Children of Heaven analysis

Why we chose to look at these two elements in this movie?

• The first reason is because we want to highlight the reason behind the usage of the objects.
• The second reason is to discover the meaning of few objects selected.
• The third reason is to get to know the message conveyed by the writer.
• The lines delivered made a lot of effects on the audience so we decided to analyze the lines.
• Finally, we want to look at these two element because we wanted to know if our view and insights might be different from one another or also different from article written on this story.

It is important to watch the story with some information towards the movie- different insight by different view.

The significant objects featured in the movie:

1) Shoes

• Color (purity and innocence)

– Zahra’s shoe is pink. It symbolizes not just the feminity of Zahra but also her innocence and purity of her intention to hide the lost of her shoes from her parents.

– Ali’s shoe is white and it symbolizes the purity of the children, the cleanliness, and the innocence of Ali and his sister. In most Western countries white is the color for brides to show the purity of the bride as virgin. In the East, it's the color for mourning and funerals because it was believed that white shows free from any stain or any other sin, or easier to put as purity when leaving the world.

• The usage of shoe

- Shoes are meant for walking, running and so on.

- Basically shoes are meant to protect feet from ground

- In this movie, the shoe is as a symbol of protection for Zahra and Ali given by their father to pursue their life on their own.

- Other people sees the shoes as torn and old, but Ali and Zahra regard the shoes as their most valuable possession that help them to go on their lives, protector of their future.

• The shoe also signifies few things which are:

– The responsibility that Ali and Zahra hold to take care of their belongings.

– The responsibility of Ali to replace the shoe for his sister:

-he is the one to lose the shoe

-he is the eldest child therefore he need to take care of his sister’s wellbeing.

2) The water hose

• The usage of the water hose:

– In the movie, from the beginning till the end, Ali constantly drinks water from the hose, to quench his thirst.

– This symbolizes the simple need of a person. A means to go on with his life, just like the shoe.

– Ali’s family is very poor to feed him regularly but he is a growing up boy who need a lot of food to cover up his body energy consumption. By drinking water, he eases up the hunger and lack of food.

– Other than that, it is also a way of showing how Ali learnt to survive on his own.

3) The potatoes

The significant features of the potatoes

a. Small

b. Rejected

c. Were put under the table, totally different from the good qualities ones, on the table.

d. This signifies:

i. The differences between the rich and the poor people or the social status differences between the people in the community.

ii. It was not weighed by the real weighing machine, just by using the shopkeeper’s own assumption.

• How it was weighed showed that:

– People never really know or actually care about the real thing. They just used their assumption and outside appearance to justify their judgment.

– Disproportionate amount of distribution of country’s making between rich and poor, a way of proving that these poor people were treated inhumanly.

4) The new pen and pencil

• The pen and the pencil are used as:

– a present given by Ali to his sister to persuade her not to tell their parents about the lost of the shoe.

– Ali gave two presents for the lost of one shoe

– This signifies:

• Ali’s effort to try to make up for the lost of her shoes.

• Showing his appreciation for her understanding

• Define how important education is for them to get them out of poverty.

• Other than that, it also symbolizes:

– The simplicity and contentment of the two children in their hard life.

– The presents as substitution for the lost shoe and to say how sorry h felt for her to run every day after school to change the shoe.

– The pen and pencil clearly indicates the importance of education and how Ali managed to excel even when he lived in such a hard life.

– We can see that he is trying to make Zahra happy with whatever possession he has by giving it to his sister.

– Ali sacrificed his own special present given by his teacher to get some understanding from his sister and this clearly showed the maturity of a young boy swiftly developed by his condition.

5) Sugar for mosque ceremony

• Sugar is use to:

– To give a taste of sweetness

– Indirectly, it is a small luxury for those who come for the ceremony.

– The sugar signifies:

• The honesty of Ali’s father was highlighted by his refusal to take a cube of sugar because the sugar was meant for the mosque. Even when he didn’t have any sugar left, he didn’t take it.

• Some people do not see luxury as a must.

6) Bubbles and ball

• The bubbles were played by the siblings while washing the shoes while the ball was played by the rich child where Ali and his father went to do the gardening.

• Bubbles are fragile, vulnerable, and come without price while ball is a solid object, stable, and with price because it needs to be bought.

• Differences between bubbles and ball can be seen in the movie as:

– The valuable happiness of Ali and Zahra and the loneliness of the rich Alireza

– The simplicity and non-priced fun of Ali and Zahra have versus the expensive toys with no one to play with that the rich Alireza had.

– Money cannot buy happiness and contentment

7) The broken brake of the bicycle

• Brake is to stop wheels from moving

– Indicates to stop the hardship from keep coming into their life

– Give chances for a beginning to live a better life

Broken brake signifies:

• Constant bad luck in life is inevitable

• It’s just fate

• Unexpected misfortune is to strengthen human

• The effect of the broken brake:

– Caused injury to Ali and his father

– Strengthen Ali’s understanding of their family’s hard condition

– maturity of thinking with minds not with heart-make Ali see the need of become stronger from day to day in his life.

8) The new jersey to wear during the race

A chance to be equal with the other runners.

The new jersey that was given to Ali before the race signifies:

a. A chance for Ali to prove himself

b. The chance to compete fairly without any outside factor to influence and will be judged equally with the others.

c. Fair chance, equal opportunity, the only thing left is to make sure that he succeeds.

Significant of events:

• This event occurs at the early beginning of the movie. Ali’s mother ask him to buy some potatoes at the market. However, because his family has too much debt with the shop, he is not allow to take the potato placed at the front, instead he get the dirty and small potato placed at the bottom and hidden place inside the shop. Clearly, it shows that when you are poor and you have no money, people will disrespect and treat you differently . Where the potato situated symbolizes the upper class and lower class people in the real word situation. Upper class people deserve good treatment, unlike lower class similar to the caste system.
• “The rug is heavy when its wet” is one of the line uttered by his father when he is mad at the mother who using too much water to do the laundry. Actually, this scene is to shows the father’s love and concern toward his wife. For the reason that she is sick and he is afraid that doing heavy chores will effected his wife health condition.
• “ 9 year old, you are not kid anymore” is another line by the father. This is one line that exposing the real situation in the country, where young children forced to work in order to support their family. Unlike certain rich country where children are spoiled and given too much privilege.
• “ With sneakers you can jump well” this line was spoken by Zahra’s teacher when she is having her P.E class. It happened that, one of the girl fell down when jumping because she is wearing shoes. For the reason that Zahra is wearing sneaker, it gives hope that she could jump well and not being shame of wearing he brother’s sneakers.
• “When I say I won’t tell, I won’t” this line utter by Zahra when her brother asked whether she told their parents about the lost shoes. At the young age, they have already learn on how to be secretive and keeping promises. Which leads to strengthen their trust within brother and sister.