Durkheim And Falling Down Essay, Research Paper

Durkheim and Falling Down

I am going to be reviewing the movie Falling Down while keeping Durkhiems theories in mind. I will be mainly using the concept on integrating into society and suicide.

The movie takes place in Los Angeles and is about a man named Bill. From the beginning of the movie you begin to perceive that Bill is your average middle class worker who wakes up, goes to work, comes home to his family, and minds his own business. But as the movie progresses you see that this is not true. It seems that Bill is a man who is fed up with his current situation and is now ready to do something about it. It seems that he has recently been laid off, his wife has left him, he is not allowed to see his daughter, and lives with his mom. It seems that Bill was a traditional man and everything he had seemed to go wrong. He now finds himself alone in a big city with now sense of belonging. It seems Bill s family was his interpersonal attachment and this attachment connected him to a collective purpose, a purpose he no longer has. In applying Durkhiem s concept, the loss of this interpersonal attachment would lead to suicide, which later came for Bill. When Bill was married and had a family it seems that he had a place in society. But now he has lost it all and begins to feel alienated living in a big city where everyone is out to serve their own interest and not the communities. He becomes aware of this when he snaps and realizes that all he wants to is go home, go back to his old life that once carried so much meaning and purpose. On his journey he realizes how selfish and careless the society he lives in is. He feels that he is the sane one and everyone he encounters is crazy. No one he runs into is willing to compromise with him, let alone car about him.

Bill was now living life by himself, not with a family, and failed to adjust and integrate back into society. He was to focused on the past attachments. He didn t feel that his life could go on with meaning without his family. His family also seemed to be his motivation, and once lost everything else seemed to fall apart. He had no home, and lost his job. Ashamed he didn t even tell his mother he lost his job but instead pretended to continue to act out going to work, a clear sign that he was troubled with his life.

I feel that if Bill would have just met a friend, girlfriend, or went to church he would have more of a sense of belonging and community, which would become his attachment. With this new attachment he might have been able to move on with his life and might have avoided the outcome he suffered in his life, suicide.