stand a chance against the grasshoppers. The shut down any rebellious ideas of the ants and keep the power to themselves. Unfortunately, Flik is a courageous ant and stands up against the grasshoppers. He convinces the ant colony that they can overpower the grasshoppers because of their strength in numbers. In the end the ants hold of the power over the grasshoppers by making them fly away.  

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