Contin...Tsotsi

Redemption - the act of redeeming or the condition of having been redeemed.

Tsotsi searches for it and hopes to achieve it by returning the stolen baby back to the mother, but i dont think he ever really achieves it because there no redeeming quality.

In Tsotsi's case i dont think redemption is the best concept to apply to his problem. As is said in the film "you cant give back the woman's legs but you can still give back her baby." He shot the mother and possibly even paralyzed her, the kidnapping was just the added mischief to the whole equation.

Obviously Tsotsi wanted the car and even though he knew he couldnt drive it, his instincts just guided him to pillage the car and drive it to freedom. You dont really know what he wished to accomplish with the car, knowing he didnt even know how to drive, but the plan was forked when the baby came into play.

The baby situation threw him into a soul-searching situation where flashbacks plagued his thought process with the child.

The problem with the idea of redemption is the kidnapping wasnt the problem, it was the violent behavior and the almost shoot-to-kill mentality. If you notice he fired on the woman like nothing, and drove off without the simple notion of regret for shooting an un-armed civilian. Theres no path of redemption to that, only the feelings of regret and remorse. You cant take a bullet back, and you obviously cant make a woman magically walk again but what you can do, and Tsotsi did do, is shine some light back on the dark situation.

The woman wasnt going to be able to walk again and still had her mind wandering about the whereabouts of her child, but with the baby back she then had her concience layed to rest. Her inability to walk is adaptable, what wouldnt have been adaptable would have been never knowing where you child was again.