Essay About Comte De Reynaud And Images Of God

Unlocking Chocolate
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Unlocking Chocolat
Chocolat, tells the story Vianne Rocher and her six year old daughter
Anouk, who arrive at a village somewhere in France. After arriving at the fictional
village the mother and daughter proceed to open La Celeste Praline, a small yet
distinguished chocolaterie. Viannes chocolate quickly becomes a hit in the town
and changes the lives of the townspeople dramatically. However, that is only the
surface of an incredibly dynamic film. Therefore, to the fully understand this film
and its many meanings we must analyze it. As a result, the best and most
efficient way to analyze this film is to compare and contrast two characters that
are central to the theme of the film: Comte de Reynaud and Vianne Rocher .
Also, in order to fully understand the meaning of this film we must answer two
very important questions. (1) How do these images of God compare with Jesus
Image of God or reality as related in Marcus Borgs book, Meeting Jesus Again
For the First Time. And (2) which character is more closely aligned to Jesus
image of God? Before these characters are compared and questions answered
one cannot say that they fully understand the meaning of the film Chocolat.
In Chocolat, the two characters that are the most diametrically opposed to
each other (throughout the majority of the film) are Vianne Rocher, the owner
of a small yet very distinguished Chocolaterie, and Comte de Reynaud, the
overly pious mayor of their village. Each character is unique. Vianne Rocher is a
woman who wonders from village to village in search of a life she never quite
seems to find, but is always longing for. While on the other hand, Comte de Reynaud is a mayor
intent on keeping spiritual (as well as secular) rule over his town at nearly all
costs. Also very unique to each character is their view of God/reality. On the
one hand, Vianne Rocher does not attend church nor is it related to us that she
believes in Christ; however Vianne is not the least bit afraid of showing her very
loving and compassionate view of reality. Meanwhile, Comte de Reynaud
attends church every Sunday, prays daily, and even helps to write the sermons
for Sunday service. However, Comte de Reynauds view of God is quite different
from Viannes. The Comte de Reynaud views God as a judge willing to dole out
justice and punishment at a moments notice too those who sin against him and
the church.
Vianne is an extremely interesting character. Although it is never related
to us wether she believes in God, we do know she does not attend church, that
much is certain. Along with knowing that she does not attend church we also
know that she has a loving compassionate view of society, humanity, and
reality. As a direct result of this loving and compassionate view of humanity and
reality, her behavior and attitude toward others is one of compassion and love.
This is illustrated to us under a number of different circumstances: when she
accepts Josephine into her house after she has been beaten, when she opens
her arms to the so called “river rats” as equals, and after finding the mayor
asleep in her shop window she vows not to say a word to the townspeople
knowing that it would bring shame and dishonor to his name. Each
aforementioned example is an illustration of how Viannes view of reality as a
loving compassionate world directly affects her behavior and attitude toward
those she comes in contact with.
Comte de Reynaud is a very interesting person. He prays daily,
attends mass every Sunday, helps to write the sermons, and views God as a
judge willing to dole out justice and punishment at a moments
notice. However, the most important of the aforementioned is how Comte de Reynauds
view of God directly affects his behavior and attitude toward others. Because
Comte de Reynaud views God as a judge who is willing to dole out justice and
punishment at a moments notice his behavior and attitude towards others is
affected in three ways. (1) He believes there is only one right and one wrong in
the world. (2) Those who are wrong need to be punished for their sins against the
Lord.