Cammy Reagan:
I thought it was very interesting how the two boys interacted. It was child development 101. It proves the fact that children do not see color, race, religion or any of the things that adults see and use to judge others. These children were innocent. They new they had obvious differences, but they did not let that interfere with their friendship until the end of the movie when the change in government happened. Pedro and Gonzalo had the same familial problems in that Pedro's father was obviously an alcoholic and did not take care of his family the way he should have done. Gonzalo's mother also did things that were not in the best interest of Gonzalo especially when she took him to her boyfriends houses and had him take gifts from them. There was also an obvious difference in the two social classes. The rich had everything and the poor had nothing. The housing was noticably different in that Pedro lived in a small shanty with several family members sharing the same space. They had very little in the way of clothing and he noticed the difference in what Gonzalo had when he went to his house and saw the amount of clothing he had in his closet. There was also a difference in the food they ate. Gonzalo did not eat the snack that was offered to him at Pedro's house. I saw some of the same things in this film as I saw in Under the Same Moon. There were obvious distinctions in the rich vs the poor. There were some of the same struggles in trying to make a better life for their families. The best message I took away from this film is that we all need to be less judgemental and accepting of others no matter how different they are from ourselves. If we could do this, just think of how much better the world would be. While watching this film I found it hard to follow at times and felt as if it jumped from scene to scene without any lead into each different scene. I am definately seeing the world from a different perspective. I did see myself as a pretty culturally diverse person before watching these past two movies, but I am seeing that I have a lot more to learn ......
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STATEMENT: It proves the fact that children do not see color, race, religion or any of the things that adults see and use to judge others. These children were innocent. They new they had obvious differences, but they did not let that interfere with their friendship until the end of the movie when the change in government happened.
ReplyDeleteCOMMENT: Many good points Cammey. I do think children see color, race, religion and the differences of other social classes. I do think the children of this age group were innocent to a degree. However I think that they made a choice to try and discard prejudices and open their hearts. It was obvious that Gonzalo and his classmates noticed the social differences in the new boys from “shanty town” as they were integrated into their classroom by Father McEnroe. Gaston played on the social differences with his friends when he bullied Pedro. Also the young girl Silvana who was both Gonzalo's and Pedro's first kiss, was very discriminating towards Gonzalo as being a "snob" and a privileged boy. When Pedro and the young girl stole Gonzalo's bike he struck out at them and said some hurtful words to them that were social and prejudice remarks. However they all 3 remained friends crossing the borders of prejudice by working side by side selling flags for both political parties and enjoying their adventures as young children would do. I do believe that their social differences were always present and could become volatile at anytime depending on the circumstance. The final social line drawn in this film was when Gonzalo had to announce his social standing to the military as they were herding the residents of "shanty town" to an unknown destiny. This happens all in minutes as he witnesses the unfair treatment of Silvana's father and the murder of Silvana for her outspoken words to the military. Gonzalo cries as he peddles his bike away from his friends to save his life. The film ends as the two young boys surrender to their social classes define their futures.
I agree with your comments. It is nice have another point of view when you are discussing these things. I agree that there were many times in the movie that social class was obvious when the comments were made. You were right with that in saying that Silvania continues to call Gonzalo a snob. But in the end they all remained friends and Gonzalo had to make a hard choice in bringing up his social class to save his life.
ReplyDeleteCammy Reagan