Honors College Art & Science of Emotions Fall 2017 (1:20 p.m.) Sadness Journal | Page 32

gap in the messages children are receiving regarding dealing with sadness. With this thought in mind,
Dacher Keltner, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley was consulted when
making the Pixar film Inside Out. One of the lessons that the movie set out to share was that sadness has a
role in our life (Kois)
The movie is about an eleven-year-old girl named Riley that is uprooted from her happy life in
Minnesota and moved to San Francisco. Her emotions - Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust, and Sadness – each play
a role and often disagree on how best to handle life in a new city, house, and school. The anthropomor-
phism of sadness is a blue-colored character. Blue is appropriate because in the English language when used
as an adjective it means to be depressed in spirits; dejected; or melancholy. Much of the screen time is
focused on how Joy tries to eliminate Sadness from Riley’s life. Joy thinks that you can always look at the
positive side of any situation. She gets very upset any time that Sadness leaves a mark on Riley’s memories.
At one point she tells Sadness to stand in a circle drawn on the floor and not step out of it.
There is a scene where the mother tells her, “Through all this confusion, you’ve stayed our happy
girl.” Riley’s father is very worried about work, she notes, so “if we could keep smiling, it’ll be a big
help.” This is what we are usually told by the influential people in our life. Even when things are sad we
are to put on a happy face and continue our activities without appearing like anything is bothering us.
However, during a subsequent scene of the movie a more constructive way of dealing with sad-
ness is presented along with a better outcome. When another character is sad, Sadness offers a listening
ear and a shoulder to cry on. Afterward the character felt a bit better and had the strength to carry on.
This is an effective lesson illustrating that sometimes we need cry with someone. We need to talk about
our feelings with someone, not ignore them. The goal is not for the listener to ‘fix’ the problem, but just
to listen and understand what we are going through. Sadness said, “Crying helps me slow down and obsess
over the weight of life’s problems.” The act of taking a moment to truly experience and explore the sad-
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