analytical paper

99 Homes Analytical Paper

In 2008, Great Recession swept across the land of United States. Under the haze of the mortgage crisis, some american families failed to pay their mortgage loan and forced to be evicted from the homes they have been living for years. During the upheaval, many greedy real estate businessmen such as the role “Rick Carver” in the movie “99 Homes” who was taken by Michael Shannon earned dirty and cruel money by taking foreclosure houses forcefully from the unemployed and impoverished families. In the movie “99 Homes”, the ethic traps appear between the rigid law and ethic in the aspects of ethical fundamentalism and deontology.

In the movie “99 Homes”, Dennis Nash is a construction worker and failed to pay his house loan, then he was forced to be evicted with his mother and son by Rick Carver’s real estate company who represents the bank and the police force. Even though he tried to prove evidence and explain his circumstances that he has good reasons to explain delayed payment in the court, the judge ignores him ruthlessly. However, Rick Carver finds out his potential abilities and asks Nash to work with him and promises to pay him with good amount of money. Under the life pressure, Nash starts working with Rick as a assistant to evict other unemployed and impoverished families from their houses. After he stepped into this industry, he finds out the cruel reality about the whole society.

Ethical fundamentalism is an ethical practice that claims there is an absolute mortality that is set by an external source such as religious associations, law and corporate codes. Ethical fundamentalism gives guidance and improve certainty. When dealing with issues, ethical fundamentalism is more efficient and predictable since the rules are initially set up by an organization. However, it can also be negative. The concept of absolute morality could be too rigid and sometimes would not be agreed by everyone. In “99 Homes”, the reason that many impoverished and unemployed families failed to pay their loan is not only because they don’t work hard or they are not honest people, sometimes it is because of unexpected circumstances that cause them lose their jobs and fail to pay for the loans. Also, the impoverished people are more likely to be hurt by reality comparing with wealthy people due to their education level and growing experience. Nash loses his job under the influence of mortgage crisis, causes him fail to pay the loan, then his house is taken by the bank. In this circumstance, Nash does not do anything wrong, but he is still driven off from his own house. Rick, the police force, and the court follow the concept of ethical fundamentalism, they evict Nash by following the rigid law without considering his vulnerable circumstances and reasons, which cause an ethic trap. Also, after Nash works with Rick to evict another house owner and witnesses the hopelessness of the others, Rick says to Nash, “Don’t be soft, they all have sad stories, but the law is the law”(99 Homes). The world is unfair and many impoverished people could have more disadvantages in their life than the wealthy and powerful people, but the law was set based on the concept of everyone is equal, some of the laws are too rigid and ignore the disadvantages and special circumstances of impoverished people.

Also, there is another ethic trap from an aspect of deontology in this movie. Deontology is a duties-rights based ethical concept which claims: We all have duties to respect others’ rights. One of the significant concept of deontology is Kant’s theory. Kant believes in “Golden Rule”, which is people can do things unless he or she accepts others to do the same thing to him or her. For example, when you steal a phone from the others, you admit that it is fine and acceptable to let others steal your phone. This reversibility could make people behave well and get along in the society. However, the biggest problem about deontology is that it is impossible to be realistic. In the movie “99 Homes”, even though Nash is one of the victims of evictions, he still chooses to work with Rick and forces others evict from their homes due to the life reality pressure. Rick says, “Only one in a hundred’s gonna get on that ark, son. Every other pour soul’s gonna drown”(99 Homes), under the reality of Great Recession, the demand is higher than supply due the lack of social resource and the greed of people, some people have to hurt others’ rights to earn money, and only those who have power and resource will survive eventually. In “99 Homes”, Nash wants to get his house back and gives his family a better life after being evicted, so he starts working with Rick even though he doesn’t want the eviction happen to himself. Rick also says, “American doesn’t bail out winners. By rigging a nation of the winners, for the winners, by the winners”(99 Homes), people have to unintentionally or intentionally sacrifice others to acquire their own benefits sometimes. And the reality of wealth inequality could make the wealthy people become richer and luckier, and make the impoverished people become more impoverished unluckier. For example, if one of the Rick’s houses is taken by the bank, he still have enough money and resource to make up for the loss, but if an impoverished person loses his or her only real estate, he or her might be beaten and ruined by reality forever due to education level and life experience. Therefore, there is no absolute freedom and equality in the first place and there would not be a “Golden Rule”.

The relationship between law and ethic is always a controversial topic, the movie “99 Homes” exposes one of the ethic traps. The ethic trap of ethical fundamentalism is that, even though everyone should always follow the law, some people could be part of the vulnerable sides and hurt by law although they doesn’t do anything wrong intentionally. The deontology seems to be a fair and good concept, but it is almost unrealistic because of the complexity of the world.