Life Essay, Research Paper

Both violent and non-violent resistance are major themes in the movie The Mission. Even tough the Jesuits are peaceful of God they used both violent and non-violent resistance in this story to stand for what they believe in. Violent protest is aggressive and commanding while non-violent resistance is truly standing up for something. While both methods are effective and prove a point, only one form of resistance proved to be most effective in this film.

Violent resistance is both fearless and fearful, but all together shows that the Jesuits in this instance are willing to die for the people of San Carlos. Violent resistance also shows that you are willing to kill for others, which is the major downfall of the Jesuits. The two Jesuits are successful at killing those soldiers and feel they have truly accomplished something but in the end they are both killed. And, then the they are left with an entire village dead, so their violence truly backfired in their face. It truly became even more apparent when only a handful of young children walked through there home to see everyone dead in cold blood. Could this have been avoided if everyone who have followed Father Gabriel in non-violent protest, it is a very realistic possibility.

Non-violent resistance is standing up for what you believe in, and there is just a large sense of power when you simply stare fear in the face. As a Jesuit they are naturally put in situations which they are going to have to support someone or something, and its natural that in protest they would be the most peaceful and rational people in the crowd. But, that was not the case in the mission when 2 of 3 Jesuits decided that violent resistance would be most effective while the head of Jesuits decided to choose non-violent resistance. He truly stood for what he believed in and that was God, he prayed with the community while the others killed each other. He died himself but with the cross in hands, and died doing what God truly intended for him.