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Breaking Bad, AMC's hit television series, focuses on a man, terminally ill with lung cancer, who "breaks bad" and relies on cooking and selling Methamphetamine to amass money for his family.
Throughout this well-developed series, many American myths can be seen, such as The Self-Made Man, The Frontier, The Covenant, and "The American Exodus", the most prevalent being "The Self-Made Man". "The Self-Made Man" is all about individualism, breaking through set barriers, rising up from nothing to something grand, and, of course, being a man, and, showing all of these, Breaking Bad clearly conveys how heavily this myth impacts and influences our society today.
Walter White, the main character in the show, strives to be a true man, one that can provide for his family. The whole reason he goes into the drug business is so that he can provide money for his family when he's no longer with them. He makes a promise to himself to do all he can, no matter what he must face, to accomplish this, aligning with the covenant.
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When Walt sits in his car and calculates that he needs $737,000, he decides that he will not stop until he accomplishes this, until he can be the man that can support his own family.
Full of pride, Walter consistently prefers to work alone with only the company of his partner, Jesse Pinkman, who we later find out is not truly needed by White. Walter hates having to go through the middle man and constantly prefers to deal with all the business arrangements himself.
Eventually, he sells his meth to a bigger company, but even then, he does it with spite. As the series goes on, we see Walter become more and more self-dependent, being able to trust no one but himself. Besides causing trouble and hardships, Walter dislikes partnerships due to his own pride. The common American ideal of wanting to see your work and know that you did it without needing any outside help is very obvious here.
White, better known as "Heisenberg", embodies the self-made man through his rise from being a lowly high school chemistry teacher to a notorious drug lord, breaking through every possible barrier and social limitation that confronts him. At the very beginning of the series, we see that White is diagnosed with an inoperable stage 3 lung cancer. White, facing the imminent and ultimate challenge that is death, loses everything: his job, family, and sanity. He starts as a rookie, knowing nothing about the drug trade, and makes his way to the top. Although this may not be the typical "rags-to-riches" plot, it is obvious that White starts at the bottom and crawls to the throne, where he eventually rules as the king. He conquers numerous obstacles, such as multiple attempted murders, almost getting caught by the DEA, and much, much more. Walter escapes death and earns more than enough money for his family. Heisenberg definitely makes a name for himself as he rises up to take his place in the drug world. Who would have thought that an innocent high school chemistry teacher would be capable of all these things? At first, White was not accepted by those who he did business with, but he continued to work and forced them to acknowledge him. This conveys the idea of how any hardworking American can make it here in the United States. Breaking Bad puts forth an ingenious portrayal of the "self-made man" through the unbelievable transformation of Walter White in which he breaks bad.
Breaking Bad clearly shows the myth of the "self-made man" and demonstrates how it can impact American society. It shows that this myth still plays a dominant role in many men, as well as women. There is no other man who shows a more drastic transformation of a common
man to a king than Walter White.
An Introduction to the American Myths in Pop Culture Breaking Bad. (2023, Apr 06). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/an-introduction-to-the-american-myths-in-pop-culture-breaking-bad-essay
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