"The Man Without A Face" Essay

            The Man Without a Face is about a young boy named Charles and the close developmental bond he creates with the town’s outcast. The town does not accept Mr. McCloud because of his facial appearance. He is known for many reasons; reasons and facts that are not credible and or only tell half of the truth. Charles experiences so much negative pressure from his mom and sisters about attending boarding school. Throughout the course of the movie, Charles starts to gain a sense of security with Mr.McCloud helping him pass his entrance exam for boarding school. Charles and Mr.McCloud cultivate a comforting and emotional relationship through the course of the movie.

            At the beginning of the movie, Charles is in his own dream of becoming who he wants to be and a hero from being in the military. Though it was just a dream, Charles wants to be accepted into a prominent all boys school in Connecticut. With different accusations of what truly happened to his dad it’s very difficult for him, because he loved his dad very much. Being the only male in the house between his two sisters and mother, he feels inferior to them. Charles uses his anger and negative words in order for him to feel like he is important. Going to the school will allow him to be free and discover who he is as a person.

            We first encounter Mr.McCloud after a heated argument he gets into with his mother and sister. With anger and hate still enraged in him, Charles decides to slash his mom’s tires in despite. While doing this, Mr.McCloud sees Charles doing this to the car. He looks in disbelief and this is where Charles sees him for the first time. He was startled and looked scared because he felt as if Mr. McCloud would tell on him. But he did not and left without saying a word.            When he gets stuck in the rain, McCloud helps him and this starts a bond between the two of them. Lesson number one for Charles was for him to dig a three by three triangle outside. He does not understand how this is going to help, but it will in the long run. McCloud gives him strict rules as to following his way or the highway. Everything is a blur for Charles at the moment. Then he decides to critique the essay that he “wrote” but in actuality plagiarized. This moment shows how their relationship together will start off a little rough with out knowing if things will get better.

            The next few days roll around and Charles starts to like Mr.McCloud, even though he does not understand how it’s going to help him with his test. Mr. McCloud starts to open up to Charles about his life and who he really is. We learn why Mr.McCloud does not have a face because he was in a really bad car accident and dispels all the rumors for Charles. For Charles’ school entrance exam, McCloud introduces Charles to geometric theorems and poetry. As much as Charles hates it, through McCloud expressing the importance of reading and acting through books and poetry he develops a sense of liking to it. Their relationship at this point started to turn into a friendship. Still with all of the rumors flying around about Mr.McCloud, one of the rumors came up in Charles mind of if McCloud does pornography as an actually job. Charles’ clever question leads into the question during another tutoring session. He decides to ask McCloud about sexual attraction, leading into his question about him working in pornography as a job. McCloud laughs at this and is not surprised at the question at all. He leads Charles into a room with all these paintings and is surprised by the fact that he is actually an artist along with a tutor as well. This scene helps us understand who McCloud really is for our own eyes to see, instead of believing what other people say.

            Towards the end of the movie, the emotional connection of McCloud and Charles relationship becomes evident. Through Gloria, his older sister, Charles finds out that his dad died in a psychological facility. It really hurt Charles and he felt betrayed by everyone in his family. The first person he goes to is McCloud because he feels like he is the only one he can trust. The comfort and support hat Charles received from McCloud was what he really needed. He stays the night with him, but then gets taken away by the police because of the misunderstanding that the police and his mother thought when he spent the night over McCloud’s house. It gets taken to court because the attorneys manipulate McCloud’s past from the tragic car accident with the young boy. The lawyers were able to win the fight and Charles was not allowed to speak, see or even write to McCloud anymore.

            Time goes on, and Charles took the entrance exam for boarding school and got accepted. While in boarding school he gets an unexpected letter from McCloud telling him about all the things that had happened during the trial and his restrictions from him. At the end of the movie, we watch Charles in boarding school as he matures into a young man graduating from school. Little did we know that McCloud was actually there during graduation as Charles notices at the end and waves to him to say goodbye. The movie itself was enjoyable. Every situation that happened between Charles and McCloud developed into something more and each of them learned personal things about each other. Power took over Charles. Being with McCloud helped him to satisfy his heart and desires, regardless of the difficult situations at hand. Charles’ relationship with McCloud will always be with him even with the constraints put between them.