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The Film Moonlight Film Analysis

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The film Moonlight was released October 21, 2016. Moonlight is all African American cast, and was awarded over 25 awards including the Academy Award for best picture. This film is a coming of age story that follows the dramatic ups and downs of the life of Chiron, a young Africa American man growing up in Miami. The plot begins from the time he is in elementary school to the time he reaches adulthood. The plot is structured in three stages of the life of Chiron and touches on the topics of the struggle of dysfunctional households via socialization, sexuality and sexual identity, physical and emotion abuse, and the process of accepting ones self. The first stage of the film showcases the early stages of development through higher …show more content…

Even though Juan tries to help Chiron by teaching him how to swim and stand up for himself, he is ultimately contributing to the dysfunction in Chiron’s life. The second theoretical perspective present in Moonlight is the developmental theory. The developmental theory examines the changes that families experience over their lifespans. (Benokraitis, 36). The framework of the film fits perfectly with this perspective, as the film is split into 3 parts, representing 3 stages of Chiron’s life. Each part is signified by the name Chiron goes by at that point in life. Stage one he is called Little, stage two he goes by Chiron, and stage three he is known as Black. We watch as Chiron grows and over this time period learns how to handle different situations. One of the most prevailing developments throughout the film is how Chiron deals with his mother’s addiction. As a child, there isn’t much anything he can do. But as a teenager, he first reacts with compliance, which later develops into anger and unwillingness to even address the situation. His peers tease him about his mother’s addiction, but Chiron will not do anything about it. In the third stage of live we learn that Chiron, now going by the name Black, is a drug dealer himself. One could argue this is due to the socialization he had to drugs throughout his life. Socialization is the process of acquiring

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