By Georges Azouri
Breaking Bad was a critically acclaimed television series that aired from 2008-2013. It was show that was based around the life of Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher turned methamphetamine producer. Walter turns to a life of violence and crime due to a cancer diagnosis and the desire to provide for his family. While the show touches on masculinity and similar perspectives of family and providing, it also makes an interesting choice with setting, making Albuquerque, New Mexico and the class representation of the community a central role of the show.
Class representation, or rather misrepresentation is a common characteristic of American television and cinema, Breaking Bad is no exception to this. Albuquerque is a city riddled with social problems and struggles with poverty and unemployment, along with crime and drug issues (Cook & Ashutosh, 2018). The real city of Albuquerque is one that struggles from these very real issues. Breaking Bad, however, uses these struggles to create the perfect world that drug producers can sell their product. This alone already adds further stereotypes regarding low income communities and the issues that they struggle from. This is not a new concept within media but is a part of continual misrepresentation of the lower class.
The city of Albuquerque also has to deal with drug flow coming in from Mexico as the city sits fairly close to the border. Gang activity that results from this drug trade and war are also traits that low income communities in the city suffer from (Cook & Ashutosh, 2018). Breaking Bad also takes advantage of this and uses it as fuel to further certain plots within the series.
To be considered middle class in a metropolitan area, an average household income must be roughly $55,000 (Caron, 2018). At the start of the series, Walter White works as a high school teacher and car wash attendant. His wife is just getting back into the workforce. Although they seem like a middle class family with income and housing in a fairly modest neighborhood, their struggles to make ends meet in light of Walter’s diagnosis is a misrepresentation of the middle class. To put it simply, for Walter and his wife to split their time between 3 different jobs shows that they really are not living a middle class lifestyle, but rather that of a lower income family.
Another important aspect of class is the drug users within the series. While Walter gets recruited and even forced to produce methamphetamine for big time cartels, viewers get a glimpse of some of the users of the product. Most of the drug users in the series are low income individuals, either with a desire to steal the product, kill the seller, or even resort to sex for it. They typically live in run down houses, apartments, or motels.
The main with issue Breaking Bad is that viewers are only getting a representation of low income residents as people who are drug addicts, live in poverty, and are surrounded by gang activity. There are no characters who try to improve their situation without the influence of drugs. Viewers do not get any sense of a character seeking government assistance, education, or other tools to help improve their situation. While critics may agree with keeping the Albuquerque of Breaking Bad as true as possible, class representation in film and television needs to improve and change the perception of the lower class.
References
Caron, C. (2018). Are you middle class? This calculator claims to tell you. The
New York Times.
Cook, I.R., & Ashutosh, I. (2018). Television drama and the urban diegesis:
Portraying Albuquerque in Breaking Bad. Urban Geography, 39(5), 746-762.
KOAT. (2018, October 22). Latest Albuquerque crime numbers released [Video
file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42aI412SjyY.
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Georges,
ReplyDeleteFirst off I want to say that I think this post was very informational. I really liked how you tossed a video in there so that we could get a true representation of what the community is like in Albuquerque. You listed a lot of good factual evidence from the real world and compared it very nicely to how it is represented on the show. Media representation is a major problem in our society today, because how it is portrayed on tv and in videos is vastly different than what it is like in real life. Aside from the topic, I think you could use a little help on some gramatical things to help your writing sound more smooth. Your citations look pretty good but I would double check with the APA formatting just to make sure you're 100% correct. Overall, I thought your post was very well put together and you did a great job of comparing the show to real life. Nice Job!
Georges, you are right to suggest that academic work on Breaking Bad frequently overlooks its representation of class. Good on you to take a run at this and for locating a bit of "cultural geography" to inform your discussion.
ReplyDeleteSome of this is quite good, especially your take on the intersection between class and drug addiction. However, I think you might be missing an important plot point when you focus more squarely on the White family.
That is to say, Walter supports his middle class lifestyle as a high school teacher. Not knowing how well Albuquerque public school teachers are compensated, his lifestyle isn't completely exaggerated.
The important plot point is that Walter's medical bills threaten his life and his ability to support his family. This helps establish sympathy for a character who, offer the course of several seasons, transforms into a villain.
Stylistically, I echo Graham's comments above regarding your citations and would add that the second sentence is rather awkward. In future, you and your partners should be certain to proof read your work carefully.
27 pts.
Georges--
ReplyDeleteGood job on the post! I really enjoyed that you chose to discuss Breaking Bad and social class surrounding the community and the themes of the show. One thing that I have always found interesting about the show is the transformation of Walter in regards to money. At first, he decides to make meth only to support his family after his inevitable death from Lung Cancer. His pursuit of money is solely based on the survival of his family. However, as the show progresses, this changes. As Walter gets further into the drug business and makes more money, he becomes obsessed, leading to his transformation from good to evil. The show takes an interesting stance showing the power money has over people, and I think that is something interesting to come of this show.