| Towards the end of Million Dollar Baby the | | | | tells Frankie at one point, "If I don't have this, I |
| character Scraps, ex boxing great turned gym | | | | have nothing"; Scraps literally lives in the gym, in a |
| porter, says of a character who has been away | | | | small space in a corner with a curtain.He never |
| from the gym for a while, "And then a ghost | | | | leaves the place (Frankie invites him to come to |
| walked in." This is an inadvertant commentary on | | | | Vegas for a fight and he says, "Do you know |
| almost all the principal characters in the film, and | | | | what this place would look like if I left it?") |
| thier relationships to each other.Scraps (Morgan | | | | Everyone whom Frankie seems to care about in |
| Freeman) is a ghost for Frankie (Clint Eastwood), | | | | his life has been gravely hurt by him - his |
| as is Maggie (Hillary Swank) - the former because | | | | daughter, Maggie, and Scraps. The gym is a place |
| he lost sight in one eye in a match, many years | | | | of vicousness and street consciousness - a bully |
| ago, partly due to Frankie, and the latter because | | | | beats an annoying punk to a bloody pulp, only to |
| as time goes on she becomes a surrogate for his | | | | be knocked out cold in turn by Scraps. Frankie |
| long gone daughter who refuses to reconcile with | | | | and Maggie are both on horrible terms with their |
| him (we are not told exactly what went wrong | | | | immediate families, and Scraps has no family in |
| between Frankie and his daughter, though we see | | | | sight;it is such a nonissue for him that none is |
| that he has a shoebox full of letters he sent her | | | | ever even mentioned.In this world, in these lives, |
| marked RETURN TO SENDER).Frankie goes to | | | | the characters share much that is bleak and |
| Mass every day; the priest tells him, "Write to | | | | dismal, yet the end effect of the film on the |
| your daughter." Scraps and Maggie bond because | | | | viewer is one of hope, respect, and dignity |
| both have been trained by Frankie. Scraps and | | | | nonetheless. Any time one character turns to |
| Maggie, without knowing it, become mirrors of | | | | another, their souls,their cores, relate - and in this |
| each other, each having been gravely hurt in | | | | way these relationships reveal to us some of the |
| boxing matches with Frankie as their manager. | | | | essential truths about humanity.Peter Quinones is |
| Yet, at the same time, they mirror each other in | | | | the author of Amethyst Secrets, published by I |
| another way - boxing is their whole life (Maggie | | | | Universe. |