Ali's struggle

Rating: 10/10 (11 February 2007)

The movie, Children of Heaven, in many ways could be described as a struggle from within. During the entire movie, moral dilemmas were presented and these two children had to make a choice. The author seems to represent in the two children the openness to change. This could be seen in many cases during the movie. The author portrays the two children changing and adjusting to all the different situations. This shows that the children of Iran are more open to change and more able to change then the later generations. This could also represent Modernity vs. tradition.
Another main theme that was portrayed in the movie was sacrifice. Ali sacrificed many things throughout the movie, to try and find the shoes, and to make sure is his sister had shoes. Ali sacrificed getting kicked out of school for his sister. Ali's school began when his sister's school ended. And Ali would wait for his sister to switch out his school. Another sacrifice that Ali made was the sacrifice of his own shoes. After the race at the climax of the movie, Ali begins to take off his shoes. Not only are his feet covered in blisters, but his shoes are completely ruined from running the race. So the author portrays the fact that Ali was willing to ruin his own shoes in order for his sister to have shoes.
To comfort his sister while she waits to get her shoes back, Ali makes sacrifices and gives her his nice pencil, and his gold pin. Ali's desire to get his sister Zahra's shoes back eventually leads to lust to get her shoes back. Ali even sacrifices playing sports with his friends to go and help his dad work on his day off. Ali's struggle to get his sisters shoes back and his ability to change, shows the audience that the younger generations are more able to change and conform to the growing economy.