The greatest stories are built on solid themes. Learning to identify the themes of books and movies can teach writers to create truly compelling stories.

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Identity is the central theme of Moana, woven through its main storyline and most of the side plots. At one time or another, most of the major characters have to answer the question ‘Who am I?’, largely in contrast to what society expects or has imposed on them, or what negative emotions such as fear have built in them. This is presented as a constant battle throughout the movie, providing the foundation on which the story is built, driving the plot forward, and providing the resolution to the conflict.

Moana, the titular character and a female in her late teens is being raised to be the next chief of Motunui, her small island village. Thus, the laws of the village are ingrained in her right from childhood, along with an obligation to solve the needs of her people to the best of her ability. However, this also includes a law that forbids any of the villages from sailing beyond the coral reef that surrounds their island, a law that Moana finds very hard to adhere to, having been born with an innate love for the sea. This makes her feel very different from the other villagers who see no need to leave the island and makes her question her true identity, although growing up, she learns to hide this part of herself to avoid the disapproval of her father, the current Chief.

Only one person seems to understand Moana. This is Gramma Tala, her paternal grandmother who, unfortunately, is considered the ‘village crazy lady’ for her tendency to do things and tell tales that others consider weird, superstitious, and scary. Even Moana is wary, but Gramma also loves the sea, dancing in it on her lonesome along with stingrays who gravitate to her. She even declares that she will be a Stingray in her next life, giving the impression that she, out of all the characters, has her identity fully figured out. She knows who she is.

Moana, determined to do what’s right for the village, successfully hides her impulse to go into the sea. This determination is crushed when the village plants and sources of food begin to experience a strange phenomenon that turns them rotten before harvest and Gramma reveals a truth about the identity of the villagers of Motunui to her: their ancestors were once voyagers. Here, Gramma furnishes her with a relic, the Heart of Te Fiti, which had been brought to Moana by the ocean when she was still a toddler. She charges her with the quest to voyage into the wide ocean, find the demigod Maui, and return the Heart to Te Fiti in order to save their village. Gramma, in doing so, reaffirms her granddaughter’s identity as a lover of the ocean.

Moana, ever ready to do anything to meet the needs of her village, accepts the quest despite her father’s flat refusal. However, she still struggles to accept her identity, especially when it becomes clear to her that she knows absolutely nothing about voyaging or navigating the ocean. The Ocean itself manifests its consciousness to her, helping her out at times, but directly communicating only once, when it crashes Moana’s boat on the island on which Maui has been marooned for thousands of years.

Maui is first presented as an over-confident, arrogant being. However, it soon becomes clear that he too battles with questions of uncertainty about who he is. He ties his identity to his godlike powers, which in turn are tied to his magical fishhook, gifted to him by the gods. But it soon comes to light that Maui himself is not a god and was not born as one, being abandoned by his human parents as a malformed baby. This duality of his results in an identity crisis which he put off for millennia by doing things for man with the powers bestowed upon him by the Gods who saved him. When he attempts to steal Te Fiti’s heart but fails and loses his hook, he is besieged by a fear that brings back all his doubts about himself. In fact, even when he recovers his hook, he is unable to use it properly due to the deep-seated uncertainty about himself. Moana helps him through this, and in turn, he teaches her to voyage, helping her understand a core part of her identity.

However, they both have to prove the strengths of their newfound convictions in their identities when they face Te Kā, a fire-breathing demon of lava, long believed to also be after the Heart of Te Fiti, who emerged and defeated Maui when he took it from Te Fiti and attempted to steal it all those years ago. At first, their conviction fails. Moana’s boat capsizes and Maui’s fishhook is damaged, on the verge of falling apart completely. They separate, but then recall the lessons learnt on their journey about their true identities and regain themselves individually, reuniting to fight Taofeek and and restore the heart.

This climactic fight leads them to a startling discovery. Te Kā, long believed to be an evil demon, was only the manifestation of a crisis of identity himself. In reality, he is Te Fiti, the benevolent island goddess of nature who lost her sweetness and forgot who she was after her heart was stolen. Moana, realising the true identity of their adversary, restores the heart and eliminates the evil from the land, revealing Te Fiti’s true sweet and loving nature.

In the end, the villagers of Motunui accept their identity as voyagers and discoverers and recommence their quest of colonising islands, with Moana teaching them how to voyage once again. Maui receives a new magical fishhook from Te Fiti, but he no longer needs it to define who he is. And finally, the identity of the Ocean itself is also revealed — A mystical entity which revelled in the humans’ acts of colonisation. An act which consummates its own process of birthing new life.