A Letter to Momo and Sloth

    A Letter to Momo directed by Hiroyuki Okiura is a Japanese animated film with a style similar to that of Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli. A style in which mystical worlds and a true sense of fantasy prevail over everything else. The story follows the life of Momo as she travels with her mom to live with her grandparents in a smaller town. The reason for the move is due to the rather sudden death of Momo's father. Amongst the heartache, Momo and her father have strong interaction with the vice of sloth in various ways. 

    In my Intro to Philosophy class we are reading Rebecca DeYoung's Glittering Vices. DeYoung defines sloth as indeed having to do with laziness, but also as being extremely busy to the point of having “no free time” to do anything other than busy work. Towards the end of A Letter to Momo one of the last interactions between Momo and her father is displayed in a rather depressing sloth-filled manner. Momo had gone out of her way to score some very difficult to acquire tickets for he dad, and when she giddily presents them to him he tells her he’s too busy. Momo, heartbroken by her father’s slothful action takes refuge in her room and rather than being the better person, she falls back on the actions performed by her father. However, instead of Momo being slothful in the sense that her father was, she initially takes more to the renown definition of sloth. She stays cooped up in her room not wanting anything to do with anyone. On behalf of Momo’s father’s action, she becomes subdued and acts in a lazy manner by not applying the effort she’s capable of in order to fix things. It’s not until Momo’s father dies and the move takes place that Momo acts slothful in the way her father did. As her mother, and even her grandparents try to get her to interact with the other people of the new town, she refuses and typically proclaims that she’s too busy. A key example is when Momo’s mother asks her to spend time with her grandparents. Instead of eating with them as Momo was asked of, she dips out of the house claiming to the audience to be too busy.

    A Letter to Momo isn’t all about sloth by any means, but I thought it'd be interesting to display the points the film is depends on.