Stephanie Borges
RS 1118
Prof. Hanson
October 14, 2017
Film Response: Breaking Bad Lyden describes the protagonist in gangster films as a “ruthless criminal who rises to the top of an organization through his unstoppable desire for success at any price.” Walter White fits this description, maybe not so much in the first season of Breaking Bad but as the series progresses we see his moral compass become increasingly skewed and his actions grow worse and worse. At the beginning of the series he is family man, a high school teacher, a pretty good guy but as his involvement in the drug world continues he becomes a hardened criminal who commits morally despicable acts such as murder. While I understand Walter Whites motivations in the series,
When Walter loses the money, his views change. He convinces himself that a man doesn’t need morals, and that the only thing that matters is how
Walt was good at his job and doing well to perform his duties, but then few things happened around him, which changed his whole life. The first thing or event was corruption, which he was seeing around him in his company. The second thing was to see the superiors also doing corruption and looting money from the company accounts. And third thing was customers of the company. He saw that even customers don’t pay up their money to the company, but still company is bearing them, so he thought if customers are free to do so, then why he cannot do so. He saw that rules are being broken everywhere, so he thought to do so as well. These three events became the major factors for Walt to think about committing a crime
Walter redeems himself when he refuses to take the money from Mr. Lindner. Though he was completely willing to swallow his pride for the sake of his family. This shows that Walter would do what it takes for the overall well-being of his family.
Walter was so brainwashed that he messed up the whole entire family trying to succeed in the American Dream. What is an American Dream? Is someone who thinks you have to achieve by doing hard work in the society. Which is just how Walter is describe in the play. Walter is trying to get his hands on the liquor store to get rich and that he doesn’t have to see his family struggling
Walter White is an emotionally unstable genius chemist. He is extremely conscious about his work and treats his drug business as if it were an acceptable career. Walter gets extremely fond of his career due to the wealth and power he gains with the occupation. Once Walter gains the experience, he begins to think he does not need Jesse as a partner and only agrees to do things if they are done his way. Due to having too much superego, Walt begins to be inflexible which causes many disputes and leads to his separation from his
This is the main reason why he decided to “break bad”. And put his advanced chemistry knowledge to other uses. Like Odysseus, Walter puts his life on the line for the better of the people he cares for the most, showing that he is indeed humble. Although Walter White's character does exhibit the traits of an epic hero, he does also exhibit characteristics and qualities that some might argue do not make him an epic hero. Specifically, the fact that Walter White does not have an epic birth, nor does he belong to any form of
When Walter loses all his money, he’s willing to lose his dignity and be more aggressive to earn it back. We see this when the money is stolen Walters and how it affects Walters view of manhood when he says, “Mama, you know it’s all divided up. Life is. Sure enough. Between the takers and the “tooken.” (He laughs) I’ve figured it out finally. (He looks around at them) Yeah. Some of us always getting “tooken.” (He laughs) ….But I’ll say one thing for old Willy Harris ... he’s taught me something. He’s taught me to keep my eye on what counts in this world” (141). Walter is willing to go against his morals to get what he wants in life, He takes now and apologizes later, whereas the tooken think through ramifications of their actions and don’t act. After the money is stolen, he is willing to take and win, whereas he had
In recent years, a New Yorker artist posted a caricature that depicted a cop speaking with an inmate saying “I am neither a good cop nor a bad cop, Jerome. Like yourself, I am a complex amalgam of positive and negative personality traits that emerge or not, depending on the circumstances” (Stevens, 2007). Being diagnosed with incurable cancer, Walter White began his metamorphosis from an outstanding citizen into an egotistical drug lord. He was a good man who was led to commit immoral choices due to the situation he was put in. Throughout the series, society judges Walter, some say he is a hero for doing the things he did for the greater good of his family whilst others, justify his actions. Although wrong to judge people for committing unlawful or immoral acts in a stressful situation, it is required in order to keep society from collapsing.
Watching the Breaking Bad series helped me understand how one's superego can deteriorate into their id following Freud’s psychoanalytic theory. Walter White, the anti hero, takes us on a journey which vividly illustrates Freud’s thesis. From watching the series and reading critiques on the Freudian aspect, I will develop my own report on:
Walter Younger is a proud man who lusts for money and power to give him satisfaction and relevance in the world. His
At first Walter is used to portray male succumbs to allowing success and money to lead to tearing of his family. Walter is shadowed by greed and ignorance which causes him to fail to achieve the success he wishes to gain with his
He is humble man working two jobs struggling to support his family. Unfortunately, he becomes diagnosed with stage four Lung Cancer (“Pilot”). With this knowledge, he begins to fear the idea of leaving his family with no money. With his background in chemistry, he begins his own meth lab in order to provide money for his family (“Pilot”). This is an example of how he has to reinvent himself in order to enhance his life. He changed from a hard-working citizen to a law-breaking meth maker. As he continues down this law breaking path, he advances into more extreme crimes. These crimes involve murder, arson, and several other felonies. In the episode “Half Measures”, Walter murders a drug dealer that was threatening to kill his best friend/ meth partner (“Half Measures”). This is an example of how his behavior has changed throughout the show. Mr. White evolves to protect his family, but in the process he reinvented himself in a negative matter in order to survive in his dystopian
Walter’s dream is actually the great American dream to have your own house in a good neighborhood, a job you love, a wife, and children. But sadly he’s far from his dream. He is a chauffeur for a rich white man, and must drive him around in an expensive car that he could never afford. Walter’s dream is also deferred when he is told that good old Willy Harris absconded with the money for his and his family’s dreams. Hearing this Walter says “Willy!...Man, I put my life in your hands...Man...THAT MONEY IS MADE OUT OF MY FATHER’S FLESH.” (2.3.128). Walter is very angry after when he finally realizes that they received the money because his father died. Then becomes violent at the fact that a man he trusted with his life ran away with the money that symbolized his dead father. So all the pent up anger he had been holding in finally comes out and he explodes.
Instead of giving up, he stood up for his family by not giving into a white man deal for the money. This shows even if he did almost give into a deal that would break the Younger family dignity. Dignity that they worked in their life, even as. Walter didn’t want that dignity to leave this family but, what hit him the most was his son, seeing him give up like a slave about to be whipped. In those moments he really became a man because used to think about his self (even know he still does).This tells reads that he is arrogant.
Breaking Bad is a TV show about a science instructor, Walter White, turning to cooking methamphetamine when he finds out that he has terminal cancer, so as to leave some legacy for his family. The show accompanies Walter as he changes from a compliant and empathetic father to a cold, merciless drug kingpin through the wrong decisions he makes in life. Vince Gilligan made the show with a dream of having the hero turn into the adversary as the show advances and to investigate the subject "actions have consequences." In giving Bryan Cranston a part as Walter White, Gilligan picked a performing artist whose livelihood bend dovetails uncannily with his character. As Walt changes from such a family man himself into a force eager executioner,