DY DEATH

Lane also “lands” a contract with Jaguar, making SCDP look even more “classy” by having such an iconic car to represent.

However, Lane is also under tremendous financial pressure. Becoming a partner at SCDP involved an investment, which constitutes a very large percentage of Lane’s accumulated wealth. Lane also facing tax woes and is more than $7,500 in debt.

Lane wants to maintain his lifestyle and keep his son in a prestigious prep school. In the meantime, his wife, with whom Price has had several conflicts, is not averse to spending money and “living the good life,”

Pryce decides that “the only way” to secure the money he needs is to forge a check, making it appear that Don Draper has paid Layne $7,500 for purposes unknown.

Bert Cooper, accidentally discovers the blank check that Lane cashed (and that had Don’s signature. Cooper confronts Draper, who in turn, confronts Lane ( which begins the video clip.)

After the confrontation and Lane’s awkward conversation with Joan Holloway, Lane arrives home to find his wife, Rebecca, all dressed up and wanting to go to dinner. He discovers that Rebecca splurged on a new Jaguar, "racing green," because Lane never spends for himself, she explains.

Later that night, Lane attempts to kill himself in his new Jaguar by having the exhaust flow into the car, but the car won't start. He then takes a taxi cab to the office and hangs himself there.

As Becker would write, the inflexible person (such as Lane) finds that the role cannot be adequately replaced by other, more stable anchors / roles.

1. The Coffee Pod vs. The Coffee Pot Orientation—the metaphor of the Pod vs. the Pot symbolizes the celebration of individuality (the Coffee Pod) vs. communality (The Coffee Pot).

With regard to the latter (the Pot), the act of drinking coffee implies a sharing of the resources; more than one person “communes” with the pot. With regard to the latter, people possess their own singular resources, contributing to the idea that people can drink their own coffee (and not share what they have).

In regard to suicide, living in “a coffee pot world” implies that we are connected and part of something bigger than our own individualistic desires and motivations. People are not only celebrated as “co-consumers” of the coffee, but these people are being watched and assessed by others.

However, “living in a coffee pod world” honors individual choices and even individual isolation (with regard to consumption). We have “our own” pods, but we’re generally on our own with regard to living in general.

Tuesday, October 11th

1. Enhanced Terror— keys on the need for self-esteem. As Ernest Becker (in The Denial of Death ) asserted, awareness of our mortality terrifies us, but can also be “neutralized” by our beliefs that we make significant contributions as living beings—we do not simply exist, but we have the capacity to make a difference that contributes to the lives of others.

The feeling that, in Gregory Bateson’s terms, we can “be the difference that makes a difference” provides us with a sense of pride. However, when victimized by micro-aggressions that rob us of our dignity or losing the capacity to feel pride, puts us into a cycle of shame that Charles Horton Cooley described in regard to his famous notion of a looking glass self.

Returning to 13 Reasons Why, Hannah has become so crushed by abuse, betrayal, bullying, and a failed social system, that her self-concept becomes virtually nullified .

1. Morbid vs. Healthy Mindedness—again, relying on Ernest Becker (and again, drawing from The Denial of Death) Becker regards morbid mindedness as linked to an inherent and unshakeable belief in the world as a horrible place in which to live. In contrast, healthy mindedness refers more to a calm belief that despite many examples of atrocity (and harm infected on people), most of us try to, at the very least, “do no harm” or “live and let live.”

Excessive morbidity correlates with cognitive rigidity (or closed minded-ness) and emotional dogmatism (or deep pessimism). Such cognitive and emotional “states” make one less adaptable and creative than a more healthy minded orientation, which correlates with cognitive flexibility and emotional pragmatism.

Returning to Lane’s suicide, Lane is absolutely convinced that he is doomed and that no solution, other than suicide, can relieve him of this feeling. He has not only lost his sense of self (based on his role), but he takes on an incorrigible emotional attitude that makes him feel incapable of “fixing” any mistake he has made.

1. Indifference—refers to a soul crushing combination of social alienation (mentioned above) with profound apathy to one’s place in the social world. Indifference resembles anhedonia in that one sees no real/authentic possibilities for joy— only possibilities for pretending that joy can be manufactured through appearances.

Indifference is analytically distinct from anhedonia in that the person who is extremely apathetic and resigned still feels in control of others’ perceptions of them. The indifferent person can still create the illusion of being happy and capable of experiencing joy—anhedonia is a loss of such control; the person experiencing anhedonia wears his/her despair openly—indifference relies on the ability to “fake it.”

But indifference can make us vulnerable to suicide—especially when we feel that any display, however positive, “is of no use” in regard to an emerging predicament (or an unanticipated problem that becomes an immediate obstacle) .

Indifference relates to what social psychologists call executive dysfunction, or a “disconnect” between what we need to do (or can do to make us feel better) and what we are doing . As indifferent, we do not attempt to resolve this particular schism.

1. Anomic Suicide and Sudden Instability—As previously mentioned , Emil Durkheim revolutionized the study of suicide via his systematic and empirical approach to the social factors that influence the aforementioned inscrutable and idiosyncratic nature of individual suicides.

Durkheim’s fundamental proposition posed that the more socially integrated we are (via establishing and maintaining enduring and focused bonds), and the more cohesive we are (allowing others “into our heads” just as others allow us “into their heads”)—the less likely we will commit suicide.

From Durkheim’s perspective, anomic suicide applies to those who feel as if they are merely surviving in a world that has suddenly become foreign and alien. The world has changed drastically and has overwhelmed a person.

Importantly, the change can be regarded, generally, as positive or negative—the key is the drastic quality of change as the person contemplating suicide perceives it.

The feeling of being alien correlates with the feeling of being worthless and unable to contribute ( returning to the notion of self-concept). The person is more focused on what one has lost amid change as opposed to how change can make for gains.

[Clip from The Shawshank Redemption —Old Man Brooks’ Suicide]

Brooks Hatlen (aka “Brooksie, aka “Old Man Brooks”), played by James Whitmore, is an elderly prisoner in the Shawshank Prison. He was incarcerated as a very young man and knew no other life. Suddenly, Brooks is thrust into a world as an elderly 70 something where everything had changed. He had only seen an automobile or two before his incarceration and cannot help but notice that the world into which he was released is filled with automobiles, moving (from Brooks’ point-of-view-very fast). Everyone he knew on the outside was gone, including Jake his pet crow. In prison he seldom had to make a single decision aside from the decisions he made as the prison librarian, which he describes as “easy peasy.” Other than that, however, he was told when to eat, sleep and pretty much everything else.

Upon his release, which comes as a horrific surprise to him, Brooks confronts an outside world that has vastly changed from his memories. He finds that the vast and cataclysmic change is so extreme that he feels unable to adjust to life on the outside. As Brooks says, “the world got itself into a big damn hurry.”

After learning that he is being paroled, Brooks attempts to harm is friend, Heywood, in order to stay in prison. As a parolee, he is provided a single room in a halfway house and a degrading job as the “bag-boy” at a supermarket. He often wakes up in the middle of the night, confused and afraid; he can never satisfy his supervisor on the job (owing to his arthritis and inexperience as a supermarket employee.

As it is very difficult out in the world, Brooks longs to break his parole so they'd send him back. He also longs to meet up with his “crow friend.” Jake, but knows that no such reunion will occur. In effect, Brooks’ parole, which would appear as an opportunity to feel free, places Brooks within an “iron cage” on the outside, alone, unaffiliated, and extremely depressed.

One day, Brooks puts on his only suit of clothes, packs the rest of his clothes in a suitcase, and climbs unto a table with the noose of a rope around his neck (the rope is tied to a rafter in the apartment. After carving “Brooks Was Here” into a wooden overhang with a pocket knife, he kicks over the table upon which he stands and hangs himself.

The audience hears Brooks’ narration from the time he is released until he commits suicide. This narration represents his suicide note that he sends to his friends at Shawshank. His suicide has a profound effect on Morgan Freeman’s character, Red, who explains that Brooks had become “institutionalized”, or totally adjusted to life within permanent confines, apart from a larger society.

Thursday, October 13th

The following concepts can apply to Brooks’ anomic suicide:

1. Ironic Freedom—anomic suicide applies to the deeply felt loss of a specific place at a specific time, that is accompanied by gaining mobility and independence. However, such mobility and independence can seem alienating to those who have become ingrained in previous habits, stable behaviors, and predictability of existence.

2. Dissociation—Inversely, the less assimilated and “mixed together” humans are in a community of belonging, the less they impose controls on each other within this community— and importantly, the more people in the community feel unattached and isolated from their life world.

This feeling of being unattached especially applies to individuals who have: a) developed strong attachments; have enjoyed the endurance (long term) quality of such attachments; and regard the attachments as defining the essence of their life worlds.

Sudden disappearance or erasure of attachments, via death, moving away from, or disappearance can lead to sociated shock—or a dramatic feeling of loneliness accompanied by ongoing remorse and a deep sense of loss.

3. Incongruity-- the less that humans feel that they are in an ongoing interactional community, the more they feel detached from their “ideal place,” and, in addition, the more fear they internalize about being apart from their life world.

This feeling of being separated from one’s ideal place especially applies to the elderly, who find themselves not only lonely, but in a world that has experienced, from their perspective, an earthquake of change. The ideal place no longer exits and has become replaced by a place full of strangers. The individual also feels like a stranger—one who is here today, who will remain tomorrow, but who will also always feel as if existing on the fringe, rather than amid others.

4. Singularity——a term taken from the physical sciences that applies to being out of time—or feeling that time has passed one by. The individual who feels out of time also, often, feels as if he/she has become a forgotten member of society— living in a world that time itself has forgotten.

For example, Brooks, who has spent fifty years in Shawshank, missed almost all of the vast technological and cultural changes that took place on the outside of the prison and now is experiencing acute culture shock—which will become chronic culture shock.

5. Social Invisibility-- one’s existence is defined by a strong feeling of not being counted as a full-fledged human being. One’s social invisibility runs counter to having a sense of one’s own social essence—or one’s meaningful existence. Social invisibility applies to people feeling trapped by their circumstances and unable to accomplish or engage in any activity that could make them feel part of the social scene. The person is lost and feels unseen—both inwardly and outwardly.

The individual experiencing social invisibility and who cannot relate to anyone else that could make this individual feel seen and noticed , is vulnerable to take on the attitude that “no one will miss me if I am gone.

1. The Self and Symbolic Death—one view of the self has to do with what William James termed, subjective self-identity , previously referred to, in part, as an “untethered self.” James’ version of subjective identity provides a person’s internal and visceral (“gut level”) view of self as a unique, but also as an anchored person, associated with significant others in a life world, but also as standing out as an exclusive person sui generis —or in and of one’s self.

Importantly, as subjective selves, we create a cycle of self-conception to which we habitually refer—so that our particular definitions of our unique being become apparently objective, or real in our own eyes and the imagined eyes of others.

When this subjective self-identity becomes threatened, challenged, or even contradicted by hostile data regarding who we are in real-life situations, we can experience the virtual reality of self-death—which begins with a negation of our perceived image (owing to various circumstances), and replaced by a different version that answers the question, “Who am I?”

1. The Looking Glass Self—Charles Horton Cooley, greatly influenced by James, viewed the subjective self-identity as an ongoing process of internal self-evaluation as we move through the life course. We develop and refine internalized perceptions that become foundations for feelings about ourselves.

Such feelings are transient—always subject to change on the basis of how we make conclusions about ourselves and the particular circumstances that lead us to drawing such conclusions.

1. Intra-imaginative Concept—refers to one’s internal perception of the self—what could be considered our internalized and primary selfie. This “selfie” is the self-concept one consistently carries with him/her and implies a radicalized free-will (philosophers refer to this concept as solipsistic).

The selfie ranges from a specific picture in one’s head to a more abstract conception of “who am I.”

1. Inter-imaginative Concept—refers to one’s internal perception of how others view his/her perceptual selfie. Importantly, this process is also internal, but it consists of an internal conversation between the self and a hypothetical, imaginary, or reference other.

The inter-imaginative concept can alter the selfie as on moves from an exclusively internalized view of the self to a self that a real or imaginary other may view, based upon our interactions with others (and our assessments of their points of view.

1. Evocative Concept—refers to the feeling one gets when internalizing the inter-imaginative concept. This feeling can range from pride to shame. It can also have an impact on how one re-portrays his/her inner selfie (intra-imaginative concept), which then starts the cycle anew.

1. Looking Glass Death and Latent Effects of Trauma— while is necessary to ensure passionate commitment and to create and maintain viable dreams and ambitions ( associated with one’s intra-imaginative selfie), experiencing interactive events hostile to one’s selfie (associated with an inter-imaginative concept) can threaten the life of one’s subjective identity.

In particular, and as mentioned, an encounter that is antagonistic to one’s subjective view of self (and that is applicable to the intra-imaginative selfie), may lead to a crippling disillusionment that isolates an individual and shatters this individual’s enthusiastic idealism ( and that can make the evocative concept rigidly negative).

Once an individual’s idealism (and subjective perception of self) is shattered, this individual is likely to experience trauma and cause this individual to experience a cycle of shame.

In the film, Bombshell, Kayla Pospisil (played by Margot Robbie), is a fictional “composite figure” who works at Fox News, first as an assistant to Gretchen Carlson (played by Nicole Kidman) and then as part of Bill O’Reilly’s crew.

Kayla describes herself as an “evangelical millennial” who views her “brand” of “Christian Millennial” as profitable and advantageous for Fox News (provided that she can fill important roles within the network (she is, obviously, ambitious). She backs up her claim by noting the thousands of Instagram followers she has accrued.

She comes off as a self-starter and perhaps, a self-promoter, who, nonetheless is very much anchored to her family’s political and social perspectives (conservative)—appearing, to the audience, as one who is not afraid to “bend the rules,” but also as one who conforms to her familial values.

Kayla strikes up a close (and briefly, intimate) friendship with Jess Carr (played by Kate McKinnon), a lesbian who feels like “a fish out of water” in that she supports Hillary Clinton and other democrats (she is keeping two secrets—her sexual and political orientations). Jess becomes Kayla’s mentor in regard to the “nuts and bolts” of corporate survival, but her ability to be an ally to Kayla is limited (due to systemic and personal constraints).

Kayla seizes an opportunity to meet with Roger Ailes (played by John Lithgow), the head of Fox News and the man responsible for making Fox News as popular as it is. Ailes has a reputation for hiring women and “taking them under his wing,” which, unfortunately, translates into sexual and verbal harassment.

After gaining a meeting with Ailes, Pospisil is sexually harassed and asked to pull her dress up beyond her waist. Later in the film, it's revealed that she was asked to give sexual favors to Ailes, a request (or demand) with which she complied.

Kayla’s experience is devastating—not only in regard to his sense of self-worth and dignity, but also because the experience “rocks her beliefs” about her politics (and the possible misperceptions that make up her family’s beliefs and political orientation).

Kayla’s experience is further devastating in that she discovers that one of the people she most admires, Megyn Kelly (played by Charlize Theron), shows little concern for Kayla’s emotional plight (Kelly is only interested in the fact that Kayla experienced harassment.

1. The Double Bind—coined by Gregory Bateson , a double bind pertains to the perception that one cannot respond appropriately to any stimuli—or that any response to stimuli will be the wrong response.

The once enthusiastic and confident person (with a robust intra-imaginative concept) now engages in a repetitive and continuous process of second-guessing that invites cognitive dissonance—or the intense discomfort associated with dealing with troubling contradictions between how one defines the subjective self and how one has behaved (in contradiction to this subjective self).

2. Atypical Definition of the Looking Glass Self—While typical definition of the looking glass self refers to an routinely accepted and positive internal view of one’s choices that coincides with a feeling of being in the place one belongs, an atypical definition represents intense (and often nauseating) confusion in regard to understanding one’s place in the system—this confusion raises the sickening suspicion that one does not belong in the exact place to where one was once convinced of belonging.

3. The Existential Choice—places the one traumatized (and the one who feels that the intra-imaginative concept and feeling of belonging is shattered beyond repair) in a position to either change or find a compromised way of adapting. When one is in the position to make the existential choice (especially in regard to the looking glass self), one either tries to pretend that all could be well, or to face the reality that one must make a radical decision to move on.

Tuesday, October 18th

1. Symbolic Death and the Tragedy of Self Transformation— a tragic self-transformation represents a journey that combines trauma, a sense of deep loss, vast success, and an experience of the death of desired being. Specifically, the tragic transformation is the death of who one wants to be—in which desire is destroyed by an unwanted destiny.

Specifically, a symbolic death involves the death of who one wants to be—or in reference to the looking glass self, “the selfie” associated with the intra-imaginative concept. Additionally, one struggles with the conflict of who one is as a “self-made” person, and what a person is destined to be (or how the person is “molded” by circumstances outside of this person’s control.

Max Weber regarded one’s destiny as connected to his notion of elective affinity—which implies a confluence of historical accidents and individual decisions, making for a particular reality of being (out of many possible realities of such being). Further, Weber’s notion of elective affinity implies that what originally could be seen as a statistical improbability, becomes regarded, retrospectively, as an inevitable outcome.

In  The Godfather , Michael Corleone (played by Al Pacino) is the son of a Sicilian Mafia kingpin ( Don Vito Corleone). Vito (played by Marlon Brando) is given the title of The Don as a means of great respect—it essentially means that in the Mafia world, Vito is “The Man.” The audience first sees Vito in between brightness and darkness (as filmed).

Michael is the youngest (third) son of Vito; his older brothers, Fredo and Sonny are committed to their destiny of following in Vito’s footsteps (as a Mafia kingpin). He has a half-brother, Tom Hagen, who is a lawyer and serves as Don Vito’s consiglieri (or main advisor), an honorary title. In particular, Sonny, the second oldest brother, is the heir apparent to eventually replace Vito as The Don.

However, Vito recognizes that Michael is the brightest and most talented of the brothers; and he knows that Michael would be the best Don. Vito is torn between such a recognition and a hope that Michael can indeed escape his destiny (as one who would replace Vito). He sees Michael as capable of much more than a mafia kingpin—and as one who has the intelligence, disposition, and talents to make something more of himself than live as one outside of the law.

The audience first sees Michael (in the light of the camera shot) as a bright, idealistic, and young college student/war hero, optimistic about his future.at his sister’s wedding. Symbolically, he appears wearing his military uniform (symbolic of his apparent distance he maintains from his family) and in the company of a young (Anglo Saxon) woman (Kay), with whom he is in love. At the wedding, Michael tells Kay about his father’s past violent threats to get what he wants.

In one particular scene, when describing his father’s method of getting what he wants, he tells Kay, “Luca Brasi (Vito’s “muscle”) held a gun to his head, and my father assured him that either his brains or his signature would be on the contract.”

Realizing that his story has shocked Kay, Michael says, “That’s my family, Kay. That’s not me.” In effect, Michael has made a great effort to push his family away for most of his adult life. For one thing, he went against his father’s wishes when he joined the army. For another thing, he brings Kay, a WASP and All-American girl to the wedding.

But Michael finds himself being pushed back in to the family orbit (and being drawn into his destiny as the future Mafia Don) when his father is seriously wounded during an assassination attempt. Michael and Kay are on a date when he first finds out. Kay spots the headline on a newspaper and tells Michael. Michael later discovers that a man named Sollozo put the hit out on the Don

One shot in this sequence interestingly highlights the beginning of Michael gravitation towards his family obligations and the eventual abandonment of Kay. From inside the phone booth, we see Michael shut the door on Kay, as she stands isolated outside, unable to hear the conversation has with his brother. Michael is shutting the door to his past life and dreams of being separated from the family, and enclosing himself back into their world again.

Michael has tried to push his family away, but he cannot deny or stifle how much he truly does care for his father.

The seeds for Michael’s change are further planted during the scene when he visits his father, Don Vito, at the hospital. Michael finds that his father’s room is unguarded, leaving him vulnerable to another attempt of murder. (This one all the more likely to succeed). Michael quickly and resourcefully is able to get his father moved to another room. Michael runs into Enzo the baker, who was there to visit the Don, and together they stand outside and pretend to be guards to deter the passing car of other assassins.

The baker is frightened to death and tries in vain to light a cigarette, for his hands are shaking too much. Michael remains cool and collected, and effortlessly lights it for him. Michael looks at his steady and unfearful hands for a moment . In this potentially dangerous situation, Michael has managed to stay completely calm. It is in that moment where perhaps Michael realizes he may have the right skills to be good at this kind of game.

Thursday, October 20th

Eventually, Michael is punched by a corrupt officer who they discover is Sollozo’s bodyguard. A newly resolved Michael, set on avenging the assassination attempt of his father, comes up with the plan that will change the course of Michael’s life. He decides to kill both Sollozo and the officer. We see here the forming and sleek execution of cunning ideas that Michael will employ as future head of the Family.

Michael makes the decision to go through with killing the men, knowing full well that he is abandoning his dreams of a simple All-American suburban life, one he’s begun with Kay. He will now be a true criminal on the run, hiding in Sicily. Michael rationalizes this decision for the good of his family. While Michael has shrewdly come up with this plan for the good of the mafia family’s business, there may be personal motivations for Michael. If he hadn’t seen his father harmed and the family in such shambles, Michael would not have been so moved to join in and help them.

Not Shown in Class

While Michael is in hiding in Sicily, he gets “hit by the thunderbolt” (falls in love at first sight) with and a beautiful Italian girl Apollonia. At this point, perhaps Michael felt that he could still return to America and live a relatively normal life. After all, as far as he knew his brother Sonny (played by James Caan) was still alive and his father was on the mend. Either one of them was capable of running the Family. At this point there was nothing particularly tying Michael back to the mafia world.

But it is the devastation of Apollonia’s death, combined with the news of his brother’s Sonny’s death that brings Michael to a point of no return. Once the love of his life and unborn child dies, Michael becomes a bitter and ruthless man. Love was replaced with hate and a coldness running through within him.

Michael may have left behind an optimistic young man with All-American dreams behind when he killed Sollozo and the officer to flee to Sicily. But his marriage to Apollonia was a wonderful time for him, where he began to form dreams of a new and blessed life with her. In that moment, when he watches her die, is the germination of the cold Mafioso he becomes.

When a despondent Michael returns home without his Italian bride, he discovers that his brother, Sonny (the new Don, replacing a weakened Vito), has been “gunned down” (multiple times) and is dead. His other brother, Fredo, has too weak a character to run the family. His half-brother, Tom, an attorney, is not a Sicilian and cannot be a Don. His father is too sick to be the boss anymore.

Upon returning to New York from Sicily, Michael does not feel that he any other choice but to submerge himself into the business, despite his father’s hopes for something more. Michael finds Kay and, in a very cold way, proposes marriage. Even though Kay seems reluctant (and also sees through Michael’s exterior, aware of a drastically changed Michael), she accepts (aware that, in all probability, Kay is merely, from Michael’s perspective, the easiest and quickest option available to him.

The scene is more of a calculated business transaction than a loving proposal. It’s not to say he doesn’t care about Kay, at all.  Michael never cheats on Kay; he gives her a good life. But it’s much more a business move than anything else.

During the proposal, he tells Kay, “I came here because I need you—because I care for you. Because I want you to marry me.” Beautiful words, but watch how Michael says them, there’s no true emotion, and this proposal is clouded with mechanical motions with the goal of getting Kay back into his life.

Michael and Kay marry, have children, and act as the happy couple as Micheal becomes increasingly more successful and ruthless as the Mafia Don. In the end, Michael has virtually eliminated all of his enemies, including his brother-in-law (married to his younger sister) and even his own brother, Fredo. He has gained the respect and prominence as the most powerful Don, but at the expense of sacrificing his soul—and all of his previous dreams of being his own man, living within the law.

Michael proceeds to become more and more ruthless, not only taking over the Mafia world in New York City, but around the country. He becomes the most powerful gangster in America—but at a great price. He has eliminated countless people including his brother Fredo, who Michael believes betrayed him .

Kay, begins to hate Michael (and refuses to live with, or have another child with him); Michael has pushed Tom away and is no longer a consigliore. At the end of the sequel, Godfather II, the audience sees him isolated, lonely, and alienated from his family and his own self as he reflects, nostalgically, on what could have been.

1. The Vibrant Introspective Self—represents the self in the process of discovery, creation (of one’s own path), and in the process of finding one’s own direction, independent of others’ expectations (especially the expectations of family, friends, and others in one’s life world). The self as vibrant and introspective is defiant in the sense that the person does not feel obligated to follow in expected footsteps and seeks to establish one’s own identity—on one’s own terms.

2. The Me as Social Object—represents a continuous struggle between an introspective dream and the expectations of others in the life world.

Even the most introspective and defiant of selves is anchored to expectations of others—and is aware of how such expectations can differ from one’s own dreams and independence.

This Me takes into account the demands of others—when one says, “this is me” the person is not only identifying one’s self, but is articulating, in art, the expectations of those in his/her life world.

Inversely, when one says, “that’s not me,” the person is basically distancing him/herself from others’ expectations, even though this person is still attached to those others with particular expectations.

3. The Turning Point—represents a dramatic and internalized event that puts the self that others expect one to be and the self that one desires to be in sharp focus. It often signifies the beginning of the end of one’s desire—and in turn, puts the vibrant introspective self on a destined path that runs counter to this self’s idealistic wishes.

The turning point is an unexpected and unplanned event that nonetheless serves as a significant alteration in one’s plans. In the case of The Godfather and, specifically, the character of Michael, this turning point is the prelude to a tragic transformation.

4. Resolving Cognitive Dissonance— according to cognitive dissonance theory, people face a difficult choice to opt for an outcome with which they are uncomfortable. Michael’s choice, to either pursue a life outside of the family by himself (he has abandoned Kay and married Appolina, but now has neither Kay nor Appolina in his life), or to take over the family business and become The Don.

Once a person makes a choice (“the lesser of two evils”) this person works hard to justify and rationalize the choice as the correct one (even if it is not so).

Michael chooses to become The Don. This choice represents a powerful and enduring realization that one’s definition of the self actually corresponds to one’s destiny— the once vibrant and introspective self is replaced by the self that one is meant to be, for good or for bad—and usually for bad.

Michael’s rationalization and justification of his choice symbolizes how one’s tragic fate is sealed. In The Godfather , Michael makes several realizations that transform the way he thinks about himself— as his more ruthless and cold-blooded self emerges in the wake of the demise of his introspective and vibrant self.