the pale blue eye

“There are times," I declared, "when I believe the dead haunt us because we love them too little.” - Louis Bayard

 

In the movie, a detective named Augustus Landor is asked to investigate the death of a cadet[1] named Leroy Fry who was attending the West Point Academy. Even though Landor said it was murder, the medical expert at the Academy thinks it might have been self-harm. Following that, Cadet Randolph Ballinger was discovered dangling from a tree as well. Cadet Stoddard, who has a close friendship with both of these young men, decides to leave the facility because he is afraid that he will be the one who is victimized next. Since the superintendent of the Academy wants to keep everything secret, Landor's investigation puts the future of the school in danger. Edgar Allan Poe, a cadet with spiritual leanings who believes the killer is a poet, is recruited by Landor to assist in the investigation.

 

Landor is haunted by the death of his daughter Mattie, which happened in the past, and Poe helps him find scary clues about what happened. During the investigation, it was found that Augustus Landor, the investigator, was actually the one who killed the man.

 

The movie shows how bigotry keeps spreading throughout our society and the rest of the world. The laws of human nature require that in order for us to experience happiness[2], we must ensure that other people go through the same kind of anguish that we did. We make an effort to extract payback in order to bring to their attention the misery that we have been through and that continues to follow us around.

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However, as the movie comes to an end, Landor stands on the same cliff where his daughter had fallen. This shows that no amount of retaliation will satisfy Landor's desire for retribution. Although it is frequently simpler to preach forgiveness than to really live it, forgiving is always the right response. It's a tough call, but it's the only one that offers any chance of real comfort or closure.

 

The movie places an emphasis not only on the transformative power[3] of forgiving others and letting go of the past but also on the poisonous nature of hatred and how it eventually destroys those who cling to it.