Good evening! Below you will find a sample student response for out of class essay #3. Please print out a hard copy and bring to class on Monday. I realize that some of you can access this from an electronic device in class, but this time, please print out a copy. This is the first posting for the weekend. Please check back tomorrow for the second one! :)
The
Dichotomous “Cancer Man”
As
soon as the pants “go flying” in the first scene of Breaking Bad, the
symbolism begins. Representative of the main character Walt – how he “doesn't
wear the pants” and conversely, how “the pants come off,” we are introduced
right away to strong themes of dichotomy and transition. Outside of the
obviously phenomenal writing and intelligent use of symbolism, the depth and
complexity of the characters are also a huge part of what keeps the audience
engaged. Walter Sr's character especially, is a perfect example of why people
can't get enough; richly developed and contradictory, Walt's multifaceted
character cleverly travels between two very dichotomous worlds. In one, he is a
seemingly submissive “cancer man” and in another he is a “bad ass” maker of
meth.
When
viewers are introduced to Walter Heartwell White Senior for the first time, he
plays a mild-mannered chemistry professor who never really stands his ground.
Some might even call him a “pussy.” By the time the season ends, however, he
has made an “explosive” transition into the drug world and has done some
very immoral, very illegal things. To name but a few, he kills Emilio and Crazy
Eight; blows up “KEN WINS'” car; makes and sells some of the best crystal meth
in all of New Mexico, and destroys Tuco's headquarters. This crazy dichotomy -
living as a science professor in one world, only to be blowing something up in
the drug world - is also what makes his particular character so
enjoyable to watch. Describing
himself best when talking passionately about the “study of change,” Walt says,
“It is growth, then decay; then transformation.” He really couldn't have
said it better.
Walt's
start, as the submissive “cancer man” is best seen and understood in the
relationship that he has with his wife Skylar. The routine always seems to be
him following her lead. On his 50th
birthday for example, Walt starts
his day out by eating her terrible veggie bacon, he is then reprimanded for
using the family credit card to buy printer paper, and later on, he reluctantly
receives a hand job from her - while she talks casually about Ebay and
painting. It's obvious from one scene alone that Skylar “wears the pants” in
the relationship. Further supportive of this, is the symbolism used when
hanging Walter's pants outside the RV: even when he is thoroughly involved in
making meth, he's still “not wearing the pants.”
The
theme of timidness with Walt, while it is probably most evident with Skylar,
continues outside of his
family life as well. With his job at the car wash for instance, when he takes
orders from his boss and is humiliated by snobby students; and also at school,
when he says nothing to the boy who drags his chair loudly across the room.
Walt even allows Hank to take his beer during his birthday party and
allows him also to turn on the interview he was in, on the television. Time and
time again, Walt bites his tongue in submission.
On
the flip side, it is obvious in so many scenes that biting his tongue is
difficult for him and that he is dying inside (pun intended) to speak up
for himself. Ironically, it's only after he falls at work and is officially
diagnosed with lung cancer, that we see him transform and essentially “grow
some balls.” A scene reflective of this, is Walter quitting his second job at
the car wash: shaking with aggression, and knocking product off the
wall, he grabs his crotch aggressively and yells, “wipe down this!”
Unfortunately
bravado is not equal to (having) street smarts, and while Walt has more gall
than he's had before, he is still a “brilliant idiot.” Coercing Jesse
into cooking is a perfect example of Walt being brilliant, but stupid – Walt may know the chemistry
inside and out but he is not familiar with the drug scene or what it takes to
sell the meth. This is where Walt gets himself into his first bit of trouble;
when he jumps in without thinking through the consequences. Blackmailing Jesse, stealing lab equipment or secretly
cashing out his savings for a RV could be interpreted as a dying man's
desperation. And while that is surely part of the dynamic, another side
is simply that Walter is an idiot – regardless of him being brilliant in the
world of chemistry, he is (still) an uneducated “white boy” in the world of
drugs. Jesse in fact calls Walt out on this/his “straightness,” asking him “why
now?” and he simply says “I am awake.” He might be awake to the
possible gains of selling meth, but he is not awake to the consequences and is
still a brilliant man with a stupid idea. Also along these lines – and
another prime example of Walt being a brilliant idiot – is the “ski mask”
scene. When Jesse explains to Walt how hard getting psuedo is, Walter simply
comes up with a different recipe: this reflects his intelligence. The way he
gets his hands on the new ingredients though, reflects his ignorance. Also,
what burglars wear knitted ski masks with pom-poms on top?!
Despite Walt's ignorant impulsiveness
regarding the drug world or the fire in his belly, he remains a compassionate man. The very best example of
this is when Walt cares for Crazy Eight in the basement. After a lot of “debate” on what weapon
to use, Walt walks down to the basement with a yellow shopping bag. All Domingo
needs to do to derail Walt's murderous intentions is ask for water; not only
does Walter bring him water, but he brings him 2 gallons of it, a sandwich, a
bucket, toilet paper and finally, hand sanitizer – obviously, he is having a
difficult time killing him. Truth is, Walt really wants any reason to not
kill him. In the next scene they are talking – about family - he takes pity on
Crazy Eight and instead of “taking care of business” Walter makes him another
sandwich, even taking the time to cut off the crusts. It's almost like it's
hard for him not to be compassionate. In the end of it all, when he
realizes that Domingo has the plate shard, Walt is so upset that he
cries - He wanted so terribly to let him live; Domingo sums it up well when he
says to Walt: “this line of work doesn't suit you.”
A
similar situation that shows Walt in a compassionate light (yet at the same
time dynamic and “bad ass”) is when he blows up Tuco's headquarters. After Walt
convinced Jesse to push
meth on Tuco and Jesse ends up in
the hospital, Walter is really upset. He feels guilty for pushing Jesse
into the situation, and ends up
going to Tuco to get revenge for Jesse's injuries and retrieve his stolen
money. The writers are really creative with this scene; Walter starts the
episode talking about explosions, “The faster they undergo change, the more
violent the explosion.” He then ends the episode having blown up the drug
lord's headquarters, with, what he started off talking about – Fulminated
mercury - “a little tweak of chemistry.”
Speaking
of science, let us not forget Walt as a teacher. Always a scientist and
professor, it almost seems
natural that he take every chance he can to educate others. The bath tub scene
is the epitome of Walt as a teacher and scientist as he uses that moment, not
to bark, scream, or freak out, but to (albeit condescendingly) “teach” Jesse
about acids and plastics: “..I'm sorry. What were you asking me? Oh, yes - that
stupid plastic container I asked you to buy – you see, hydrofluoric acid won't
eat through plastic. It will, however, dissolve metal, rock, glass, ceramic. So
there's that.”
Humor
aside, Walter is, by far the most intriguing and multifaceted character on Breaking
Bad. Even when he is a “bad ass” he can turn around and be a family man and
when it boils down to it, everything revolves around them. Family is why Walt
wants so desperately to make money and also why he takes the risks he does. For
him, all things essentially lead back to his family. A good example of how Walt
is always thinking about his family is his video to them, in the pilot. The
fact that Walt is in the desert, in his underwear, cooking meth to make money
for his family, shows right off the bat his love for them. One could even argue
that Walt should probably be more interested in the sirens coming his
way, or the lethal gas that is probably sneaking out from the RV, but instead
he fumbles with the recorder to send his family one last message.
Further
more on the subject of family, is the Walter that protects. When Walt Jr. is
teased at the thrift store, Walt is seething and walks off. We suspect that he
is literally walking away from everything but then he comes back unexpectedly
and ends up kicking the boy to the floor. Skylar and Walt Jr. are
surprised, because the behavior
seems so foreign – but really, it's just one of many faces that make up
Walt Sr.
It
is hard to argue that Walt is anything less than an amazingly well developed
character. One of the most memorable scenes that reflects all the complexity
that is Walter and all the underlying symbolism and word-play that is Breaking
Bad, is Walter's flashback when he is cleaning up the “bath-tub goo.” In
it, we see him discussing with Gretchen all the molecules that constitute life
and Walter says, “There's got to be more to a human being, than that.” Then,
when they are left with a .111958 remainder Gretchen responds that it can only
be the soul... Over and over again, as he sloshes through thick, red, slimy
remains his mind goes back to that moment with Gretchen at the chalk board.
It's as if he skipped over the part where he worries about getting caught, the
hole in the ceiling, or the remnants of Emilio. Instead, he is thinking about
science and debating existence. This snippet shows so many things about Walter;
how he is intelligent, but naive; contemplative, but mindless: it shows that
there is so much more to him.
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