The quote
above suggests that innocence should be preserved even at the cost of
one’s life. However, in Greek tragedies, the innocents are the ones who usually
lose their lives. Mystic
River is no different. Just like in a Greek tragedy, Katie (an innocent)
loses her life. Dave is killed by Jimmy even though he had nothing to do with
Katie’s murder. That still doesn’t mean Dave is an innocent. Dave lost his
innocence the day the two men took him in their car. Although Dave does tell
Celeste that “Dave is dead”, he is not the only one who believes he changed.
When Sean asks Jimmy the last time he saw Dave Boyle, Jimmy says “twenty-five
years ago, going up this street, in the back of that car”. The Dave who wrote
his name in the wet cement is not the same Dave that escaped.
Very few characters in Mystic River
deserve true forgiveness. Celeste and Dave are the only two main characters
that do. Despite being a murderer and losing his innocence as a child, Dave
Boyle truly deserves forgiveness. He didn’t choose to be taken by those two
men. When Dave murders the pedophile, it is not an act of hate against the man
himself. It is a way for Dave to hurt a representation of the men who abused
him all those years ago. Despite inadvertently causing her husband’s death,
Celeste deserves forgiveness too. She is only trying to help her family. Dave
doesn’t help Celeste's growing suspicions by saying “[he] can’t trust [his]
mind anymore”. Celeste only voices these suspicions so Jimmy can find
the man that killed his daughter.
In the film, Dave continuously mentions his lost of innocence by relating his corruption to vampires. He says to Celeste, "It's like vampires. Once it's in you, it stays." The corruption from the two men forever haunts him. He can never redeem his innocence.
ReplyDeleteYour interpretation of Dave's innocence is interesting. When I first watched the movie, I believed that Dave should be considered innocent, since he suffers from a mental illness. After gaining insight from your post, I now find that Dave lost his childhood purity in a horrible, traumatic way that has caused him to perceive the world differently. The question is does he suffer from mental illness or is he plagued with the need to seek revenge for the horror that he experienced as a boy?
ReplyDeleteIt is ironic how you say Dave lost his innocence when he was molested because in the end he was literally innocent when it came to Katie's death. I agree that he deserves forgiveness because he was emotionally scarred and didn't mean harm to anyone at any point in the movie. His actions were results of his suffering.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the "cops" took Dave's innocence. The pain of sexual abuse lingers for the rest of a victims' life and the evidence is seen in Dave's behavior. Dave died that day he got in the back of the black car. Ironically, Dave is still too trusting of others when most sexual abuse victims are extremely wary of others.
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