Moonlight: Chiron's Identity

The movie, Moonlight, follow’s Chiron through three important stages of his identity— “Little,” “Chiron” and “Black”—as he struggles through life. Stage one of Chiron’s identity begins on the presumably rough streets of Miami. A kingpin by the name of Juan is checking on one of his employees when he sees a young boy run past him being chased by a group of bullies. Juan finds Chiron hiding out in a drug house and convinces the child to join him for food in an attempt to get him comfortable and talking, when Chiron refuses to utter a word, he takes the child back to his house to see if his partner, Theresa, can get him to open up. Chiron finally opens up but withholds the information on where he lives so they allow him to stay the night with the understanding that he has to go home the next morning. As the time goes on Chiron finds himself back at Juan’s house, he opens up about the bullying that he is facing and how the boys his age constantly call him a faggot, and how he knows that Juan sells drugs to his mother, Paula. Despite that Juan and Theresa become a staple in Chiron’s life, they become a second family to him. …show more content…
With his mother dependent on drugs, every semblance of normalcy that Chiron had at home has dwindled down to almost nothing. He finds himself wrapped up in the struggle of finding himself, and still being constantly bullied, but he relies on the one friend he has, Kevin. After sharing a moment of intimacy with Kevin on a beach one night, Chiron thinks that he finally has someone who understands him, that is until Kevin succumbs to the pressure of the other boys and beats up Chiron. Chiron, betrayed takes his anger out on the boy who had Kevin beat him up and winds up behind