The central ethical theme in Moonlight resonates around self-awareness and self-love. The central theme is expressed in understanding oneself and choosing who to become. This is seen in the story of the main character Chiron who finds himself all alone as he is bullied in school and even gets a beating from his closest friend due to his personality. Furthermore, the atrocities of the main character are extended through his addicted mother, who sells their household items like the TV to fuel her lifestyle. In the whole plot, Juan is the only one who cares to encourage Chiron by telling him he is the only decider of who he can be.
If I were the main character, I would have followed my conscience and embraced my personality since one is deemed the master of their own will, and we are all versed with free will to become.
There are five hypotheses that John Chaffe explains in his book The Philosopher’s Way, which he refers to as the “Five Theories of Human Behavior.” Compatibilism is “The notion that all occurrences, including human activities, are caused,” according to Chaffee. If human behaviors are driven only by internal desires and not by external influences or limitations, we may say they are free. My moral compass is based on libertarianism and utilitarian principles of free- will that one “becometh whom he ought.” This is because we are the masters of our destinies and the determinants of our personalities; therefore, allowing external forces to constrain our true selves or bounding our personalities to what others perceive us to be can only be taken as a drawback towards freedom and free will itself.
One thought on “Kumiko Arikawa DB 8 “Moonlight””
Hi Kumiko;
I did not watch the movie but my understanding based on your summary is that the Character Chiron, was having some kind of a challenge in identifying with his true identity, and sadly he had to endure some unfortunate events along his journey dealing with his mother’s unhealthy habits, and not even his best friend couldn’t give him the support which he needed. of course that was enough to put him in a lonely place, thankfully Juan finally came to his rescue to give him some encouragement. While it is true that everyone has free will and is responsible for their own becoming, if a young person is being bullied, and feels like he has no one he can turn to, he may not be strong enough to propel his-self forward then it becomes easy for him to give up on self principles.