The Character of Mooch

Mooch is a very complex and difficult to understand character in the play “Where the Blood Mixes”. It is clear that Mooch is a very troubled individual. This is evident when he takes money from June’s saving jar. Mooch lacks the self-control and maturity to restrain himself from stealing June’s money. To make matters worse he steals the money, not for their collective gain, but for his own personal addictions, gambling and alcohol, and from the context of other characters in the story, this is not the first time that this has happened. To understand why Mooch does this we have to take a deeper look at his past and what he has gone through. Mooch has been through many traumatic experiences in his lifetime. For example, he was sent to residential school as a child, and was forced to forget his past, and everything he had ever known, while he could see his home in the distance. Mooch attempted to run away multiple times in his stay at the school, but none were ever successful. One time Mooch recalls that he was close to escaping but was trapped on the bridge with no escape wondering if he should jump off into the water below. He decided against it and was brought back to the school where he was beaten and sexually abused. These are horrific events that are no doubt engraved in Mooch’s mind, so to cope with this Mooch drinks and gambles away his time to take away from the everlasting pain of these moments. In conclusion, Mooch is a complex and commonly misunderstood character that should be looked at from more than one point of view.