The story of Jesus in the Bible is divided into three definite parts: his birth, his adolescence, and his ministry. This saga of life frames Jesus as an epic figure, the son of God, the divine come to Earth as to truly understand human pain and suffering; dying on the cross as a martyr for all of humanity’s sins, later resurrecting to prove the power of God’s miracles. At first glance, Barry Jenkins’ stunning film, Moonlight, may not seem to be connected to this epic narrative, but upon closer inspiration the protagonist, Chiron, is more connected to Christ than surface level would tell. Furthermore, in Christianity God is divided into three parts of one whole: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Not only is Moonlight divided into three definite parts of Chiron’s life, it also describes those three parts as one whole identity: Little, Chiron, and Black. Little is the Son, as he is starting to learn about all the ailment and goodness humanity has to offer, he is learning the foundations which will outline the rest of his life. Chiron, or his teenage-self, is the father, because his experiences and actions beget the hardness which defines Black. Finally, Black is the Holy Spirit, as he emulates Juan, the man serves as a surrogate father to him when he was a child. To connect Chiron’s story with that of Jesus, how the two are similar needs to be explained, as well as how Juan represent a particular figure in the Bible, and the ways in which a key symbol of Christianity can be related to the American experience, moreover, how these three elements all fit together to explain how Chiron finally accepts his identity.
When the viewer is first introduced to Chiron, he is wearing white, a traditional Christian symbol of purity, the color of lambs. Jesus was referred to as the lamb of God by John the Baptist. In the Bible, Jesus was sent to Earth to absolve humanity of its sin and so he was born perfect and pristine, the pure white lamb, innocent from the world’s sin. In this way, Chiron would also be Earth’s lamb, an innocent child who is fresh and new in the world, first learning about sin. Except Chiron isn’t free of sin, at least not in the eyes of the world. Instead, he is born the very symbolism of what the world hates. Chiron was born black in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the United States to a single, crack-addicted mother, he is small and sensitive and is beaten by his peers for it. If Jesus were born in Liberty City, Miami, no king would have to send his wise men to check up on the babe, because those in power would assure that he would not be given the tools to rise higher than the class he was born into. Furthermore, it is important to point out the name “Chiron” connects to the centaur in Greek mythology who is known as “the wounded healer”. This term describes both Jesus and Moonlight’s Chiron. For the portion of his life represented in this film, Chiron is constantly getting hurt because of his identity, but it is a hurt which is consistently scabbing over, becoming calloused and rough.
If Chiron were Jesus, then Juan would be John the Baptist. The strongest evidence for this proposal is when Juan teaches Chiron how to swim in the Atlantic Ocean. In this scene, the camera stays at water-level as it follows Chiron into the ocean, almost bobbing up and down with the waves as Juan lays him out in the water and supports his head with his hand. The viewer watches Juan keep Chiron afloat, holding onto the small boy’s body and giving him words of encouragement. This scene deliberately resembles a baptism, a forgiveness and rebirth from sin. Similarly, John baptizes Jesus in the River Jordan. John is the predecessor and mentor of Jesus, just as Juan is to Chiron. Jesus doesn’t have sin to be washed away, nut John baptizes him anyway. Similarly, Chiron’s only sins are being young, black, and sensitive; Juan isn’t washing away his “sins”, rather he is accepting and validating them. Furthermore, John spends his time in the Bible spreading the word of God and gathers a huge following over time. Juan sells crack cocaine, in this vein of thought, crack would be analogous with the word of God. The way people will sometimes rely and find comfort in crack cocaine is similar to how there is comfort found in the God’s word. John was a mentor for Jesus, guiding him to tell the word of the lord. In this same way, Juan is Chiron’s mentor, as is evidenced by Chiron selling drugs when he has grown up. This mentor-mentee relationship displays how cycles of dysfunctional can persist over time. It is said that Jesus’ and John’s mothers were “kinswomen”, which connects Jesus and John deeply through family. Chiron comes to Juan after his mother verbally abuses him while in the midst of a drug trip and says, “I hate her”. Looking down, Juan replies, “Yeah, I bet you do”, and then looking up and above Chiron’s head he continues, “I hated my mom, too”. These lines are pivotal as they provide a window into Juan’s life and his connection with Chiron, why he must feel so responsible for the young boy. The viewer also understands Juan’s mother must have also been an addict like Chiron’s, so in a way their mother’s are “kinswoman”. The final supporting evidence is Juan’s premature death while Chiron was young. John the Baptist died before he could teach Jesus everything he might’ve found useful, leaving behind untaught knowledge.
As stated above, Juan baptizes Chiron in the Atlantic Ocean and throughout the movie Chiron is seen to have a certain pulling towards the ocean. Besides swimming lessons, the ocean holds importance as it is where he first explores his sexuality with Kevin, his childhood friend. After Chiron travels back to Miami to reconnect with Kevin, the two men head to his apartment. Upon getting out of the car, Chiron takes a long look towards the ocean, which is framed by palm trees and a bridge. He could be remembering how he was once buoyed by the waves with Juan holding on to him, telling him “I got you, I promise. I’m not gon’ let you go”, the first reassurance and acceptance of self. Or perhaps he’s remembering the night Kevin had come to him with a blunt, the two smoking together and then sharing his first intimate moment. On the day Juan taught Chiron to swim he tells him, “you’re in the middle of the world, man” and then “there are black people everywhere”. The Atlantic Ocean is a paradox for the same black people it connects together. On one hand, it is freedom and connection, and on the other it is a symbol of oppression as it is a part of the larger vehicle which brought slaves to North America. Chiron is learning the first knowledge of being connected to the rest of the world, to a world full of people who look like him but will later learn the secondary knowledge that the reason there is a world of people who look like him has been born from the pain and sorrow of displacement. The River Jordan also holds a paradoxical nature in relation to the Israelites who had to find a way to cross the river to escape slavery in Egypt. In one sense, the river was an obstacle because no one could cross it without dying, but in another, it was made into a pathway by Moses, which saved the Israelites from their pursues. Both bodies of water have loaded meanings, which connect deeply to the ideas of freedom, restriction, and identity. It is the place which allows Chiron to test and explore his identity but is restrictive because of the danger that comes with exploring an identity which society consistently attacks.
An undeniable theme of this movie is identity and what it means to reinvent oneself in order to survive in an environment that threatens one’s livelihood. Chiron does not simply undergo a reinvention of self, rather he has many cycles of deaths and resurrections which result in an alerted personality which works to better fit the circumstances he finds himself in. The first death and resurrection happen when Chiron was Little. Juan had followed Chiron to a crack house, which he had fled to escape bullies. To get into the crack house, Juan takes off the board covering a busted-out window, the camera is positioned behind Chiron and peers out into the day and Juan, the walls are dark and the window pours in light. This imagery ties into that famous story of Jesus disappearing from his tomb after his crucifixion, but from Jesus’s perspective: darkness all around but a sudden brightness of light flooding in to free him. As Chiron greets his mother, Paula, the next morning she says, “Why didn’t you come home like you supposed to”. This line clues the viewer into Chiron’s home life, at this point his mother is worried enough about his welfare that she’d get upset when he doesn’t come home at night, but not worried enough to go searching or miss work. Since these sequences are what introduces the viewer to Chiron, the way he may have changed in his resurrection by Juan is largely unknown. It could be theorized that Juan saving him and finding out his name is a type of change in personality, the start of it at least. Another death would be when Chiron is beaten by Kevin in high school. This betrayal would amount Kevin to Peter. As the fight begins, Kevin seems reluctant, but he proceeds anyway, knocking Chiron down. Despite Kevin’s pleas for him to stay down, Chiron keeps standing back up until he falls down for a final time and is jumped by a gang of boys who first enticed Kevin. It is important that Chiron is knocked down three times. The Bible is full of important symbols happening in three’s, one important instance in relation to Jesus’s crucifixion is Peter denying him three times before morning of the martyrdom. To protect himself, Kevin denies his friendship to Chiron with those three punches. After this death and betrayal, Chiron is seen submerging his face in a sink of ice water, this is a baptism. When he emerges, Chiron has a certain hardness and blankness on his face which carries him through the school and into a classroom where he breaks a chair over his bully’s head. The scene following the ending of the second part opens with a nightmare of Paula yelling at her son, the viewer understands this may be a reoccurring terror for the now adult Chiron, now known as “Black”. The sequence progresses, and Black is seen emerging his face into cold ice water which is reminiscent to his baptism after the betrayal. The nightmare followed by this baptism lets the viewer know this is a routine for Black; he is constantly trying to let go of his past, by washing away his sins. When Black visits Kevin again he explains how he had been transformed in juvie, saying, “built myself hard” and goes on to explain how he found success selling drugs in Atlanta by saying, “I did good at it and rose up”. These lines place juvie as another tomb in which Chiron was placed, figuratively rising up after he got out. The next and final death happens during the last moments of the movie, when Chiron finally allows himself to be honest with Kevin, starting by saying, “You the only man that’s ever touched me. You’re the only one”. The words almost seem forced out of Chiron, the way he looks straight at Kevin and then diverts his eyes downward as he continues magnify emotions deeply felt but difficult to exactly explain. By being vulnerable, he is killing that hardness which he had to build inside himself during juvie. After Kevin turns back to face Chiron fully, each man’s face is expressionless as they consider one another. The feeling of relief which floods over the viewer when Kevin’s mouth curves into a smile is indescribable. They are again teenagers, nervous about reaching out a hand, to touch and feel the other person, to have a genuine, loving connection to another boy. His smile has brought Chiron back to life. The loving touch in the next shot, of a head leaning on a shoulder is Chiron’s final resurrection. He’s come back to one of the first people who accepted him and loved him as he was, a sensitive little boy standing in the moonlight.
If Jesus were born in Liberty City, he would not be spreading the word of God to comfort humanity, he would be spreading crack as that would be an established method to temporarily ease pain, a way people knew worked and trusted. No kings would be looking for ways to kill his influence, the influence he was spreading would already be killing him. He wouldn’t see himself as the son of God, because those around him would doubt his authority from conception, which wouldn’t be immaculate. Instead, he would be searching for an identity which others would accept. He wouldn’t be concerned about humanity’s survival, but rather his own. Chiron is a more true savior of the people, as he eventually is able absolve the sins he was born into by accepting and forgiving those surrounding him, as well as himself. Through the love and validation given to him by Juan, Chiron starts to understand his identity. The complicated notions and symbolism of the Atlantic Ocean help explain the conflict inside Chiron, as he must search for himself in its paradoxical waters. The rejection and beating from Kevin helps the viewer understand Chiron’s constant death and resurrection, just how deeply a desperate human will go for acceptance and moving forward from the painful past. The three parts of Moonlight are distinct narratives yet tell the same story of one, whole person. In reality, Jesus is born in Liberty City, he is every little boy born desperate and lonely to uncaring parents, he is every teenager who is ashamed of the gender of his sweetheart, and he is every man who grows up in a prison to be hard and distant. No matter what identity he accepts, or struggles to accept, he is stuck in a cycle which will never give him a pulpit to preach, or a people to save. He will have trouble saving even only himself.
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