White Bear was an episode that tackled many themes, among them the justice system, what makes a person a person, and the idea of monetizing punishment. I obviously won't talk about all that. This isn't a full essay and I would never force you to read all that.
You see, I wrote that, and then kept writing, and ended up writing a lot. I still would never force you to read it all. I understand.
That being said, many saw it it as a strikingly disturbing episode, and that makes sense. It involves murder, kidnapping, being hunted like sport, isolation, and manipulation. But that's not what made it disturbing for me. What made it unsettling for me wasn't the violence or crimes, but the sheer intricacy of the punishment. Like, hot dang! The production value is insane! People are allowed to watch it up close and personal, and probably pay good money to do it! The park encompasses a neighborhood, a gas station, a forest, and a radio station. All of this, just to punish for one crime. They do it over and over, to punish one crime. There was no evidence that the park was used for any other crime before or since, considering the half of a month that they did this to her. A group of people actually invested the time, money, and effort to put all of this together - just to punish one person. That poses some questions. How far should we go just to punish another person? In cases like this, how far could we go in terms of publicity before the project becomes more making a show out of it than actually administering the punishment? How many homeless people could you instead put inside all the empty homes of the neighborhood?
What? I don't have the answers to any of those. Especially that last one.
Moving on, there's the whole idea of identity, explored with the sharp contrast between her original, criminal identity and the mind-shattered tatters of an identity we first see her as. There was discussion in class about whether or not the person receiving the punishment was the same one who did the crime, and I'd like to throw my two cents in on that. I mean, yeah she could've stopped the crime from happening since she was filming the whole thing, then again you have to realize that her mind gets scrambled to the point of being almost wiped entirely. I personally don't care what she told the judge (about being under the guy's spell and all that), because that was before the forced-amnesia. It wasn't just her memories of the crime that were erased - it was her entire person. You know, maybe if they didn't leave around pictures of her boyfriend and the little girl to deliberately screw with her and force memories to flair back up like they did, she probably wouldn't have remembered anything about it. I honestly can't see how you could take someone with amnesia and essentially torture them. Maybe if there was the possibility of the woman faking the amnesia there would be reason not to trust her, but that's not the case since the whole thing couldn't be done without giving her undeniable amnesia. You're taking a mind that may have traces of the personality it once had, but for the much larger part is someone who is a blank slate.
Also, if they have her on a constant loop like that for weeks straight, when does she eat?
1 comment:
I feel like the people must have really wanted Victoria to pay for her crime if they put so much work and money into the whole production. I think they went a little overboard with the production to be honest. They did all of that for one person because of one crime. That's a little too much for me. Like you said, many homeless people could use those houses to stay at. They could use those houses for something more important than to punish a criminal for one crime.
I think at some point, Victoria is not going to be strong enough to survive another clean slate process. I wonder how long they will keep doing the show. I feel like after a while, the meaning of punishing her for her crime will no longer matter. They will just continue doing it for the money and show.
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