Pago en forma completa o descontando días no laborados

While the death of a father and mother play a role in James and Spock becom- ing heroic adults and lead them to seek to save lives, the death of family has the exact opposite impact on Nero. Late in the film we learn more of what is driving Nero on his mission of mass murder (his destruction of the Vulcan planet alone amounted to killing six billion people). Nero describes him- self as a person who, at the outset, chose “a life of honest labor. To provide for myself and the wife who was expecting my child.” There is a slight hint at egocentrism in the use of the expression “my child” as opposed to “our child” that he and “the wife” were having, but we can take his word that he was honest and (at least) not criminal at one point. Nero’s planet was in trouble and (leaving out the details) the Federation designed a plan to save the planet, which Spock would execute. Through no fault of the Federation or Spock personally, the rescue did not succeed and the planet was lost. By Nero’s lights, Spock and the Federation “allowed my people to burn while their planet broke in half.” The death of his family and his people set Nero on a path of ruthless killing. Nero states his position in stark terms: “And when I lost her [“the wife”], I promised myself retribution. And for twenty- five years I planned my revenge against the Federation.”

Nero (and eventually Spock) time-travel back to before Romulus was destroyed. At the outset of the film, Nero’s plan is now to destroy the Federa- tion and all its planets, thus (he believes) saving his planet. But notice that while the stated goal is to save his planet, uppermost in Nero’s mind seems to be the infliction of pain. He wants members of the Federation to know

what he felt when he had to come to terms with the death of his family and planet. In this fashion, Nero winds up cementing the pain into his character, even though if he succeeds in rescuing his planet then (paradoxically) there would be no pain for him to feel, because his family and people would live. He also does not give any notice of another possibility: time travel could allow both he and Spock to work with the Federation and those Romulans alive before the destruction to save the planet. Here is an exchange between Nero and Captain Christopher Pike, when Pike is in captivity: “And for twenty-five years I planned my revenge against the Federation. And forgot what it was like to live a normal life. I did not forget the pain. It’s a pain that every surviving Vulcan now shares. My purpose, Christopher, is to not sim- ply avoid the destruction of the home that I love . . . but to create a Romu- lus that exists, free of the Federation. . . . That is why I will destroy all the remaining Federation planets. Starting with yours. Then we have nothing left to discuss.” We wonder how much this “love” of his home is truly love when taking into account Nero’s death.

When it becomes clear that Nero has failed in his goal of destroying Earth and he is vulnerable to the Enterprise’s lethal weapons, Captain James Kirk offers him a chance to surrender. He explains to his crew, “Showing them compassion may be the only way to earn peace with Romulus.” If Nero had surrendered, he would still be free to love his lost family and planet, albeit this love would involve great grief. On the other hand, as we just noted, he might also stand a chance of averting the destruction of his planet in the future. But instead of making such choices, he chooses death for himself and his crew. His last words are, “I would rather suffer the end of Romulus a thousand times. I would rather die in agony than accept assistance from you.” Really? Even if that assistance could be extended to save his family and planet, not just once but a thousand times?

Nero has let the loss of his family and planet lead him to choose death rather than life. While George gave his life, and might have given his life a thousand times, to save his wife and child, Nero seems to be willing to die a thousand times rather than accept assistance that might save his wife and child, and perhaps his whole planet. There is a sense in which Nero may be operating with the more ancient view of childhood: he, as the father, has power and ownership over his child and thus can elect not to save the child. (Perhaps a hint of Nero adopting this ancient Greco-Roman practice lies in his bearing the name of one of the most notoriously abusive Roman emperors.) While James and George give themselves over to heroic love,

Nero abandons himself to bold, ruthless hatred. George’s last words are words of love, and in the final sequence in which we see James, the friend- ship between him and Spock seems securely launched, and yet in the case of Nero his last words involve hatred and the desire for the annihilation of himself and the crew. James, on the other hand, comes to learn to own his adulthood and its new responsibilities. In the closing scene in the academy, it is James’s heroism that enables him to be fully accepted by the upright.