Cyclical Identity
Moonlight continually poses the question of whether a character is truly in control of their identity or rather inherits identities from those around them. This is most clearly embodied in Chiron's struggle to grow comfortable in his own skin and his eventual development into a character that echoes his surrogate father figure, Juan. The film's chapter structure gestures at the notion that Little, Chiron, and Black (the titles of each chapter, named for Chiron's given name and various nicknames), could be considered as separate characters, rather than various stages in a single character's life. Through this lens, we can understand Chiron's journey as fractured, literally and figuratively, by his attempts to find his place in the world of the film. Chiron's most dramatic transformation comes, of course, in the space between the latter two chapters; in the chapter "Black," we see that Chiron has opted for a lifestyle similar to that of Juan, the drug lord that helped raise him while supplying his mother with crack. Kevin pokes holes in this transformation, asking Chiron, "Who is you?" and whether he's "hard now." Black seems to crumple under these questions; Kevin had always seemed to encourage such "hardness" when they were boys. From the way he dresses (Juan's black do-rag and gold chains) to the crown ornament on the dashboard of his classic car, Black has picked up where Juan left off when he died, raising questions about whether Black truly chose this life or merely grew into an identity that was fated for him from the start.
Masculinity and Performance
Throughout the film, Chiron faces pressure to behave in ways that are more traditionally masculine. When Little drifts away from a ball game at school, Kevin follows, forcing Little to wrestle him in order to prove to the other boys that he isn't "soft." Chiron's lack of masculinity is visible not only to his peers, but also to the adults around him; Paula asks Juan if he will be the one to tell Little that he walks in a feminine way. The necessity of making one's masculinity visible does not apply solely to Chiron, however. Rather, it is an imperative that applies to all men in the film, including Kevin, who seems so confident in his masculinity. This is evident when Terrel tests Kevin by forcing him to beat up Chiron just after they've been intimate on the beach; in this scene, Kevin knows he has no choice but to perform the show of strength necessary to survive socially. As a response, Chiron keeps getting back up after every punch, unable to "stay down" as Kevin urges, lest he appear weak or feminine. Later in life, Chiron (or Black) has chosen to embrace this societal demand for a performed masculinity, wearing "fronts" in his teeth and blaring music from his souped-up classic car. Ultimately, Kevin pokes holes in this performance, asking Black, "Who is you, Chiron?...You hard now?" At the close of the film, Chiron has journeyed from outwardly weak to strong, yet the vulnerability he's carried with him through life persists as he admits he's hasn't been touched by another man since Kevin.
Guilt and Redemption
No character in Moonlight is free of moral ambiguity, and Chiron is no exception. Between the latter two chapters of the film, Chiron goes from innocent victim to hardened gangster, raising questions about the morality of the life he's chosen. Even more morally ambiguous, however, are Paula and Juan. Although Juan serves as the father that Little never had, teaching him to swim and to find himself, he also supplies Chiron's mother with crack. Paula confronts Juan on the duplicity of such a position, saying, "Don't give me that 'you gotta be getting it from somewhere' shit, nigger. I'm getting it from you." Paula likewise navigates shaky moral terrain throughout Chiron's life, transforming from a nurturing mother to a crazed addict and back again. Perhaps Paula's complex morality is best encapsulated when she tells Chiron, "You're my only. I'm your only" one night after he tenderly covers her with a blanket; while beautiful, the phrase sounds both comforting and threatening, especially given Paula's insecurity about Chiron's "play play mommy," Teresa. It is only once Chiron reaches adulthood and becomes "Black" that Paula seeks redemption for the lifetime of hurt she's inflicted on her son. Although Chiron ultimately forgives her, Paula seems to understand that the way she treated him made him close up and become tough, saying, "Your heart ain’t gotta be black like mine, baby."
The Black Body
In the context of film history, Moonlight is unique in that, while it is set in the United States, there are no white characters in the film. Even so, Chiron's world seems always aware of the threat of whiteness at its margins. This is perhaps best summed up when Juan tells Little, "There are black people everywhere. Remember that, okay? No place you can go in the world ain’t got no black people. We was the first on this planet." Even as Juan speaks about the primacy and importance of the black experience, he also recounts the time a stranger told him "in moonlight, black boys look blue." This is an image that we, as an audience, get to see, as Jenkins supplies numerous shots of Chiron in the moonlight. Juan seems to associate such an image with vulnerability, as he tells Chiron that he eventually shed his nickname "Blue" in favor of forging his own identity. Indeed, the scenes depicting Chiron in the moonlight are always the ones in which he's most vulnerable, his intimate night on the beach with Kevin included. Throughout the film, this dichotomy between black and blue stands in for that between tough and vulnerable, with the black body often hovering between the two. For Jenkins, the beauty of male blackness comes both in the proud, public, and even sometimes performed moments and in the softer, more delicate moments. In Chiron's world, the black body, inherently vulnerable in American society, must be tough in order to survive, but Jenkins is also interested in the moments where it is allowed to be vulnerable.
Children's Games
In the chapter entitled "Little," we see Chiron and his peers kicking a taped-up ball of newspaper around a field, working within their own made-up rules to play a combination of soccer and football. Chiron leaves the game, prompting Kevin to force him to wrestle him so that Chiron doesn't appear weak in front of his peers. Although these games exist almost outside any real threat of danger, violence certainly hovers at their edges. This scene is mirrored later when Terrel reminds Kevin of a game they used to play as children called "knock down, stay down," and forces him to play it with Chiron, letting Kevin beat his new lover to a pulp. Because Moonlight is largely a story about masculinity and performance, the echo that forms between these supposedly safe games amongst young boys and these harsher games between older boys aligns them on a spectrum of violence. Even Juan's (and later Black's) drug dealings operates according to made-up rules that feel not too distant from children's games; remember, the opening scene depicts Juan scolding a customer for forgetting the rules by which his dealers operate ("You know the drill").
Parenthood
Chiron has at once zero and three solid parents. Once she has descended into the delirium of crack addiction, Paula frequently becomes more of an antagonist than a mother to Chiron, screaming at him for failing to come home on time or stealing money from him so that she can get her fix. Chiron, of course, prefers Juan and Teresa as surrogate parents, and to some extent, they are good ones; Teresa uses home cooking to entice Chiron to share his life with her, and Juan teaches him life lessons. When Chiron comes to them asking if he is a "faggot," for example, they tell him he doesn't have to know if he's gay at such a young age. In the same scene, however, Chiron gets confirmation from Juan that he sells drugs to Paula, thereby dooming Chiron to a vicious circle in which his father figure prevents him from enjoying a real mother. Paula often expresses her jealousy for Juan and Teresa, calling Teresa Chiron's "play play mommy" and telling Chiron that she's his only real family. Chiron's constellation of parents is, in a way, a sick twist on the modern family—forever complicated and fractured, but identity-forming nonetheless.
Love
On the whole, Moonlight is a film about the various ways in which Chiron's attempts at love succeed and are thwarted. Although most of the film's characters seek to love freely, demonstrations of such love are often frustrated by notions of what is socially acceptable. The salient examples of this are Chiron's relationships to Kevin and to Paula. Of course, Chiron and Kevin are made to feel embarrassed by their love for each other as teenage boys. This haunts them into their adult life, as Chiron does not interact sexually with anyone again, and we are left wondering if he and Kevin will ever truly feel free to love each other. The threat of a broken or closed-off heart also looms for Chiron in the context of his relationship with his mother, who he finally forgives just before driving to Miami to see Kevin again. Forced to let down his guard, and his new identity as a hardened drug lord called Black, Chiron struggles to open his heart to his mother. Paula senses this and encourages him to regain the softness he maintained as a child, warning him, "Your heart ain’t gotta be black like mine, baby." Ultimately, the question of whether Chiron is ever able to open his heart again remains open at the close of the film, as Kevin holds Chiron and listens to the waves.
