Motorcycle Diaries

I feel there were several scenes in the film that revealed how Che's personality was shaped to be a future leader. I feel the most important one was when he was with his family saying goodbye. He was genuinely happy for all of his siblings and his parents to be there and hugged them all and expressed his feelings for them before he left on the motorcycle. His upbringing in a happy nurturing family was his strong base. The next scene that really seemed to touch him was when he met the couple on their way to the mine to find work. They had left their child with other family after losing their home to someone who had more money. They were cold, tired and exhausted, but were still trying to make a living. When he gave them something to drink and a blanket to warm them they seemed very appreciative. Later in the film you learn he gave the fifteen dollars that his girlfriend had given him to purchase American underwear to this couple. He could have spent that money on so many things along the way, when they were cold and hungry, when the motorcycle was not running. He became even more enraged when the miners were chosen and made to climb into the truck, they were hungry and thirsty and the foreman was only concerned that the potential miners were quick about leaving. I felt that as each day passed he saw more and more that made him want to change things to help those who were not well off. He saw farmers on his way to machu pichu who had had their land taken away. The working class who were being towed in the small boat behind the luxurious ship he was riding in on his way to stay at the Leper colony. It is obvious his friend Mial does not feel as passionate as he does about the sites that they see along the way. Is it because Mial is older than him and feels that he cannot change anything, or is it that Che feels that he cannot go on watching the injustice continue?