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