Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Is Don Draper from "Mad Men" morally reprehensible?

I am almost finished with season 4 of "Mad Men" and couldn't help but become thoroughly intrigued by the show's main star. Don Draper is an extremely talented Ad Men serving as the Creative Genius behind an advertisting agency in the 1960s. He begins, in the show, as a married man with 2 kids and eventually has another yet he constantly cheats on his wife. You can see that he cares about the family he is a part of but much of his infidelity can be tied to his personal turmoil stemming from his past. Not to say that I agree with his infidelity but I do believe that it is not without reason.
Outside of the infidelity, Draper is actually an extremely morally just individual that does care about good, honest people. He's willing to protect the good in his life and has demonstrated this on numerous occasions.
In season 4(the latest season), Draper deals with his failed marriage and the effects his children have to endure. This is a testament to how children are affected, especially in the divorce prone generation we live in today. So, how does Draper deal with this? He embellishes in self destruction with alcohol and drugs. I understand this. In order to not feel you drink. It wasn't til Draper realized that his problems were still there and even worse as a result that he finally made a decision to change his ways. He began a journal as a sort of rehabilitation and started to swim to 'clear his head'.
Draper is so humanized and yes, he may have faults but he's trying to correct them. Draper was a product of his own environment - an environment that doesn't understand the true importance of introspection. This is still true today. It is ironic that a person can understand the wants of people(like Draper does) but couldn't, for awhile, understand himself. Is Draper morally reprehensible? Not hardly. Draper isn't perfect but who is? Like I said, his actions are due to broken ideas.
I'm not trying to preach nor am I stating we should all go through a ridiculous AA program. However, I believe we need to come to an awareness about ourselves and I found the subplot in a TV show(of all places) spoke to just that. I know I blog about all things film related, music and pop culture, but this has really helped me reflect about my own life. I do drink too much for lots of reasons and I'm tired of numbing myself. I need to address what's really an issue. I'll never accomplish what I want if I continue in this pattern. I need to be Nicholas 2.0 or like Superman post junkyard fight scene in Superman III.

Sorry if I got all personal on ya. Sometimes I think blogging is therapeutic in its own right.

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