Can being trapped lead to comfort?

In this world, society depicts our every move. Judgment is a part of life and everyone has faced this at least once. It is impossible for someone to be perfect yet at the same time we, as people, have a tendency to judge people and pin point out each other flaws because they do not meet "our" standards and criteria of a perfect person. Every one of us is not perfect, yet we find ways to morph our lives to ourselves in order to make us feel perfectly acceptable towards society. In the film Doubt and the book Molly Sweeney, there are two instances that demonstrate individuals who are set at a disadvantage yet find ways to evolve. Some may consider them to be trapped and not able to prosper. Is this true? Do these individuals find comfort within their own disadvantages?

 Doubt is a film that is set in the 1960's and follows a nun's accusations against a priest who has taken a close interest in a young black boy, Donald Miller. Donald, who is the only black boy attending an all-white catholic school, has daily difficulties do to his race. Throughout the film we are left hanging with questions flooding our mind of what kind of particularly interest does the priest, Father Flynn, taken in Donald. Donald is a very out spoken boy, he's quite yet well mannered. In fact in most scene Donald remains quiet and in the background, as if he would rather not speak. It is safe to say that Father Flynn is the dominating figure in their relationship. Near the end of the film we discover that Donald is gay. During this time period, it was not fully social acceptable publicly announce one's sexual orientation. And having Donald only being in middle school, one can easily infer that he was frightened. He sought comfort through his mentor Father Flynn. Father Flynn was to believed also gay and probably sought refuge through the Catholic Church. It is questionable to whether or not they created a bond through their sexual orientation. 

This still of Donald is very powerful in context and meaning. He is sitting on a staircase looking between the banisters at Father Flynn. It almost appears as if he is jailed in and trapped behind the stair's bars. This picture can be seen metaphorically as if something in Donald's life is trapping him. Is it his sexual orientation or Sister A's believed abuse of Father Flynn. This image is very dark and has lots of very neutral tones. There is a light shining on Donald's back which creates a shadow on the wall behind him. It is curious to why the director had a light cast upon Donald when he was spying on Father Flynn. Does this light symbolize that Donald must come the realization of the true indication of his and Father Flynn's innapropriate relationship or is it telling Donald that it is ok to befriend him. Light initially means hope yet this still can be confusing due to the expression of Donald's face. He appears to have a hard expression, almost appearing frustrated and pissed off.  

 

In the end of the film, Father Flynn leaves his parish due to Sister A's continuing accusations. I believe that Father Flynn felt safe at this parish and appeared to be very upset when he was forced to leave. Yet Father Flynn wasn't the only one who was upset due to his parting, Donald Miller also appeared to upset when Father Flynn had announced his despatcher at mass. Donald appeared to be heartbroken that his mentor was leaving. It seemed that Father Flynn was the only one that Donald trusted. He felt comfortable around him. This then can answer the question that Donald did find comfort by being trapped by his own societal disadvantages.

In the book Molly Sweeney, the main character Molly is a woman who is partially blind. She is offered a surgery that will recover her vision. She was timid at first but then agrees. For almost her whole life, molly has lived her whole life without vision. Society would see this as a disadvantage yet to her it just a normal part of life. She has evolved her life to fit this world as it is and leave happily. Molly is very comfortable with how things are yet is curious to see what she is missing. After the surgery she is heavily intrigued and picks up on things easily even though she has to learn how to see objects and connect these images to her memory. Yet after a while Molly becomes tempered. She doesn't like being able to anymore and wishes that she was blind again.

Molly most definitely found comfort through her disability because from ever she could remember she was blind. Donald also found comfort from his struggles that were unfortunately seemed unethical to society. It is how we work out and live our lives to fit our struggles. It doesn't matter if we aren't like 'society' because in reality there is no way to define 'society' everyone is different with their challenges. How people deal with their issues is what initially forms society. If everyone was the same there would be no context or depth to this world.