Kiki’s delivery service

Kiki’s delivery service is an animated movie about a witch girl who turns thirteen and has to leave home in order to figure out her talent and mission in life. She flies to a new city in her broomstick and meets a pregnant woman named Osono. Osono is very kind towards Kiki when Kiki helps her and, therefore Osono offers Kiki a place to stay if she can continue helping her. In this new city Kiki meets a boy named Tombo who becomes interested in her because she is able to fly. Kiki decides to start a delivery service as she can make quick deliveries by flying. Her first delivery service goes bad but she ends up meeting a painter Ursula through it. One day Tombo invites Kiki to a party but Kiki is unable to make it because she is tired and becomes sick after a delivery run. Osono then makes Kiki make a delivery to Tombo where Kiki and Tombo get a chance to meet each other and Tombo shows her the flying bicycle machine that he is working on. They are able to bond with each other through this experience but Kiki becomes sad and leaves after Tombo’s friends come because she feels like she doesn’t belong. After this emotional experience Kiki realizes that she can no longer understand her cat Jiji and cannot fly either. This meant that she could no longer continue her delivery service and she is left with nothing to do. While she is sad about this she meets her friend Ursula again who helps Kiki realize that Kiki is just going through a phase and once she understands her purpose she would gain her abilities back. Kiki then gets her ability to fly again when she has to save Tombo who is about to fall off of the airship due to an accident. Her ability to fly again allows her to continue her delivery service and she is very happy at the end of the movie.

A question I have for the class is if you think Kiki is too young to go off on a journey alone to discover her talent and if so what does this say about society’s expectations from women?