Guest Post by Debaparna Das, INFJ

Moana (2016)

Dominant Introverted Feeling (Fi): One of Moana’s strongest character traits is her compassion. It’s implied that that’s why the Ocean chose to trust her while she was still a small child. She is fiercely loving and protective of her parents, her pets (although they don’t always share her taste for adventure), and her tribe. She finds it impossible to disregard her own emotional needs merely to comply with communal conventions. As a result, she struggles because her desire clashes with her duties towards her parents and her island. She prefers to follow her own ideas and ethics, resenting being put down over patriarchal notions (see her reaction to Maui questioning her quest). Automatic empathy with others’ feelings isn’t her forte (again, see her reaction to Maui’s brooding). In the same vein, she doesn’t actively seek out anyone’s help in dealing with her issues. It’s up to her grandmother, Tala, to understand her condition and advise and comfort her. Although she loves the ocean dearly, she decides to sail away mainly in the hope of saving her tribe from a slow death due to environmental degradation and starvation.

Auxiliary Extroverted Sensing (Se): Moana likes roaming around her island and bonding with her tribe through shared activities, but dislikes the unchanging routine of village life. She has a low boredom threshold and yearns for travel, new experiences, and adventures. She remembers her childhood meeting with the Ocean only as a vague dream, unaware at first of how it fuels her wish to sail away on the ocean. She doesn’t understand her father’s fear of the ocean based on something that happened long ago, and why he can’t adapt to current circumstances readily. She can be physically aggressive and is a good fighter, capable of thinking on her feet and improvising solutions, distracting Tamatoa with bio-luminescent algae, and retrieving the heart of Te Fiti while beating back the Kakamora.

Tertiary Introverted Intuition (Ni): Moana dreams of sailing away, but initially hesitates to actively pursue her dream. (‘How Far I’ll Go’ is about her desire for the ocean, but it also suggests her underlying anxiety of not knowing where her adventures will lead her to.) She is fully focused on her task of restoring the heart of Te Fiti, and isn’t amused when Maui doesn’t take it seriously. She also learns over time not to react impulsively and to plan her moves (the second confrontation with Te Ka). She is good at recognising patterns, quickly putting clues together to realise who Te Ka really is. Once she returns to her island after completing her quest, she doesn’t simply go back to being its ruler. Instead, she teaches her tribe to sail and takes them with her in search of new islands on the ocean.

Inferior Extroverted Thinking (Te): Moana trains to be the future village chief, but she prefers to spend her time dancing on the seashore with Tala (aux-Se taking over). She struggles to feel fully confident in her ability to finish her task, but the Ocean and Tala help her come to terms with this. Tala motivates her to believe in herself (augmenting her dom-Fi), and the Ocean pushes her to apply her own judgment and act independently, without relying too heavily on others. She can be determined and forceful when required (coaxing a highly reluctant Maui to help her on her quest). When he abandons her after the first confrontation with Te Ka, although her confidence fails for a bit, she’s able to resume her quest on her own. By the end of the film, she’s grown more or less used to her position as emerging leader, as her father seems to have already handed over some of the decision-making capacity to her.