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Chiron's Identity In The Film 'Moonlight'

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The movie Moonlight is about a protagonist named Chiron, who struggles with his identity. The movie is structurally broken down into three stages of Chiron’s life, his childhood, adolescent, and adult life. Chiron is an African American male struggling with self-discovery and confusion regarding his masculinity and the world around him, which consist of drugs, poverty, bullying, and aspiring to uncover his true sexual identity. Chiron’s characterizations are timid, quiet, shy and vulnerable. He is extremely quiet and expresses much of his feelings through nonverbal communication. Actions such as Chiron’s vulnerable body language, and lack of communication were actions use to reveal his character. Other actions such as him attempting to stand strong during the …show more content…

He is continuously bullied by the young boys in his school and community, which is a personal antagonistic force. This antagonistic force continues for him through his adolescent years. One particular character name Terrell is a huge antagonist for Chiron. He continually calls Chiron disrespectful names such as faggot, and makes fun of everything about Chiron’s life. Chiron’s mother is also a personal antagonistic force in the movie. She utilizes illegal drug throughout Chiron’s childhood and adolescent life. She is not a support system for him as he grows up. She actually is an enormous antagonistic force. Chiron’s internal antagonistic force is his thoughts and feeling of confusion regarding his identity. His desire is to grab hold of who he is as an individual. He yearns to discover his place in the world. Many antagonistic forces led him through the three phases in his life that make him question who he is at each phase. The key of this piece is experiencing the life struggles of this African American male attempting to discover his identity with support from strangers, but none from his own internal or external

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Furthermore, he also explains that he, too, dealt with the “fugitive-slave laws, Dred Scott decision, indictment for treason, and long and dreary indictments.” By explaining that he understands the difficulties they faced, the audience knows that he understands their pain. His mentioning of their hardships allows him to declare that their “duty...is not to cavil over past grievances.” In other words, he wants his fellow African Americans to look past their difficulties and to fight with those who failed to even recognize them as citizens. By explaining that he empathizes with his audience,

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He explains that an African American man likes and does the same things as a white man, for instance when he says “Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love. I like to work, read, learn, and understand life” (l 21-22). Society doesn’t view the truth that African Americans are the same as everyone else. The speaker states “I guess being colored doesn’t make me not like the same things other folks like who are other races” (L 25-26). He explains how he feels about other races in society viewing him as being different just because he is African American (l 34-36).

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