Innocent Voices:
Innocent voices, directed by Luis Mandoki, depicts the horror of war and its impact on children caught in the middle of El Salvador’s civil strife in the 1980’s. The film, Innocent Voices portrays the story of struggle, love, and survival through the eyes of an eleven-year-old Salvadorian boy named, Chava. It speaks loudly of a time in El Salvador, where war and violence was well known, and where the village is situated between the Salvadorian army’s controlled capital and guerilla fighters. As most of the viewers captured, Mandoki’s film is so powerful and cultivating in describing the tragic elements, which grow progressively throughout the film, such as: the paradox seen within the film by showing the beauty and unification
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of poverty, the deep look into the traumatic effect of war on children, and the recruitment of child soldiers. The film deeply reveals the injustice against innocent people who are practically forced to fight in the civil war and are deeply held against their will. Despite showing the devastation of war inflicted on children, Mandoki also shows the strength of the human spirit in the midst of these struggles. Luis Mandoki portrays children and women as the most vulnerable victims in the El Salvador’s civil war.
In this case, referring to the eleven- year-old-boy named Chava; Abandoned by his father at a young age, he confronts adult responsibilities and is now forced to be “the man of the house.” As the film is told through the eyes of a young boy, we see the horrific violence and struggles he faces, in order to hold on to his innocence and survival. “Childhood in El Salvador during these harsh times would end with a bullet or horrific recruitment of all twelve-year olds in the Salvadorian Army, something that Chava was trying to avoid” (Wiki 1). Innocent voices reflects the agony of the poor during the Civil War in El Salvador when twelve-year-old boys were required to become murderers. These scenes automatically change the perspective of the audience. We can feel and relate to the level of child experience that Chava and the other young boys lived through, and what it meant to actually try and survive the instability, and violence by your own government, and how it actually became normal within society. As seen within the film, “Chava struggles to maintain the condition of being normal and calm within his home, with the constant fear of turning twelve, the age that the government was able recruit him, meanwhile he cares for his younger brother and sister, trying to conserve their innocence and sheltering them from the chaos that surrounds them.” (Heuvel 2) The force of this …show more content…
film lies in the balance of the devastation and specific cruelties of this civil war with the funny and charming displays of Chava’s childhood. Despite the evident civil conflict, such as inequality, poverty, and injustice between the Salvadorian government army and the rural people, Luis Mandoki sets a tone of hardship balanced by humor to set the tone.
Within the film Innocent Voices, the audience can see the use of humoristic lines, which portray mixed feelings throughout the film. It’s a way of connecting with the viewers at different levels of emotions by balancing out the brutal conflict with the paradoxical meaning of poverty. Underneath the complex and difficult issues seen during the Salvadorian Civil War, we can see how Mandoki uses paradoxical statements within the characters of the film to show the beauty and unification of poverty when they are not at war. The social environment in El Salvador during this time period was surrounded by economic inequality and poverty, but Chava and his family depict how the family unification outstands the economic instability they are living in. A scene within the film that represents the unification of poverty is when Chava and a few of his friends throw balloon lanterns into the sky, emotionally showing a moment of happiness and beauty to the viewers. Overall, These paradoxical statements and scenes within the film are what keep an interest to the
viewers. The film Innocent Voices, depicts the social, political, and military battles that erupted during the civil war in El Salvador during the 1980’s. “The government-supported military targeted anyone they suspected of supporting social and economic reform” (Maureen 1). However, the principal storyline analyzes the forced enlistment of all boys who reach the age of twelve into the military. El Salvador was filled with hardships for most of the population during this time, and Luis Mandoki remarkably shows the real life events and historical facts concerning the civil war in the 1980’s. In addition, the film also portrays how life was not extremely pleasant during this era and how the Civil War in El Salvador was characterized as being violent. However, despite the violence and such brutal scenes the balance with the paradoxical statements by showing the unification of poverty captivates the audience much more. It shows how even though warfare becomes increasingly intense throughout the film; it doesn’t come in between their family, and their strong connection. Innocent Voices, is such an intense and bright film with the strength to engage the audience by balancing out such extreme and harsh moments with the beauty of poverty. Bibliography Wikipedia contributors. "Voces inocentes." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 16 Apr. 2018. Web. 14 May. 2018. Heuvel, vanden. “Innocent Voices.” The Nation, 29 June 2015, www.thenation.com/article/innocent-voices/. Kane, Maureen. “Civil War in El Salvador.” Women's Liberation Movement, novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/evans/HIS135/Events/ElSalvador80/Salvador80.html. Bibliography Wikipedia contributors. "Voces inocentes." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 16 Apr. 2018. Web. 14 May. 2018. Heuvel, vanden. “Innocent Voices.” The Nation, 29 June 2015, www.thenation.com/article/innocent-voices/. Kane, Maureen. “Civil War in El Salvador.” Women's Liberation Movement, novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/evans/HIS135/Events/ElSalvador80/Salvador80.html.
The themes explored in the novel illustrate a life of a peasant in Mexico during the post-revolution, important themes in the story are: lack of a father’s role model, death and revenge. Additionally, the author Juan Rulfo became an orphan after he lost
The 2004 Salvadoran film Voces Inocentes, directed by Luis Mandoki is truely deserving of its nomination to the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. The film is set in El Salvador in 1986 with a civil war ravaging the main character’s home town of Cuscatancingo. There are many themes in this film including dictatorships and totalitarian governments in Latin America and US involvement in Latin American conflict. However there is one theme that is represented time and time again throughout the film. This is the theme that children are innocent and just until someone teaches them to do wrong and become unjust. This exemplified in many scenes in the film, but there is one scene in particularly emphasizes this.
The next theme used by the author to inspire a feeling of despair in this story is the randomness of persecution. By making the villagers draw these slips of paper once a year would provoke a feeling of hopelessness. Because they know that no matter what they do one day they may be subjected to this brutal death. And it woul...
...rough many difficult trials and tribulations that resulted in his loss of innocence after he became a part of the child army in Sierra Leone. Those experiences caused for him, like the other members of the child army, to change physically because of his drug addiction, psychologically because of his repressed memories, and emotionally, from the desensitization to warfare and death that was a part of his training. This caused for Ishmael to transform from a young innocent boy to a killing machine exploited by his military officials. Ishmael was able to convey his loss of innocence in his memoir through the use of dialogue, first-person narration, and by telling of memories he had through flashbacks. The loss of innocence tied into the title of the memoir because emotionally, physically, and psychologically, he was a long way gone from the boy he was before the army.
...the future to see that his life is not ruined by acts of immaturity. And, in “Araby”, we encounter another young man facing a crisis of the spirit who attempts to find a very limiting connection between his religious and his physical and emotional passions. In all of these stories, we encounter boys in the cusp of burgeoning manhood. What we are left with, in each, is the understanding that even if they can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, we can. These stories bind all of us together in their universal messages…youth is something we get over, eventually, and in our own ways, but we cannot help get over it.
...en-year-old girl”. She has now changed mentally into “someone much older”. The loss of her beloved brother means “nothing [will] ever be the same again, for her, for her family, for her brother”. She is losing her “happy” character, and now has a “viole[nt]” personality, that “[is] new to her”. A child losing its family causes a loss of innocence.
History usually forces itself into the present in Juan Jose Campanella’s film “El Secreto De Sus Ojos” (The Secret in Their Eyes). Although it was filmed in 2009, the story is an attempted memorization of the violent reality in 1970-1980s Argentina, an era in which the country was rapidly sinking into military rule-ship. Campanella offers flashbacks into Argentina’s dark days, a period where violence homicide, rape and injustices ruled. Through memory, the film narrate a era in which it was impossible to be an innocent person as the innocents were falsely accused, tortured and even murdered for crimes they never committed, all these for the whims of those in power. Even though, the film is set in the 1970s, it does not call immediate attention to the animosity, the hopeless feeling and the constant struggle between the desire to forget vs. the attempts to remember the chaos and confusion of these years. However, through the use of memory Campanella allow the views to portray an almost perfect picture of what happened in Argentina.
By the virtue of their innocence, the children in “Marigolds” are cruel. Lizabeth explains how there are “...no radios, few newspapers, and no magazines”(76). Thus the kids are unaware of the poverty they are living in. They have no knowledge of what is happening in the world and are only exposed of what is around them. They live their lives normally, doing their chores, playing and running around like any kid will do. One day, the kids are bored and ...
Inevitably, there comes a point in everybody’s life at which they have an experience that completely alters their view of the world. This moment is when one loses his or her innocence, or comes of age, and he or she realizes that they do not live in a utopian Golden Age. Parents are charged with the monumental duty of protecting their children’s innocence, but everybody inescapably grows up. This experience can be anything from an embarrassing situation at school to coming within seconds of death. In the short story “Ambush” by Tim O’Brien, the author tells the true story of his daughter confronting him and asked him if he had ever killed anyone. In an effort to be a good parent and protect the nine-year-old’s innocence, the author does not share with her the story he goes on to tell to the reader. He explains how many years ago, he was serving in the army and was taking a shift guarding his troop’s campsite when all of a sudden, a young man from the opposing army came walking up the trail. Without a second thought, O’Brien killed the boy with a grenade, and he lost his innocence after realizing he had killed a defenseless man without hesitation. Tim O’Brien develops Ambush as a coming of age story through the use of literary devices.
I perceive the value of human life as invaluable. Your text enables me to envision how life would be without the comfort and security of civilization. The man’s views on life are judged by his experiences and his sole objective is to keep him and the boy alive. The father repeatedly promises himself and the boy that he would do anything for him. “My job is to take care of you. I was appointed to do that by God. I will kill anyone who touches you.” (pg 80).The boy returns the act of concern that the man has for him. The boy puts a large emphasis on that the man also must eat and drink ‘you to’. His compassion and willingness to help others in need brings conflict between him and his father. “Cant we help him? Papa? No. We cant help him.” (pg 51) The difference of the father’s practicability and the boy’s compassion is predominant. The text reinforces the idea that all life is sacred and important.
Innocence is usually associated with youth and ignorance. The loss of one’s innocence is associated with the evils of the world. However, the term “innocence” can be interpreted in a variety of ways. Similarly, the loss of one’s innocence can be interpreted in more than one way, and, depending on the interpretation, it may happen numerous times. The loss of innocence is culture specific and involves something that society holds sacrosanct.
The idea of childhood innocence is one that could be interpreted in many different ways. Yusef Komunyakaa’s “English”, Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron”, Peter Tait’s “Too much information destroys childhood innocence”, and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road are all pieces that demonstrate how childhood innocence is preserved. In “English”, Komunyakaa describes a boy who sees an airstrike during a war and thinks it is a celebration because no one has ever explained the concept of war to him. “Harrison Bergeron” demonstrates a society that is very conservative about the knowledge they allow its civilians to obtain. Peter Tait’s article on preserving childhood innocence exposes the truths about social media and the easy access kids
However, others decide to leave the city immediately if they find out about the child or after a long battle with their guilt. The lone child in the story represents starving, homeless, and suffering people in society. All the members of society are aware of the less fortunate people in society. Just like in Omelas, people look at them and do nothing to help them out of their misery.
The movie revolves between two stories. First, it talks about the life of Ronald Jimenez Jr. and the life of the Bien family. Ronald, a developmentally delayed seventh grader was accused of rape by his tutor/friend Bessy. This is where Ronald’s family met Atty. Julian Bien and Amanda Bien, a developmental psychologist. It happens that Ronald and Martin, their deceased son, were close friends. Over-all, it conveys the message of forgiveness.
This film really focuses on the characters. Their thoughts, anger, distress, and mistakes become part of your mistakes. This deals with a father’s s priority and how he will achieve that priority by using unethical ways like torturing an innocent man. Bringing up child abduction and torture are