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Introduction
Pixar has a large repertoire of movies that takes on the motives and
adventures of many characters. Heroes are made and broken by the kernel events
that they experience. Pixar movies such as Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and Inside Out,
display a strong character role that experiences difficulty but triumphs each
obstacle through lessons and adventure. Heroes are defined by their actions when
faced with adversity. Each character is put through the test, and only the heroes are
able to find their true self in the end. The characters in Pixar films are utilized to
create a message relating to issues in everyday life. How can kernels create heroes
out of characters?
Artifact Description
The artifact I chose is Inside Out. Inside out is a movie about a young girl named
Riley, who has just moved to a new state with her family. Riley must learn how to
balance her emotions: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust as well as face the
obstacles that come with moving to a new state. Obstacles such as a new school, new
home, and continuing to play hockey was hard for Riley to acclimate to. Emotions
such as anger, happiness, fear, greed, pride, panic, and hope are said to be influential
when making big decisions, especially investments (Magill, 2009). These emotions
are equivalent to the emotions in Inside Out, meaning that these core emotions exist
in in every person. Throughout the movie, Riley is faced with decisions on whether
she could be happy or truly disregard her emotions. With the help of Joy, Riley is
controlled to be happy all the time. When Joy is not nearby to make Riley happy,
Riley faces major issues in her life that turn tough situations worse due to her

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attitude. After many instances where Riley reacted unlike herself, she began to lose
her personality that was based off of family, friendship, honesty, and a bit of a
goofball. Once Riley lost the traits that made up her personality, she was now
uncontrollable by her emotions, Anger, Fear, and Disgust, who were temporarily in
charge causing her to make the awful decision of running away from home. As Riley
rode away on that bus back to Montana, Sadness, the sad emotion, was the only
emotion that was capable of preventing Riley from running away. When Riley
returned to her home, surrounded by police and her worried parents, she embraced
them and finally shared her troubled emotions with her family. Riley revealing her
pain to her parents was her finally letting go of the bottled emotions she had about
the big move. That sad moment with her family brought comfort and cause for a
new moment to be made in her core memories. At this time, something happened
that has not been done before. The memory formed as two emotions, both sadness
and joy. The emotions learned that they could work together and have more than
one emotion creating a memory. This experience taught a lesson to all of the
emotions, proving their importance. The knowledge and insight caused by story
telling, is what makes up personal experiences and valuable lessons learned in life.
These moments are how we make up our values and perspectives.
Method
Narrative Criticism is the concept of storytelling that generates a connection
between the narrator and the audience. This method is significant because the story
shared creates meaning and understanding of our livelihood.

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“Narrative is also recognized as a rich ground from which to develop new insight
and new knowledge” (Chinn and Pellico, 2007). Walter R. Fisher has developed
Narrative Criticism, an old method dating back to Aristotle and Quintilian. Narrative
Criticism is the principle of relationships, the stories made from those interactions
makes up what we value and believe (Foss, 2009). The use of kernels motivates the
actions that are performed by characters. Kernel events are the major events that
take place, and the satellites are minor events that develop the story. If the satellite
is removed from the narrative, the message will remain the same. Flat and round
characters are also used to define Narrative Criticism. Flat characters are
predictable and remain the same without experiencing a change. Round characters
are the characters in a story that undergoes a change within his or her self.
In this paper I will discuss how Narrative Criticism is effective when coding for
different perspectives of a story.
Coding
Characters in a narrative have an impact on the entire story, down to the
meaning and connection with audience. Character roles are important whether the
character is round or flat. Round characters are characters in a narrative that
undergoes a change. Round characters are not just defined by the events occurred,
but the behavior that is caused by those events. Not every character in a story has to
be round, flat characters also have a huge importance in a tale. Flat characters are
characters whose behavior stays the same no matter the event encountered. Flat
character’s actions and state of mind remain predictable. Character development
and the story are linked together causing the audience to struggle when

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distinguishing the two. The story is driven by the character’s development and
actions; the character is not the story itself (Porter, Larson, Harthcock, and Nellis,
2002).
Kernel events, as mentioned early on, are major events in a narrative story
involving cause and effect. Occurrences in a story that will alter the story’s message
depending on the decision made at the occurrence, is considered a kernel event
(Porter, Larson, Harthcock, and Nellis, 2002).
Satellite events are minor events that have significance, but will not change
the story if removed. Round and flat characters will be coded by the kernel and
satellites events. The satellite events will be coded as how it foreshadows a kernel
event. Round and flat characters will be coded by the reaction of the character when
presented a kernel event. Inside Out being 94 minutes long, the units of coding will
be: the first 31 minutes in, the second 31 minutes, then the final 32 minutes.
Findings
Joy
In the first 31 minutes of the film, Joy, who is the leader and commander of
the headquarters in Riley’s mind, controls Riley’s happiness. She is presented as the
narrator of Inside Out because she plays the most important role in Riley’s life, her
happiness. The satellite displayed was Joy leading the other emotions, Fear, Disgust,
Anger and Sadness by assigning roles each day to guide Riley through life. This
satellite is minor, but it displays the leadership and order that Joy instills in the
other emotions.

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In the second 31 minutes of the film the kernel revealed was Joy and Sadness
being mistakenly booted from the headquarters in Riley’s mind and is forced to
work together to save Riley. This kernel is important, because it puts Joy and
Sadness in a position to take control and resolve the problem together. Joy so used
to being in control, was out of her comfort zone, and relied on Sadness to help direct
them back to the headquarters.
In the final 32 minutes, Joy, who gets separated from Sadness, is stuck in
Riley’s long-term memory (LTM). In the long-term memory, she is lost amongst the
other forgotten memories, and it is said to be impossible to escape from the LTM.
Joy reaches a low point and finally feels sad, which causes her to release emotions
that she has never felt. This kernel is important because Joy is faced with discomfort
for the first time. After she realized that other emotions are appropriate for certain
times in our life, she was determined to return back to the headquarters, with
Sadness, to save Riley. Joy, who was adamant about being happy, finally felt another
emotion and understood how to fix the problem.
The persuasion used for Joy’s character and role in the film shows that
emotions need to be expressed. Joy, who tried everything she could to prevent Riley
from feeling hurt and unhappiness ultimately, could not control how it would affect
Riley. Even though Joy faced a situation that she was uncomfortable in, she was able
to reevaluate the situation and understand from someone else’s perspective. This
technique helped her reach a revelation that she was not able to grasp herself.

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Sadness
In the first 31 minutes, Sadness, is introduced as one of the emotions in
Riley’s headquarters who focuses on the unhappy times in Riley’s life. Sadness has a
powerful effect on the other emotions, because her encounter with Riley’s core
memories can permanently change them. The kernel presented in the first 31
minutes, was Sadness touching one of Riley’s previously happy memories and
making it sad. Joy, being the controller of emotions, tries to keep Sadness away from
the core memories to prevent them from turning bad. Sadness, having such a
negative persona, shook up the chemistry in the headquarters. Sadness, felt as
though she did not have a place in the headquarters, nor was she treated that way.
In the second 31 minutes, Sadness and Joy were accidently booted out of the
headquarters forcing Sadness and Joy to work as a team. Joy was full of hope and
positivity, and Sadness felt the exact opposite. While Joy and Sadness worked to find
their way back to the headquarters, they ran across Riley’s imaginary friend, Bing
Bong. When Bing Bong expressed his feelings about not being in Riley’s life
anymore, Sadness was able to comfort and understand him by expressing sad
emotions. I coded this event as a satellite because Sadness was able to comfort Bing
Bong, by understanding his grief. Although neither Sadness nor Joy realized the
importance, it foreshadowed a kernel in Joy’s journey.
In the final 32 minutes, the satellite event was Anger creating the idea that
Riley should run away from home. Anger, Fear and Disgust were the only emotions
that could control Riley, and Anger could not help but create an angry thought. Riley,
being angry and unable to express her emotions, followed through on the idea. The

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kernel coded in the last 32 minutes was Sadness becoming a hero when she
recognized that embracing her sad emotions is what encouraged Riley to not leave
San Francisco. Although Sadness does not see herself as a major influence, her
actions changed the people around her.
The concept of persuasion that Sadness creates is everyone has a role or
purpose. Sadness did not believe in herself because she thought that she only caused
damage, but she became a very important emotion in Riley’s life. She even inspired
the contribution of combined emotions, so that all emotions can work together
versus individually. Riley became a more balanced person once the emotions
understood each other’s purpose.
Riley
In the first 31 minutes, Riley is introduced as the main character but
controlled by her five emotions. With Riley having to adapt to a new environment as
well as the pressure from her parents to stay happy, she is trapped in her own
emotions such as Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust and Anger. Riley’s personality is made
up of “core memories” that Joy gate keeps. The satellite that occurs in the beginning
of the film is Riley moving to San Francisco. It caused an unbalance that Riley has
not yet fully experienced. Riley’s parents were relieved when they saw how happy
Riley was after the move, but Riley only wanted to comfort her parents. A satellite
that was overlooked in the movie was the conversation between Riley and her
mother. Her mother explained how Riley’s father had experienced work issues and
is under a lot of stress. Riley, tucked into a sleeping bag, was told, “If we could keep

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smiling, it’ll be a big help”. This event is a satellite because it foreshadowed the
beginning of forced happiness
In the second 31 minutes, The kernel event of Joy and Sadness being out of
the headquarters, relied on Fear, Disgust, and Anger to take control. Unlike, Joy, the
other emotions struggled keeping Riley a balanced person. Riley’s lack of major
emotions caused her personality to drastically change. The satellite event that was
coded in the second 31 minutes was Riley’s constant damage to her personality. She
put many relationships at stake by only expressing the three emotions. Due to the
lack of expression, Riley became uncontrollable by Fear, Disgust, and Anger.
The biggest kernel took place in the final 32 minutes of the film. Riley was fed
up with her home life and decided to steal money from her mother’s purse so she
could run away. Pulling away from the bus station, Riley had an epiphany realizing
she was making a huge mistake. With the help of Sadness, Riley understood that she
was making a terrible decision, and once Sadness ended that bad idea, Riley
ultimately changed into a round character. The persuasion that the writers created
from Inside Out in Riley’s character was a unique perspective. Following the life of a
11-year-old girl facing average issues that many families have faced and convincing
her that her emotions are important. Whether they are happy, sad, angry, fearful or
disgusted, each and every emotion can affect how she views the world. Also the
importance of Riley’s personality traits being friendship, family, goofball and
honesty are substantial qualities growing up. Pixar presents Inside Out as an
example of the importance of displaying examples of ethical behavior to children;

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children who are taught moral values grow into empathetic adults who are
concerned about the feelings of others (Almerico, 2014).
Discussion
Inside Out, displayed many forms of persuasion. Each character had a
persuasive role that they played. Joy’s persuasion was to not overlook any emotions.
The persuasive method is creating a rhetorical situation that the audience can relate
to causing a sharable experience between the storyteller and the audience. The
persuasion from Sadness’ character was everyone has a purpose. Just because you
may not know your purpose, does not mean you are not important. Sadness did not
know her purpose in Riley’s life, but she became a key emotion that changed the
people around her. Riley’s character was huge for a Pixar film; the narrative of the
movie was based off of emotions from an 11-year-old girl. Riley went from
balancing five emotions to none as her personality diminished. In this movie, people,
especially children and parents were taught how important expressing emotions
are.
Although Inside Out was made for us to cheer on Joy as the Hero, Sadness was
surprisingly the antidote needed in Riley’s life. Joy is a great leader and encourager,
but when the kernel events were presented, Joy was not able to resolve the issue.
Joy, Fear, Anger, and Disgust remained flat characters as Sadness was transformed
into a round character as well as a hero. Sadness became the hero because she was
not defined by kernel events in the narrative. During the entire movie, Sadness
struggled to find her reasoning of being in the headquarters, and every time an

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opportunity presented itself she took it. From directing Joy through Riley’s mind, to
comforting Bing Bong, then being the only emotion to save Riley, Sadness was the
hero of inside out. Sadness being the hero is a perfect example of how life works.
With Sadness comes Joy.
The research question states: How can kernel events create heroes out of
characters? The answer that resulted from the coding is, Kernel events create
heroes. Kernels are the trials and tribulations that the characters face, and through
their actions and resolution it is determined. Although Joy was a major character
and had a lot of influence on the characters, she was not able to fully change within
herself enough to become neither a round character nor a hero. Heroes are
influenced when they are in the presence of others in order to fulfill their full
potential (Zimbardo, 2011). Sadness my not have the picture perfect personality,
but throughout the film she constantly made an impact for the people around her.
Sadness was not confident in her abilities, but there was no doubt in her actions. In
the final few scenes of the 32 minutes, Joy realized that she was not able to pull the
light bulb out of Riley’s thoughts. Forced happiness cannot solve an emotional issue;
which gave Sadness confirmation of her importance.

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