Moonlight by Barry Jenkins: A Movie Analysis Essay

Introduction

This paper is an analysis of the movie Moonlight, written and directed by Barry Jenkins. The film captures the life of a young black boy named Chiron in the quest to realize himself in a community where drug abuse and poverty prevailed. The movie’s setting is in Miami during 1980, where homophobia, racial discrimination, drug abuse and other social crimes were a major menace in the USA. This paper attempts to relate the life of the main character in the film, Chiron, to the characteristics of human behavior. This paper is divided into sections to; highlight the stages of development of Chiron, theoretical perspectives in understanding behavioral development and the impact of the behavior on the main characters life, impact on the society, focusing on family as a unit of the society.

The behavior of Chiron portrayed from his teenage years into adulthood was influenced immensely by environmental factors, peers, lack of proper parenting, and bullying. The parental detachment from a missing father and an uncaring mother pushes the main character into often keeping to himself. Chiron is denied his identity from an early age and is left vulnerable. Chiron’s physical, mental, and emotional development takes a different course from his tender age, which was vital in the behaviour that he picks from his adolescence or teenage into adult life. The effects of poor parenting affect the sexuality of young Chiron.

Part 1 ‘Little’ Chiron (Chapter 4)

Chiron did not have a fatherly figure from the onset of his childhood. besides, his mother, Paula, who had conformed to the environment, focused on telling her son Chiron to be strong and tough, not keen on the positive development of her son. This relationship increases the gap between Chiron and Paula. Paula blames her son for being bullied, this increases his hate for her. The bullying and anti-social behaviour are evident in the main character’s early life, as he spent most of his time uncompleted buildings to avoid interaction. The main characters attitude and perception towards life takes a different path due to the events he goes through.

The main character meets Juan, whom he quickly gets attached to, and sees him as a father he never had. Juan, throughout the movie, assists him from his neglected childhood through his teenage years. Chiron faces bullying from Terrel, who plays a major role in ensuring the main character does not realize himself. Terrel criticized Chiron for his skin colour and termed him as an inferior type who could not achieve their destiny. Juan and his girlfriend play an important role in the movie’s early stages (early life of Chiron). An ironic scenario is portrayed where Paula, Chiron’s mother, snatches his son from Juan, a drug dealer, showing parental protection.

On the contrary, Juan offered shelter to Chiron when he was alone in an abandoned building. Their relationship had some symbolism, notably during their time at the swimming pool, when Juan is seen teaching the main character to swim against waves. This symbolized the preparation he was offering to help him overcome the challenges he was facing and focus on his destiny. His life is taking a bolder step, with belief and zeal passed by Juan. However, the end of the first part alters the attitude towards Juan when the main character asks Juan if Paula (Chiron’s mother) is struggling with drugs and if Juan is her supplier.

Part 2 ‘Chiron’

In this part of the film, Chiron’s main character enters his teenage years, where his sexuality majorly takes center stage. It is crystalizing that he is homosexual, and his nature is not welcomed by Terrel, among others, in school. Chiron faces physical torture and psychological torture. The events at the beach with Kevin symbolize his place in society, where his friend Kevin punches him to the ground, showing that society does not appreciate them. Kevin represented the part of the community that would surrender their relationship with people like Chiron for their safety. In this part, the bold nature of Chiron (impacted by Juan) is seen when a gang attacks him for not alluding to their activities of wrongdoings. He is seen as tough, not as his mother wanted, but to refuse to be swayed into wrong-doings by peers. Chiron still struggles with his identity as those he associated with him secluded themselves due to differences in interest and perception of life. After attacking his bully Terrel in retaliation, he is left questioning his place in society if he has to fight for it.

This part of the movie ends when Chiron grows bigger, preparing him for the film’s final act. Chiron also finds a glimpse of acceptance of his sexuality (gay), when in this chapter, he finds identity with gay people. Chiron experiences his first emotional expression of romance when he flirts convincingly with his friend Kevin at the beach while under the influence of marijuana. Even though he felt something for Chiron, Kevin was shy to show, with fear or intimidation, that the status came along with. The events of humiliations, bullying and intimidation in his early life do not make Chiron weak as perceived but a strong young man, as is notable in the final part of the movie. It ends in arrests of the main character, Chiron, and changing of residence to Atlanta.

Part 3 ‘Black’

The last episode of the movie (Black) brings out a matured Chiron; he has learnt to live with his sexual status and does not take intimidation for who he is, racially and sexually. The impact of his ‘father’ Juan crystalizes in the adult version of Chiron; he is bold, he has picked up the lifestyle of Juan; clothing, piercings and business. Chiron is now a drug dealer. Barry Jenkins described the last act as black since Chiron had then grown to a mature black man, who was subject to suspicion and association with any form of crime as it were at that time. Chiron is, however, bold in decision making, clear when he rejects alcohol from Kevin. Chiron felt taking alcohol was betraying his belief and fight for gay acceptance and appreciation in society. Chiron’s stay away from Miami unveiled another version of him. He was built (masculine), had grilled teeth, and his physique cleared any doubt about being gay. Chiron makes sole decisions as he spent the better part of his life alone; he may not be lured into other activities that his conscience considered ordeal. He reunites with Kevin in a rather cold fashion as the movie ends.

Behaviorism

The behavioral learning theory, commonly known as behaviorism, states that behavior is learned from observation of the environment around humans. JB Watson came up with the theory based on Ivan Pablo’s theory of classical conditioning; Behaviorism has been accepted and developed further by other scholars. In this movie, the behavior of characters and the society at large were influenced and acquired in the society (Hutchison, 2021). For instance, Chiron’s mother is involved in smoking and substance abuse since that is the culture of living poverty and racial segregation. On the other hand, Chiron does not conform to the behavior of his mom or most teenagers in the neighborhood, supporting that behavior is not inherited but observed from a surrounding where the behavior exists. Besides, Chiron takes the lifestyle of Juan, of putting on clothes similar to Juan’s, which would then portray him as ‘feared’ just like Juan. This made him bold like his ‘father’ Juan.

Humanistic Theory

Another perspective displayed in the movie is the humanistic theory model of acquiring behavior. This approach suggests that every human being understands the universe, its environment, and all phenomena involved. Developed by three theorists Maslow, Carl, and Frankl, they suggested that human behaviour depends on the human nature of human beings. Juan exhibits humanistic behaviour in the movie when he helps neglect and rejects Chiron to shelter and parental love. On the contrary, Juan also sells drugs to Chiron’s mother, struggling with addiction and substance abuse. Similarly, Chiron exhibits bold steps by choosing a contrary lifestyle compared to teenagers his age.

Socio-Cultural Perspective

Lastly, the socio-cultural perspective of behavior development suggests that personality and culture are interdependent. Further mentioning that behavior may be determined by the interactions and social categorizations like gender, religion, race etc. (Hutchison, 2021). Chiron returns from Atlanta with a different outlook, a different way of dressing and argument. His beliefs about homosexuality are bolder and do not go against them, evident when Kevin offers him alcohol which he boldly rejects.

Conclusion

The impact of the challenging life that young Chiron goes through from childhood into maturity identifies him as a bold personality. The pain of rejection, assault and loneliness helps him find his true self at the movie’s end. When he was accepted by gay people, where he found acceptance, he felt that was his sexuality and moved on to show for it. Chiron found love in Juan, who he saw as a father he never heard. The spiritual and emotional connection they created gave the main character a belief in parental love and care, and acceptance. The formed values of the personality of Chiron are manifested already in the second part, when the main character does not surrender the police who attacked him and independently solves the problem with Terell.

The setting of the movie is the projects of Miami, where poverty and drug abuse raged. Single parenting impacted children’s psychological development, as in the case of Chiron, who lacked the presence of a father and felt no love in the hands of his mother, who was into drug and substance use. The setting was ‘ruled’ by norms that would result in stagnant progress and rigid cultural development evident when Chiron’s mother pushes him to buy the idea of ‘street toughness’ to see him against bullying and other children abuse activities. Class issues are compounded by issues of gender and sexual orientation, which have long dictated the needs of the heroes, prioritizing feelings of appreciation, apology, and love. Racial discrimination, coupled with class problems, lead to severe conflicts that form individuals who are difficult to trust and open up even to once close people.

The Family unit in the movie has been satirized with ironic events exhibited in the initial scenes of the movie. Paula, Chiron’s mother, blames his son for being bullied instead of taking the primary role of protecting her son against the effects of the vice. On the contrary, Juan, a drug dealer painted as a bad figure, takes up the burden of fatherhood on young Chiron and finds shelter and food for him. The impact of Juan on the life of Chiron remains evident even at the end of the movie. Paula is quick to pull her son away from a drug dealer, but not from the hands of bullies. Juan and his girlfriend treat young children with love despite their social reputation of drug dealing. Behavior development begins from those closest to the young ones as they grow into adults; thus, parenting plays a major role in behavioral development and mentoring.

The accumulated resentment does not pass the test of time: as a result, family affection still leads to mutual forgiveness of Chiron and the mother. Kevin, who has become close to the protagonist, although he regrets life, is still happy to be a father. The lack of upbringing of his father left a characteristic imprint on Chiron that he was looking for him in Juan and Kevin. Not finding comfort from his mother until he became an adult, Chiron would eventually be able to open up and trust only the one in whom he saw his father. Chiron himself is hardly ready to take on such a role, therefore, even in adulthood, he seeks this support, hiding his feelings behind a thick shell of negative life experience of drug trafficking, prison and a difficult fate.

Reference

Hutchison, E. D. (2021). Dimensions of Human Behavior. Sage.