Reflection Paper # 1

GED101 – Understanding the Self

Prof. John Mark H. Villanueva

Name: Ramirez, Eliana Mari D. Section: GED101-A15 Date Submitted: January 2, 2020

The movie that was tasked to be watch is entitled Joker. It was an American psychological
thriller film that was directed and produced by Todd Philipps. The main character of the movie is
Arthur Fleck. His social self can be defined from being an aspiring stand-up comedian to someone
violent and disturbing. Additionally, his situation in life plays a big role on influencing his social
self. At first, he was so immersed to his job because that is what he thought he wanted to become,
a stand-up comedian. He was an aspiring stand-up comedian, it was seen that what motivated
him a lot was his experience with Murray. Then, even though he used to be an inpatient in a
psychiatric facility, it didn’t hinder him to pursue his dream to be a comedian. He always smiles
even though his situation is not funny, later in the movie it was revealed that he had a neurological
condition where he has an uncontrollable laughter. This condition made him looked ridiculous to
people around him and it also influenced how other people treated him. For me, his condition
serves as a basis of the people on how to treat him and it triggers the people to make fun of him.
I also notice that people around him didn’t bother to help someone like him, even his own
psychiatrist didn’t bother to make effort to really help Arthur, instead she is just doing it for the
sake of her job. The way people and society treated Arthur defined his social self, it affected his
overall well-being as the movie goes on, I witnessed how someone could self-destruct due to how
the society treats them.

As I observed in the movie, the agents of socialization that affected his social self are his
family, his workplace, the government, and the mass media. In the movie, his family is the main
agent to take place on how he interacts with the society. In the beginning of the movie, we all
know that he was only living with his mother and it is unknown who his father was. Moreover, his
belief to always smile and put on a happy face came from his mother. For me, this quote
influenced him a lot to always smile and bottle up his own feelings. On the latter part it showed
the reality about his family and for me it is where he started to decide who he really is. The violence
in him started to manifest when he learned about his abusive past and how his own mother has
been an accomplice to a violence towards him. This is where he started to be a violent man and
he chooses to hurt back those people who’ve done him wrong.
 The first scenario that would explain how the society changed his social self is when he
was called by his boss and he told him that people think he’s a weird and they don’t feel
comfortable around him. I think this really had an impact on him because people decided who he
really is, and it is painful that especially when his own boss didn’t believe whatever he was
explaining. Next scene is when the mass media is all talking about the clown vigilante and Arthur,
himself, knows that he is that clown that the whole media is talking about. For me, the information
that the media is feeding the people, influenced Arthur to think who he really is. The violence in
him jumped after he started to see people rooting for the role that the clown had made. Also,
people made it as an inspiration to the revolution against Wayne, who is running to be the
Gotham’s mayor. Lastly, when he found out the truth about his past and he started to realize that
his own life is a comedy rather than a tragedy. In this scene, he also realized what really made
him happy and it was violence. These three scenarios made him lose his self, instead of his
mental health to get better, it gets worst as the society dumps people like him. His social self didn’t
turn out well because of the people around him, that didn’t care about helping others rather they
ridicule others because they think they can benefit out of it.