Food (Motif)
Food appears as a means of bonding with others throughout Moonlight. Just as Teresa and Juan use food as enticement for Little to share his story with them, so does Kevin use it as enticement for Black to tell him about his life during their reunion in the diner. So many scenes in the film depict Chiron struggling to connect, both verbally and emotionally, to others, but in these scenes, food consistently serves as common ground. Perhaps food's role as connective tissue between people works because food by nature reflects the person who made it and thereby ties into the film's existing themes of identity and environment. The food Kevin makes, for example, is Cuban, linking it in Chiron's mind to Juan, who is from Cuba; thus, food becomes personal and even character-driven.
Nicknames (Motif)
Nicknames—and questions about who has the right to apply them—occur and reoccur throughout the film, particularly in terms of the film's triptych structure. The first and last chapters, "Little" and "Black," refer to nicknames that Chiron was given and either discarded or embraced as he grew older. Importantly, Kevin gave him the nickname "Black," a development that Chiron interrogates him about on the beach, getting no answers. Juan also shares that he was nicknamed "Blue" as a child but grew out of that nickname, forging his own identity.
Colors (Motif)
Colors—particularly blue, black, and pink—work almost as visual leitmotifs meant to represent individual characters or identities throughout the film. Pink, for example, represents Paula's complicated maternal love for her son, embodied most poignantly in the image of her yelling at Little while bathed in pink light that emanates from her room. Blue, of course, symbolizes younger Chiron and his relationship with Juan, whose nickname was once Blue; it also calls to mind Chiron's relationship with Kevin, as their tryst occurred in front of the blue ocean. Black also symbolizes the new, "hard" persona that Chiron has adopted in adulthood. Because Jenkins relies so heavily on the sensory experience of 1980s Liberty City, where "Miami teal" reigns, to locate the viewer in Chiron's subjectivity, intense pigments like pink, blue, and black serve as powerful identifiers for character and tone in the film. Indeed, Chiron's particular experience of his environment focuses on colors and textures, so these three colors work not only to distinguish between people in Chiron's life, but also to bring Miami to life and allow it to become a character itself.
Water (Symbol)
Water appears numerous times in Moonlight, most notably in two scenes. The first depicts Juan teaching Little how to swim in the ocean, figuratively teaching him to keep his head above water despite the numerous obstacles he faces. The second comes when Chiron and Kevin's sexual relationship begins on that same beach. There, the boys talk about the tears they feel like crying merging with the ocean, an admission that quickly becomes charged with their own fragile masculinity, since Kevin denies that he cries, while as Chiron admits he does. In Moonlight, water is intimate, present when Chiron bathes or ices his face as well as when he enjoys his first sexual experience. Because water is fluid, beautiful, and omnipresent during these moments of vulnerability, it stands in as a symbol of male intimacy or vulnerability in the film.
Outside versus Inside (Motif)
The dichotomy between the outside and inside of literal space and bodily space is a symbolic opposition that runs throughout the film. When Juan first meets Little, he finds him hiding in an abandoned crack den and invites him outside, saying, "C'mon. Can't be no worse out here." Similarly, Chiron fears leaving school because of the bullies that wait for him outside; much like his childhood self, he peers down at them from above, calculating his move from the inside to the outdoors. This resonates, as well, with the classic figure of speech which describes gay individuals' charged decisions to tell their friends or family about their sexuality as "coming out of the closet." Pushing the dichotomy further, however, we can also say that it relates to the way in which Moonlight takes an individual's image and/or appearance, and its relationship to what one carries on the inside, as its subject. Regardless of his age, Chiron remains largely silent in the film, only revealing his true self in the most brief and heartbreaking admissions. Although he is a hardened trap king on the outside, for example, he admits later that he hasn't been touched by anyone since his moonlight tryst with Kevin as a child.
Soft versus Hard (Motif)
Whether an individual is "soft" or "hard" (in other words weak or tough) is a question that serves as a motif of the film. Kevin wrestles Little in the first chapter to help him prove to his peers that he is not weak, saying "I knew you wasn't soft" when Little fights back. Later, Kevin asks Black if he is "hard" now, a question that cuts to the core of Chiron's transformation from a sensitive young man to a hardened gangster—at least on the outside. Indeed, being "soft" or "hard" here operates not only on a literal level, but also on a figurative one, since it is both inner toughness and outer toughness for which boys like Chiron grasp. This concept of male weakness and strength is vital to the film's exploration of Chiron's identity and the cultural forces that shape it, since Chiron's journey into manhood revolves around his sense of his own weakness in a world that demands toughness from him.
