Moonlight

comment i wrote for my bodies of tragedy class: Moonlight makes us question how much control Chiron has over his life’s trajectory. One of my favorite sequences from the film is the beginning of the third and final chapter, Black. Chiron drives an old school Chevy Impala with a crown on the dashboard that looks exactly like Juan’s. Since we last saw him, Chiron has built himself to be a hyper-masculine version of himself. He’s really muscular and wears gold grills on his teeth. He has all the trappings of a drug dealer and we quickly learn that he is one. This may not have been where we hoped Chiron would end up, but how much choice did he have as a black man from Liberty City? There are no white characters in Moonlight, but their presence permeates the films’ locations nonetheless. The ironically named Liberty City was built and designed by white prospectors in Miami to keep black people as far away as possible from the more valuable land near the coast. It was a place built to trap black people in cycles of poverty. White people may not be present, but their negligence during the crack epidemic helped further trap black citizens. Like some of the other tragic characters we have seen, Chiron’s story was predetermined. He was more likely to go to jail than to graduate high school and after jail he had little choice but to start trapping. There is hope, however, as Chiron reconnects with Kevin. He revisits his sexuality which he has tried to hide under layers of hyper masculinity. The final image also gives us hope as we are reminded of Juan’s story and Chiron’s baptism in the ocean. Chiron has gone back to a place of birth and reclaims the place that white society has tried so hard to keep out of his people’s reach.