Comments on How can I pinpoint a story's moral dilemma?
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How can I pinpoint a story's moral dilemma?
In this answer, Mark Baker makes a statement about story:
All story ideas are basically a variation on one thing. A man (or woman, or child, or small furry animal) has two desires, both of which he (she, it) believes they can achieve, but between which he will eventually be forced to choose... The plot is a device for forcing him into a position in which he must choose between those two desires, for good or ill.
I can immediately think of many cases where this is true:
- Lord of the Rings: Frodo can keep the ring OR save the world
- Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Luke can renounce the ways of the Jedi OR use his power to help the resistance
- The Book of Strange New Things: Peter can fulfill his missionary calling OR save his marriage
But what about stories where this is less obvious? What about ensemble stories where there isn't a main character? What about stories without a climactic moment of choice? What about heist movies?
I'm looking for ways to locate this thread in all of those, so as to better analyze them and understand the thematic undercurrent. Examples would be helpful!
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Q: What about heist movies?
A: John Dillinger's character in Public Enemies is an excellent case study of a tragedy within a heist movie. Dillinger does not have a moral dilemma of choosing, "Should I do good or do bad?" He has already resolved that by creating his robin-hood persona: stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. Instead, the driving force behind this movie is Dillinger's competing and incompatible desires for woman/passion/love AND money/fame/freedom.
Billie Frechette embodies his desire for woman/passion/love. John isn't interested in family and domesticity; he rejects a farm wife and her son when she pleas, "Take me with you, Mister." Instead, we see him fall in love with Billie, a smart, beautiful, sensuous, loving woman.
Billie is more than his love object. Her agency and self-awareness make her a Cassandra-like figure who reminds John and the audience that "we know how this is going to end." She rejects society's expectations of motherhood and domesticity in favor of passionate love for a man she admires. Billie and John were made for each other. With the benefit of historical hindsight, we know how tragically this is going to end.
Billie's tragedy is that she will unwittingly serve as the bait that leads John to his death. The antagonist of this story, Melvin Purvis, is a coldly homicidal FBI agent. Early on, he sets up the plot by explaining that women are the downfall of most criminals. The story augments this antagonism by alluding to J. Edgar Hoover's penchant for fine young men and portraying an organization that puts duty and logic ahead of love and intimacy.
The rest of the story plays out the colliding paths of these three characters. It ends with Dillinger's being ambushed and killed outside a movie theatre. In the final scene, the special agent (not Purvis) who shot John visits Billie in a women's prison. When she asks him if he's there to see the damage he has caused, the agent replies that, no - he's there to pass along John's final words to her. He says that John's last words were "Tell Billie for me, bye-bye blackbird" -- a reference to the couple's favorite love song.
This final scene declares the winner. It excludes Purvis and allows John to speak from beyond the grave, quoting a lovesong to his grieving lover, Billie.
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