Throughout the movie, Moonlight, the protagonist in this move, Chiron struggles with the social construct that is sexuality. In this movie, we get to see Chiron’s trials with his mother and her battle with drug usage and the effect it leaves on the young boy, who feels incredibly vulnerable and alone. He faces bullying at school for his sexuality, leading to physical abuse, which later leads to his retaliation, getting him expelled from school. A moral or ethical dilemma I witnessed in this movie is to either suppress your sexuality for your security and to fit into the societal norms around you in order to protect your reputation, or embrace your authentic sexuality at the cost of your safety, rejection and judgment from everyone around you. If Chiron were to follow his conscience, I would not be too sure of the outcome he would face due to the society he lived in and the alarming levels of homophobia. While he was a child, Chiron asked Juan “how would he know”, meaning that he was unsure. As for the end of the movie, if he followed his conscience I believe he would be at peace with his decision. The second moral position, “I don’t know what I would do”, seems to fit into Chiron’s character throughout the movie because he never seemed confident enough within himself to follow his heart and was constantly confused. “I would do whatever would improve my own situation” seems to also explain Chiron very well, being that this basically means he would hide his sexuality in order to draw attention away from how different he was from everyone around him. “I would do what god or the scriptures say is right”, would mean that Chiron would be religiously practicing and likely would not follow his desires and authenticity in order to follow his religious teachings. We did not see much of this throughout the movie. If Chirone were to do whatever made him happy, he would follow his sexuality from the start but this would mean rejection from his peers, compromising that same happiness. “I would follow the advice of an authority figure”, earlier in the movie when Chiron asked Juan about his own sexuality, Juan told him there was nothing wrong with him and reassured him. If Chiron were to listen to this advice, he would be more true to himself and maybe more content within his decisions. “I would do what’s best for everyone”, to me means that Chiron would be true to his sexuality and honest with Kevin. If it were up to me, I honestly would not know 100% what to do. I feel as if I would be able to relate to Chiron immensely, being that his safety was on the line as he was younger. For my moral compass I believe that everyone should be true to themselves unless it would put themselves at danger, for example if you live in a hateful environment. But even then, I would also be true to myself depending on what the issue at hand is.
