Breaking Bad and Philosophy
To elaborate on my power point further, breaking bad is a modern example of the three classes of Plato’s republic. To illustrate this, I will go into detail about more of the show’s characters. Walter White and Jesse Pinkman play the “producers” who in some interpretations of Plato’s republic are the craftsman, artisans, farmers etc. As the producers, Walter and Jesse are the ones who are responsible for making the crystal meth. The second class or group on Plato’s republic is called the Auxiliaries who are the warriors or protectors is embodied by the character Mike Ehrmantraut. Mike is somewhat of a jack of all trades, he is a private investigator, security specialist and just a tough and protective guy who will do what needs to be done to finish the job. He is the toughest character down-right but he has very strong morals and will be loyal. The third and final class in Plato’s republic is the Guardian class and those are the ones who are the leaders.
The story of breaking bad is one of complete moral shifting in the moral values and actions of the main characters, Walter White and Jesse Pinkman. Walter is a nerd’s nerd at the beginning of the show. He is an extremely over qualified and underachieving high school chemistry teacher. At the opening of the show he finds out he has inoperable lung cancer and has no money to pay for treatment or to leave his family. Walter then he decides he wants to use him chemistry knowledge to make meth and earn money before he dies. He does this by soliciting the help of a former student Jesse Pinkman. Jesse is a criminal who talks big-game but he is too kind to really hurt someone. Together Walter and Jesse begin their meth making venture. From the very beginning the encounter some unsavory people, which is to be expected in the meth business. From the start they had the problem of Jesse’s former associates turn against him and Walter. Walter and Jesse take care of the problem in the criminal way, they kill them. Walter actually makes a pros and cons list of killing a drug dealer who tried to kill him twice. This is the first step of Walter becoming a hardened criminal.
Fast forward a few steps and episodes and Walter and Jesse are the meth cooks for a distributer that sends meth all over the south west (show is set in New Mexico). This is when they encounter the other two classes of Plato’s republic. The Auxiliary is embodied as Mike Erhmantraut, and the Guardian class is embodied in Gustavo Fring. Mike Ehrmantraut is the security specialist and hit man who solves the problems, but he has lines he will not cross. He is a protector of Walter and Jesse for most of the time. Gustavo Fring is the man in charge. He has a shell fast food company that he uses to distribute meth all through the South West. Mike works for Gus as security consultant and deals with all the shady business.
The moral shifting that Walter goes through is powered by money and greed. As he achieves his initial monetary goal, which is for the financial security of his family, he finds more excuses to keep cooking meth. As he continues to cook meth, he also continues to anger Gustavo by breaking rules and behaving dangerously. Spiraling out of control, Walter turns into the head of a world-wide drug empire. This is a perfect end to the story with the age-old moral of the soul pursuit of wealth is destructive.
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Beaking bad? I feel an avian pun coming on... and is it "soul pursuit" or sole? Or both?
ReplyDeleteIt's important to copy-edit. But the Walter White saga remains fascinating and troubling. I still have to think there was something fundamentally flawed in Walter's character, long before he "broke" - and as the saying goes, character will out.