While many environmental and personal factors influence the coming of age process, religious influence is among the strongest with 88.3 percent of the world population claiming to a specific religious faith (United States CIA). Using film as a cultural text, three films from around the globe will be discussed in order to display the strong influence of religious tradition and ideologies on individuals within the narratives who ultimately experience a coming of age. Also, an understanding of the religion addressed as it pertains to the region of the film’s origin will be developed through this process.
Whale Rider, 2002 co-production of New Zealand and Canada, vividly portrays religious influence in coming of age through the story of a young girl named Pai belonging to one of the many Maori tribes in the region. Before Westerners settled New Zealand, the Maori tribe settled in New Zealand and developed a rich set of cultural customs and religious beliefs. Now in modern times, Maori tribes have evolved to incorporate contemporary living arrangements, while maintaining many of their native traditions.
The Encyclopedia Britannica comments on modern Maori lifestyle by stating, “Although European culture predominates New Zealand, there are attempts to preserve traditional cultures, especially that of the Maori. A renaissance has occurred in Maori wood carving and weaving and in the construction of carved and decorated meeting houses (whare whakairo). Maori songs and dances have become increasingly popular, especially among the young. Maori meetings- whether hui (assemblies) or tangi (funeral gatherings)- are conducted in a traditional fashion, with ancient greeting ceremonies strictly observed.”
This strict observance of Maori traditions is seen frequently through out Whale Rider as the viewer follows along with Pai on her journey to continue her long line of ancestors and lead her tribe out of its troubling conditions.
Although, Pai is the last of the direct descendants of the tribe’s founder, Paikea, who legend says came on the back of a whale to lead his people, she is also a girl, who loses the trust of her harsh grandfather and is denied the ability to join the young men who will take on a sort of apprenticeship towards becoming the next chief.While religious traditions grace most aspects of the film through ceremonial chanting and dances, strong family unity, and other aspects such as environment with wood carvings and ceremonial rooms, religious influence on Pai’s coming of age is seen most clearly when Pai ventures out to the shore to think about the tribe’s future and troubles with her grandfather. In times such as these, Pai calls upon her ancestors through a type of prayer and asks them for help. Towards the end of the film, her prayers are answered in an odd fashion when a group of whales (considered sacred by this Maori tribe due to their relationship with Paikea) becomes beached. After the tribe gathers together and attempts to keep the whales alive and help them back in to the ocean when high tide comes, Pai is shunned by her grandfather and not allowed to help. Once the tribe tries and fails, Pai slips behind them and climbs the back of the whale.
Through a kind of mystical event, the whale revives its attempts at becoming free and Pai is taken far out into the ocean. Pai is seen next in the hospital bed, with her grandfather sitting close to the bed. Her eyes open and both have a coming of age as they realize that she is the one who meant to lead the tribe. While before Pai wrestled with whether the Maori ways and her grandfather’s actions were justifiable, in the moment of riding the whale’s back she is enlightened and has a defining moment in her life that leads her into the net phase of her life- adulthood.
2007 Mexican film, Harvest of Redemption, also contains the bildungsroman (coming of age) theme with influences from principles found in Christianity. The film tells the story of a young Latino named Oscar who lives on a farm in Texas near the Mexican American border after his parents journeyed from Mexico around the 1920’s and settled in the American West. Oscar’s dad takes up farming for the white, American farm-owner Mr. Wilkins. When Oscar is a young boy, his father takes him out hunting on one of his days off from work. During this escapade, Oscar’s Dad tells him to pick the first of the season’s corn according to a long-held family tradition. Wilkins catches them in the act, and eventually the confrontation becomes deadly, with Oscar witnessing Wilkins shoot his father. All of this taking place in the beginnings of the film, the middle portion of the movie is dedicated to watching Oscar deal with his hatred of Wilkins and Oscar’s personal struggle with forgiving him, a concept coherent with the ideals of Christianity.
Due to the Spanish settling of Mexico, Roman Catholicism plays a very important role in Mexican Culture, with over 95 percent of Mexicans claiming affiliation with Christianity, and 88 percent specifically to Roman Catholicism (United States CIA). With such as large number of Mexican citizens belonging to this religion, it is apparent that Christian principles would have a large effect on a young individual’s life as they turn the page to the adult chapter of his or her life.
Harvest of Redemption depicts these qualities of Oscar battling between his resentment of Wilkins and the principles of forgiveness found in Christianity. At one point in the film, Oscar is seen beneath a statue of the Virgin Mary on his knees praying for strength to be able to forgive. This forgiveness comes towards the end of the film, years later, defined as Oscar’s coming of age moment, when he sends Mr. Wilkins the box of corn that was taken from him that day Oscar’s father was killed meant to tell Wilkins that he had forgiven him for taking the life of his Dad.
As a final example of religious influence on the coming of age process seen in foreign film, Water a 2006 Indian film is discussed. Directed by Deepa Mehta, Water displays the treatment of the Asharam widows under the customs of the Hindu religion that have been twisted to benefit specific groups. In India, Hinduism is the countries most dominant religion 80.46 percent according to the 2001 census by the Indian government. Within the film, a negative stance towards Hinduism is depicted through observing the lives of the widows and teachings of Gandhi are given the upper hand. In a review of the film, Kim Voynar discusses the treatment of the widows in India, central to the storyline of Water, as it relates to Hinduism in the late 1930’s.
She writes, “In India, the sight of widows, heads shaved, dressed in white, the color of death, amid a culture where brilliant colors are valued by women, was not uncommon in 1939; neither is it uncommon today. Mehta was inspired to make Water after encountering a pathetic older widow in India. In Hinduism, as the film explains this cultural phenomenon, a woman who marries becomes a part of her husband; thus, when he precedes her in death, she is considered partly dead as well -- widowhood is basically akin to a fate as a walking dead body. Widows are considered bad luck, and are not allowed at fortuitous occasions like birth and weddings (in one scene in the film, a widow getting water at the holy river is admonished not to let her shadow fall on a bride).”
When Chuyia, a young girl of age eight, is taken to live in the house of widows, she begins to shape the coming of age moment experienced by one of the older widows in the group Shakuntala.
Before a devout Hindi, Shakuntala realizes that the way the women are treated is wrong, and eventually has a coming of age moment. This occurs when she learns that an older domineering widow woman has sold Chuyia into acts of prostitution for money. Shakuntala washes Chuyia in the river and takes her to listen to Gandhi speak about truth at a train station, followed by her running alongside the train offering up the girl to Gandhi in order to save her from having to live the life of a widow from such a young age. From this point onward Shakuntala’s life is changed specifically through the religious experiences depicted in the film. It can be seen from the three films above that the coming of age process can often be heavily impacted by religion. Each of Pai, Oscar, and Shakuntala’s coming of age moments are defined by specific religious and spiritual events that help to shape their person, allowing them to move forward on to the next phase of life.
Works Cited
United States. CIA. World Fact Book. 2009. Web.
Voynar, Kim. "Water: Review." Cinematical 27 Apr 2006 Web.17 Apr 2009.
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