Ramon- Mosquito Coast and Witness

            I see the relationships between the patriarch and child in Witness and in Mosquito Coast as a very close one. In class, we spoke about the root of innocence meaning something like no knowledge. In Witness, Samuel Lapp loses his innocence when seeing the murder in the train station restroom. In Mosquito Coast, Charlie loses his innocence when he sees Allie murder the men inside of “Fat Boy.”

            With Samuel’s innocence deflated just as much as my blown out tire on the side on I-10, he has gained some personal sense of right and wrong from which to make his own decisions. As cliché as the conversation may have been, it sets up a great scene. Samuel Lapp sits on his grandfather’s lap for a heart to heart on the Sixth Commandment. However, before the meat of the issue, it is definitely on purpose that Samuel Lapp sits on his grandfather’s lap for the key point in the movie in terms of Samuel’s character development. From my own experiences as a child and in seeing the set up of this shot, a child sitting on an elder’s lap is a symbolic moment in an upbringing because the “patriarch” is briefly telling the child that he going to gain some sort of knowledge from the patriarch which will some day raise him above the patriarch. However, due to Samuel losing his innocence and gaining a sense of conviction, the message from his grandfather of “do not ever kill” does not come across to Samuel. Rather, Samuel retorts by saying “If the man is bad.”

           

            In Mosquito Coast, Charlie comes to gaining knowledge over his father when the family wakes up and sees their community in ruin. In this screen shot below, Allie has a look on his face that says, “oh well.” On the other hand, Charlie has look that says, “you are the worst thing that has ever happened to me.” By looking at the pair’s body language, Allie is still leaning toward his civilization meaning that he isn’t finished with fulfilling his dream. On the other hand, Charlie is leaning away from his father and having nothing to do with his father’s desires. At this point Charlie has moved from idolizing his father to antagonizing him.

            Both Samuel and Charlie become more knowledgeable than their respective patriarchs because of experience through non-biased lenses. Eli Lapp has his own bias on murder due to his life in the Amish community. Allie Fox’s bias comes from his experience through the lens of corrupted American culture. Samuel and Charlie are able to critique their patriarch’s biases due to their own non-biased experiences; Samuel witnessing a murder himself and Charlie witnessing his father’s idealistic world come to a crumble along with its affect on his family.