As the world of cinema continues to grow and be more inclusive, movies can truly reach people of various backgrounds. Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight (2016) tells a coming of age story where a black boy comes face to face with his sexuality while dealing with an unstable home/school life in Miami. The movie is sectioned off into three chapters, each at various points in the main character Chiron’s life. The chapters are titled: “Little”, “Chiron'', and “Black''. With that being said, these segmented chapters present the audience with a clear vision of how Chiron develops as a person while being influenced by the world around him. Chapters “Little” and “Chiron'' show the challenges Chiron faces as he grows up and tries to self-actualize, while the adult version of Chiron is presented in the third chapter, “Black” and is shown as a direct result of the choices and events that take place in the previous chapters. The audience ultimately comes to see that he is not living to his fullest potential and is still scarred by what occurs in chapters “Little” and “Chiron.”
In the first chapter, Chiron/Little (played by Alex R. Hibbert) is immediately shown as a very timid, scrawny boy getting bullied. Little ultimately finds refuge in an abandoned apartment complex and is approached by the local drug dealer, Juan (played by Mahershala Ali). Juan greets Little in a friendly, yet cautious manner, asking the boy if he has eaten anything, showing genuine care for him. Because of this kind gesture that little isn’t used to, he is very guarded and hesitates to speak. At a first viewing of the film, the audience can assume that Little is being closed off because Juan is a stranger, but after a second viewing viewers can definitely come to the idea that Little genuinely doesn’t feel comfortable talking to people because of how he has been treated at school and at home. His quietness gets to the point where Little doesn’t tell Juan where his home is until the next day and ultimately stays the night at Juan’s place with him and his girlfriend, Teresa (played by Janelle Monáe). When conversing with the couple at dinner, Little finally reveals that he lives with his mother, but becomes silent when asked about his father. It paints a clear picture that Little lacks a father figure in his life and seems standoffish toward his mother, Paula, (played by Naomie Harris). This can be seen when Little returns home with Juan, and Little’s mother shows great worry but is extremely rude toward Juan. It’s as if she knows him which the audience later finds out they do know each other.
These first few interactions between Little and his mother allow the audience to get a clear picture that Little is very reserved because of the lack of encouragement and support in his life. The audience can see Paula tries to be motherly to Little through interactions, like trying to cuddle with him or restricting his time with the tv when he misbehaves. However, she heavily struggles with drug addiction which makes her behavior toward Little become unpredictable and toxic. This often leads Little to wander away from home a lot to meet with Juan and Teresa. Her situation is clearly a double edged sword for Paula because Juan is giving her the drugs that are preventing her from being a mother Little needs, and in the process he is being the father-figure/parent Little needs. This is why she is very much against Little spending time with Juan and Teresa because they are a found family to him, giving him the stability and the parenting she can’t. Despite how young he is, Little is aware of this dynamic, yet still chooses to be around Juan because he genuinely cares for and sees the good in Little.
Juan and Teresa nurture and accept him for who he is, even telling him that if he were to be gay that it’s okay, upon him asking what “faggot” means and if he is one. It contrasts what Little’s friend Kevin (played by Jaden Piner) tells him while they play ball with other boys. Kevin tells Little he needs to show the other boys he isn’t “soft” so they won't mess with him, which is ultimately hiding who he is to the world in order to survive. Fortunately for Little, he has a moment with Juan at the beach that makes him reconsider his friend’s advice. Juan teaches him how to swim and float on his back as he reveals to Little that, “at some point, you gotta decide for yourself who you're going to be - can't let nobody make that decision for you.” He’s teaching the boy how to survive in the world like a father teaches the basics to his son. Juan continues to encourage Little to be who he believes he is and to feel in control over how he lives his life.
This locus of control ultimately doesn’t carry onto Chiron’s (played by Ashton Sanders) teen years. As he grows older, he feels very much out of control, responding to the world around him and to whatever situation life gives him. Juan has passed away due to unrevealed circumstances in the film and his mother’s addiction has worsened greatly. Chiron still has Teresa to talk to, but he doesn’t confide in her, most likely because he doesn’t want to burden her with his problems. She instead provides money as a means of support for him. Unfortunately, his mother knows this and, in one instance, she forces him to give it to her so she can feed her drug addiction by saying, “your play-play momma ain’t put something in your hand? Give me that damn money Chiron!” She then proceeds to attack him and search his pockets and backpack for money. It’s clear that Chiron’s fear for his mother has increased because he now gives in to her demands. She uses him to get into the house when she locks herself out and often kicks him out when she has people over. His home isn’t really a home for him and when he stays at Teresa’s he is most likely reminded of Juan and how much he misses him.
To make matters worse for Chiron, he doesn’t have a safe place to learn and grow at school. The bullying he faces at school hasn’t improved at all and it seems even worse because the little kids playing ball are now teenagers with vendettas against the kids like Chiron that seem different. Upon going to the beach one night to be by himself, he runs into Kevin (played by Jharrel Jerome) who is smoking. The two lightly converse and Kevin makes Chiron feel accepted for his sexuality with the both of them sharing an intimate, yet sweet moment together. Chrion’s trust in Kevin does not last long, as later on in the film Kevin betrays Chiron because a boy named Terrel (played by Patrick Decile) uses peer pressure to make Kevin prove himself by beating Chiron up. It's unclear whether Terrel knew that Kevin had feelings for Chiron and was possibly jealous or if he was just homophobic. Either way, the scene is very heartbreaking for both of the boys because Kevin goes against who he is as a person due to the world around him wanting him to change and Chiron feels betrayed by the person he loves. Chiron refuses to change and let the blows affect him, so he continues to get up even though it means Kevin will punch him back down again. This scene is one of the major moments that leads to Chiron having an emotional breakdown, as Kevin was one of the last few people Chiron had in his life that loved him.
Chiron feels alone in the world, he feels like he has no one to turn to. When he is with his school’s principal after getting beaten up, she pushes his last button by telling him he isn’t a man and ultimately disprects his struggle. His sense of self, which was already low, has dropped even lower. Thus, Chiron ultimately snaps and the next day he walks into school with a different perspective. He realizes he has nothing left to lose because he lacks a sense of belonging, a sense of love, a sense of safety, therefore he doesn’t care about the harsh consequences he will end up facing. Chiron decides to not be the victim anymore and, unfortunately, he uses violence as his answer because he feels it’s the only way. He attacks Terrel with a chair during class and gets taken away by police, locking eyes with Kevin one last time. This incident led him to go to Juvie and move away with his mother.
In the last chapter “Black”, we see Chiron (played by Trevante Rhodes) as a full adult living a life similar to Juan’s, as a drug dealer. He is no longer the scrawny timid kid and, like Juan, he is a mentor for a kid that most likely reminds him of himself. Yet, despite him looking hard on the exterior, the chapter opens with him having a nightmare of his mother yelling at him, showing the audience that he is still plagued by his past and the trauma his mother put him through. Chiron still feels like he has no control over the world around him like when he was a teen. While he has economic safety and safety by being physically strong, it is revealed later on in the chapter how he lacks respect for himself. When he reconnects with Kevin (played by André Holland) he reveals that the life he has dealing drugs is all he believes he deserves. His condition of worth leads to him not feeling good enough to lead a good criminal free life. He also reveals to Kevin that he hasn’t been with anyone since Kevin and this leads to him not feeling comfortable with his own sexuality, most likely because of how he got bullied and beaten up by the one person he loved.
Overall, the good hearted Chiron could be classified as not reaching self-actualization when comparing his character arc to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Self-Actualization. The Hierarchy has 5 tiers: self actualization, esteem, relationships, safety, and the basics of life. By the end of the third chapter Chiron can be seen as only having the basics to live and safety. His relationship with his mother is still complicated, even though she is recovering from being a drug addict. He also hasn’t had any romantic relationships since Kevin because his esteem was psychology ruined, and he feels that he is unworthy of a criminal free life. With Kevin now in his life, and most likely there to stay, it provides Chiron with the possibility of having the relationships tier. While most view the ending of this film as devastating, it can actually be viewed positively. By confiding in Kevin, Chiron is taking a step forward to reaching other tiers and reaching self actualization. Chiron’s journey has definitely been a hard one for him, but it’s definitely far from being over.
Works Cited
Moonlight. Directed by Barry Jenkins, performances by Ashton Sanders and Trevante Rhodes, A24, Plan B Entertainment, 2016. 20, May 2021, https://www.netflix.com.
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