Torres - Witness and Mosquito Coast

The development of the child character is very similar in both Witness and Mosquito Coast. Both children are brought up in situations quite different from the world around them. Samuel is brought up in an Amish community that separates itself from city life. Charlie is raised in a household where the patriarch is an inventor with a disdain for American society, much unlike the typical American household. Both of these children start out as innocent but over the course of the film are forced to redefine their world view.

In Samuel's household Eli Ladd is the patriarch who does his best to make sure the Amish ways are followed. Unfortunately, after Samuel witnesses a murder in the city his innocence is lost and his worldview is changed. In the scene where Eli is trying to explain to Samuel that guns are unclean and not allowed in Amish society we are shown just how much his experience has changed him. The character proxemics are personal to show that this issue is important and a serious matter. Eli is the dominant, emphasizing his authority, but the gun on the table provides subsidiary contrast and emphasizes the damage that violence can do, even within this peaceful community. Samuel challenges his grandfather's insistence on nonviolence and is driven to get rid of "bad men," like those he witnessed murder another man. This goes against the Amish beliefs and emphasizes how drastic a change Samuel has experienced.

In the beginning of Mosquito Coast Charlie idolizes his father Allie Fox. He considers him a genius who can do no wrong. Eventually Charlie realizes that his father can, in fact, 'do wrong' as Allie's obsession with inventing and specifically gaining recognition escalates. While Allie and the others are attempting to deliver ice to an isolated tribe everything begins to go downhill: the ice melts before they get there, his villagers leave with the Reverend, and three unfriendly armed men follow them back to the village. Allie tries to dispose of them by freezing them, but unlike Allie's prediction, instead of lying down the men open fire, destroying the machine and the entire village by proxy. This is a huge miscalculation on Allie's part that shows just how different his mind works. While the machine is burning, Charlie gives Allie a look that distinctly tells the viewer that his perception of his father has changed. Although the two are usually shown in rather personal character proxemics, in this scene Charlie is so distanced from Allie that he is in a different frame altogether. Allie's eyes and open mouth are dominant in his frame, making him look particularly monstrous. Charlie's face is dominant in his frame, emphasizing his expression and disappointment in his father. This scene begins Charlie's gradual distancing from his father and his father's beliefs.