The Boy and the Heron, refusing the call #2

 The Boy and the Heron was such an interesting story. It mostly followed the idea of grief and how you grow from that and honor the legacy of the people you have lost and must carry on. In this film not only is Mahito rejecting the call, but others around him are also helping to make sure that he does not accept the call and enter the tower. His aunt and all of the old ladies living in his house work to keep an eye on him and make sure that the heron does not trick him into entering the tower. Mahito spends so much of the film navigating the loss of his mother and being haunted by it just like the tower and the heron are haunting him. They are both in his dreams and a voice in his head calling to him. The world that he is sucked into is there to help him process this trauma and release the anger that he is holding. Mahito is so angry and much of the film blames other people for what has happened to him and the situation that he is in. His father remarrying, his mothers death, the house he now has to live in, the school he has to attend. By the end of the film he realizes that he needs to be able to move on from the things that have happened to him. He cannot just continue to blame other people; he needs to be able to accept it and move on with his life, otherwise that anger will haunt him for the rest of his life and make himself miserable.

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