top of page

Academic Writing Samples

"I don't want to be that man": Mad Men and the Individuation of Don Draper

I wrote this analytical essay as part of my English B.A. program. In the essay, I discuss the connections between Don Draper's narrative in Mad Men and the Jungian process of Individuation. For this essay, I was awarded the 2017 Best Undergraduate Critical Essay Award from UCM's English and Philosophy Department.

Excerpt: 

The Mad Men series finale ends with its protagonist, Don Draper, meditating on a bluff. As the camera gets its final glimpse of Don, the audience sees him advance to a state of mental clarity before the screen cuts to the famous “Hilltop” commercial (better known as “Buy the World a Coke”). The commercial, which first graced television screens in 1971, envisions global unity, as actors with diverse ethnic backgrounds lip-sync in harmony, each with a bottle of Coca-Cola in their hand.

 

The final scene is not typical for Mad Men, a series that follows a 1960s New York advertising agency (along with its many reincarnations) and those who work within it. Despite the emerging cultural movements of the 1960s, Mad Men stays ever-focused on the predominantly white, masculine world of Madison Avenue. The series has multiple threads of narration that emphasize the work and home lives of different characters, but it lends primary focus to Don.

 

Born as Dick Whitman, Don was originally an impoverished Midwesterner who joined the army to escape his troubled youth. Stationed in Korea during the early 1950s, he accidentally kills his commanding officer, the real Donald Draper, in an explosion, which renders the man unrecognizable. Because the real Draper was near the end of his tour of duty, Dick switches their dog tags, thereby assuming Draper’s identity, and earns an honorable discharge— free to start anew. It’s no surprise, then, that Don’s identity, both external and internal, is a mystery throughout the series and is one of the show’s key narrative forces.

 

By applying the theories of Jung to Mad Men’s narrative, the intent of the series finale becomes clearer, as do moments in previous seasons, which at their time of airing seemed highly ambiguous. Specifically, such clarity arises when considering the process of
individuation.

 

In Man and His Symbols, Dr. von Franz defines Jung’s theory of individuation as “the conscious coming-to-terms with one’s own inner center (psychic nucleus) or Self” (137). When a person undergoes the process of individuation, they often hit certain milestones, which appear in the form of archetypes. Archetypes are not actual characters, but rather, Jung argues, “a tendency to form such representations of a motif—representations that can vary a great deal in detail without losing their basic pattern” (59).

 

After individuals develop their conscious egos in childhood, they will go on to encounter their shadow, followed by the wise old man or woman, and finally the anima or animus, before completely integrating all aspects of their personality into a unified Self (82). Furthermore, the individual will be more receptive to the collective unconscious, which is distinct from the individual’s unconscious, as it is derived from ancestral memory and can be experienced by all of mankind (89).

 

With Jung in mind, Mad Men’s final scene can be viewed as the peak of Don’s individuation, wherein he finally merges, to the best of his ability, Dick Whitman and Don Draper.

Request Full Article

Linguistic Programming and Freewill in A Clockwork Orange and Brave New World

In this essay, I emphasize the use of linguistic programming in Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World to shape the perception of their respective characters and readers.

Excerpt: 

Though it was published thirty years after Brave New World, A Clockwork Orange shares many components with Huxley's pseudo-utopian satire. Both depict oppressive States, question the definition and attainment of free will, and frequently employ dark humor. Where the narratives seemingly differ is in their respective methods of control and deception. While the government in A Clockwork Orange uses mindless youth violence to prevent the political dissent of the majority, the World State of Brave New World distracts citizens with mindless pleasure. Yet in both societies, the primary goal is to limit and shape the perception of its citizens.

 

Crucially, in neither work do the political powers openly use force to compel citizens to abide by their rules; this enables such powers to retain control without drawing criticism from the masses- who are too distracted to perceive of political corruption, or at the very least unable to concern themselves with the matter. In A Clockwork Orange, citizens fear adolescent crime to the extent that they hide in their homes all night and spend their days working. Adolescents-who are also victims of the State- are often under the influence of milk-plus and other stimulants, which makes them willing, if unsuspecting, participants in the government scheme.

 

In Brave New World, hypnopedia conditioning, in addition to soma, free love, and the feelies, lead many people to believe they are not only happy but fulfilled. In keeping with the language-dystopia model, both novels use linguistic programming to enforce this false consciousness. By comparing the use of language in these novels, it becomes apparent the importance of language in providing an individual with agency, and its role in constructing the perception of truth and reality. By extension, it also reveals the ways in which language defines free will in different social and political contexts. 

Request Full Article

bottom of page