For Black History Month, I chose to watch the film Moonlight.\u00a0 Moonlight is a coming-of-age movie about a gay African American male named Chiron.\u00a0 The movie follows Chiron\u2019s journey from childhood to adulthood, and highlights his struggles with family, friendships, and coming to terms with his sexuality.\u00a0 Moonlight is significant to our understanding of African American History because it highlights the themes of survival and self-fulfilling prophecies through Chiron\u2019s childhood, teenage years, and adulthood.<\/p>\n
The first part of the movie focuses on Chiron as a boy, who is referred to as Little because of his small size and quiet demeanor.\u00a0 He was born to a single mom who suffered from a crack addiction.\u00a0 Because of this, he sought comfort and guidance from Juan, the neighborhood drug dealer.\u00a0 Though Juan may not be one\u2019s typical father figure, he was all Little had, as his mother grew more neglectful and concerned with her drugs than her child.\u00a0 Little\u2019s connection with Juan is an example of community, which has been a theme throughout African American history.\u00a0 For example, on plantations, slaves were creating their own culture and communities taking care of one another.\u00a0 It was not uncommon for a slave to show up on a plantation without any family, so new ones would be taken under the wing of a slave who\u2019d been there already.\u00a0 A significant scene during Little\u2019s childhood is when he\u2019s learning to swim with Juan.\u00a0 This was symbolic because it showed how Little literally had to learn to sink or swim, which mirrored what he figuratively needed to learn as well.\u00a0 A quote that stuck with me during this scene was Juan saying, \u201cAt some point, you got to decide for yourself who you\u2019re going to be.\u201d\u00a0 This leaves the viewer wondering if Little will let his upbringing define where he goes in the future or not.<\/p>\n
The second part of the movie follows Chiron as a teenager.\u00a0 A significant scene in Chiron\u2019s teenage years is when he is on the beach with his best friend Kevin.\u00a0 He has his first sexual encounter with a male.\u00a0 It is a positive and accepting moment for him, as he is constantly trying to navigate where he fits in as a gay African American.\u00a0 This serenity is short-lived for the viewer, as Chiron encounters even more difficulties as a teenager. \u00a0It seems he\u2019s even more outcasted, partially because his father figure is gone, and he has lost his sense of community.\u00a0 On top of that, his mother\u2019s drug addiction has escalated, and eventually even Kevin betrays him in a fleeting moment.\u00a0 At school, a peer named Terrel manipulates Kevin into punching Chiron.\u00a0 Chiron feels betrayed and alone once again.\u00a0 The next day he retaliates against Terrel, which causes Chiron to get arrested and sent to jail in Atlanta, the place that shapes and changes him as a young adult.<\/p>\n
The third stage of the movie focuses on Chiron\u2019s young adulthood, and now his nickname is Black, something that Kevin had always called him.\u00a0 In jail, Black learned to survive by becoming a drug dealer.\u00a0 It\u2019s here that viewers see Black starting to take on an alpha-male role, perhaps becoming a character typical of an African American male in a low-income community.\u00a0 Black has suddenly become a mirror image of Juan, with the same style and means of survival.\u00a0 Masculinity plays a huge part of Black\u2019s identity, as he is now physically unrecognizable.\u00a0 Black\u2019s need to adapt and survive in jail ties into African American history of slaves needing to take completely change their lifestyles in order to survive.\u00a0 For example, in West Africa, people were living free lives, some even in high-ranking tribes, but once captured, they needed to become someone new; someone with no rights, opinions, or freedom.\u00a0 They were dehumanized.\u00a0 Toward the end of the movie, Black reunites with Kevin, the last scene shows Kevin and Black embracing each other in bed.\u00a0 It finally feels like Chiron is on the path to self-acceptance.<\/p>\n
All in all, Moonlight was a powerful film that embraced the themes of identity and survival.\u00a0 As we\u2019re learning in class, your background (in this case being African American) really impacts the shaping of who you become.\u00a0 Slaves struggled with identity and coming to terms with who they were and who they wanted to be, just as Chiron constantly struggled with this throughout the film.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For Black History Month, I chose to watch the film Moonlight.\u00a0 Moonlight is a coming-of-age movie about a gay African American male named Chiron.\u00a0 The movie follows Chiron\u2019s journey from childhood to adulthood, and highlights his struggles with family, friendships, Continue reading