Thoughts on Quasimodo

“God help the outcasts, the hungry from birth.  Show them the mercy they don’t find on earth…God help my people, the poor and down trod.  I thought we all were the Children of God” (Esmerelda).

The other day I re-watched Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame (which I know is a very loose interpretation of Victor Hugo’s much darker Hunchback) but let me just say that it was fantastic.

I have been a fan of Disney movies my whole life and in all these stories the heroes and heroines are trying to find out where they belong in the world.  They are different, they are outcasts in society, but they also have admirable qualities that carry them through their personal struggles and lead them to the “happily ever after.”  In my opinion one of the most admirable and most relatable of these heroes is Quasimodo.

He doesn’t get the girl, he isn’t reunited with his long lost parents, he undergoes no physical transformations, he inherits no riches, he rules no kingdoms, and yet at the end of the story we see him happy.  He spends his entire life the victim of evil and all he gets is friendship.  Are we really supposed to believe that’s enough to make somebody happy?

Well I think that is also what makes his story so wonderful!  Our lives are not like fairy tales.  True love’s kiss does not awaken every sleeping beauty, some princesses never do find their prince, and some bodies will have to stay misshapen and deformed throughout this mortal life, but that life can still be filled with joy and we can learn to be happy.

What the outcasts really want in our stories is love and acceptance in some form or another.  What we all really want and need is love and acceptance!  We want to feel loved, we want to feel valued, we want to know that we are important to somebody.  That is where friendships come in, amongst family, friends or strangers.  Joseph Smith said that “friendship…is designed to revolutionize and civilize the world, and cause wars and contentions to cease and men to become friends and brothers.”

So while it may not seem like a typical “happily ever after,” Quasimodo shows us that friendships really are enough, that love comes in many different ways, and that we can be happy.  I love it!

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