Children of Heaven

There are many movies that can easily touch one’s heart or make one think a lot about global issues. Such movies are significant for the society and its development. Furthermore, they intend to teach people how to avoid things that can affect their lives. Children of Heaven, a thrilling and enlightening movie, displays the notions that could help to improve the developing world. The paper discusses the fundamental issues showed in the movie that have enormous influence on people’s lives such as family ties, social network, and urbanization. The family relations and social network require mutual trust, support, and reliability whereas urbanization results in public health issues, poverty, and social stratification.

A family is a circle of the related individuals who respect and appreciate each other. Many prominent people while delivering their speeches point out that family is the most important thing in their lives. There is no other person but a family member, who can offer instant support and help. A family member is a person, whom one can trust in any situation. The movie shows these qualities in the exemplary behavior of the siblings that are always ready to help each other in the most difficult moments (Esfandiari, & Maijdi, 1997). As a strong family unit, both of them try to hide from their parents the fact that a boy had lost his sister’s shoes, which demonstrates an incredible support in times of trouble.

Another vivid example of strong kindred bonds is the behavior of the breadwinner, who is ready to do the most grueling work to provide for his family. It is also crucial that his family acknowledges and appreciates the man’s efforts and sacrifices. The movie exhibits the respectful and supportive attitude towards the protagonist in the scene where his children give him a cup of tea or a dish (Esfandiari, & Maijdi, 1997). Despite the fact that this couple is poor, each of the spouses contributes to raising their family. The idealistic portrayal of the family relationships the movie presents is very hard to encounter nowadays.

Although very often people do not appreciate the biggest treasure in their lives, family ties have a beneficial influence on the members of the family. Owing to effective communication, they rarely have quarrels and misunderstandings and strive to maintain the close relationships that are vividly depicted in the movie. The siblings always talk about their problems and try to solve them on their own. For instance, when the boy loses his sisters’ shoes, he does everything possible to get the new ones by winning in the competition (Esfandiari, & Maijdi, 1997). Together, all these noble deeds and kind acts strengthen family relations by making them flourish and develop.

According to Bott, there are two kinds of marriages that are different from each other in the sense of behavior and attitude of the family members (as cited in Macionis & Parrillo, 2010, p. 188).  In the first case, people live together, but they do not spend time in each other’s company whereas in the second case, people do everything together and try to devote time to each other as much as possible. In the movie, the married couple belongs to the second type where the man is the head of the family, and the woman does all the housework and raises children (Esfandiari, & Maijdi, 1997). More and more married couples in modern society fail to resemble a family in its traditional sense. However, they consider the new family lifestyle to be typical of their social circle.

The families are usually surrounded by other people forming a social network. Liebow mentioned that neighbors are one’s ‘walking buddies’ whom a person meets on a daily basis and gets used to small talks and pleasant smiles (as cited in Macionis & Parrillo, 2010, p. 189). The movie illustrates quite friendly and warm relationships between the neighbors where they help each other and even share the last pieces of the food. Although the family does not have much to eat, they give a dish to their destitute neighbors (Esfandiari, & Maijdi, 1997).  Even struggling with poverty, people try to keep close personal connections that bring peace and mutual satisfaction. Although some people start their friendship at work while having lunch or a small get-together, others generate a social network (Macionis, & Perillo, 2010). People who have neighbors are socially connected, which means they get both emotional support and assistance (Macionis, & Perillo, 2010).

Another important issue that movie shows is urbanization, which stems from the lack of the work in the suburbs and countryside and low quality of life among the residents of rural and suburban areas. People move from the outlying districts in the hope that they will find a better job and have a possibility to afford the essentials. According to the movie, the family could barely manage to buy shoes (Esfandiari, & Majidi, 1997). For this reason, the protagonist goes to the city and tries to find a job there demonstrating high aspiration for a better life. A city is a big place with more people, more paths, more buildings, and, in general, more possibilities to provide oneself with basic necessities (Macionis, & Perillo, 2010).

Urbanization is a widespread phenomenon, which has profound consequences. The major issue arising from urbanization is social stratification that divides people into various social classes. The movie shows the division into two classes: the rich and the poor that share different status concerning wealth and prestige. The poor are represented as people in need wearing dirty and torn clothes while the rich are depicted as presentable and dignified people (Esfandiari, & Maijdi, 1997).  In fact, the rich have everything that an ordinary person can only imagine. The upper class supplies the poor with work and pays them money for doing it. Therefore, urbanization results in the division of the society into the lower and upper classes.

Another consequence of urbanization is pollution that has a detrimental effect on the environment and people. In the movie, there is much untreated sewage in the city (Esfandiari, & Majidi, 1997). Modern society has more environmental problems than twenty years ago. The contamination of water makes it impossible to drink and for its habitants to survive (“Environmental problems,” n.d.). People throw away garbage all around the city paying no proper attention to the harmful outcome their careless actions may have.

Another aspect of human reckless attitude towards the environment is air pollution. Nowadays millions of people drive cars that produce exhaust fumes and contaminate the air. It poses an invisible threat to health and results in diverse respiratory illnesses. Moreover, urbanization produces another inconvenience, which is widespread in the cities. People make complaints of much noise on the streets caused by traffic and crowd (Walsh, 2015).

In conclusion, the movie Children of Heaven raises vital issues that vary from personal relationships to social problems. The major predicament concerns the notion of family, its close bonds, and social network, which are essential for planning the development of the future society and world. The movie conveys the idea that without a family unit there would be no sustainable society. In addition, social networks decrease the level of offenses and create places where poor people can feel secure and get some food. Being helpful and reliable, it would be possible to make the world a better place. Another problem that is also of high value is urbanization and its consequences. Although it facilitates the technological progress, urbanization causes social stratification and environmental pollution leading to severe health disorders. For this reason, it is critical to reflect on the global issues showed in the movie because the inevitable outcomes of human actions could be much worse than they are now.

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