1. What I Learned from Breaking
Bad
By Stephanie “Heisenberg” Giluk

2. First, some context
Breaking Bad is a TV show created by
Vince Gilligan about Walter White, a
middle class white American man with a
wife, a son, and a baby on the way who
learns he has cancer that is already in
the advanced stages
He’s super smart, but he teaches high
school chemistry
So naturally he decides to pay for
cancer treatment and make sure there’s
enough money saved to support his
family after he’s gone by cooking meth
and then selling it This was me watching
Go watch it on Netflix right now Breaking Bad

3. Anti-heroes are the way to go
Neither of the show’s main
characters, Jesse (on the right) or Walt (on
the left) are very likeable or moral
They can both be cowardly, violent, and
manipulative
The dynamic between the two of
them, however (Walt is the cook, Jesse is the
dealer), is compelling and they have an odd
man kind of partnership
Plus it’s funny to watch them try to be big time
criminals because they suck at it early in the
series

4. The American dream is a lie (surprise)
Walt could have made it big with his chemistry buddies from school
but instead they got rich without him and Walt resents their wealth
and success compared to his
His job as a teacher, his wife, his nice house, aren’t enough—he’s
not happy
He makes meth for a noble (?) cause at first, but then learns that he
loves the thrill and danger of it not to mention the insane amount
of money he makes
This is
Walt
quitting
his
after-
school
job

5. Science is way cooler than anyone
could have guessed
Walt defeats other
rival drug dealers
with science! Well,
explosions caused by
science
Walt cooks the best meth ever
because of his expertise in
chemistry
Big time dealers pay big bucks for
Walt’s blue meth
Learn to be a chemist so you too
can make meth

6. The voice of reason is lame
In a show all about the anti-
heroes and the
horrible/entertaining things
they do, it’s hard to like
anyone reasonable
Case in point, Walt’s
wife, Skyler
Fans almost universally hate
Skyler, even though she’s
done nothing wrong—how
would you feel if your dying
husband started cooking
Hey everyone this is my first meth behind your back?
meme! I made it myself!

7. Morality isn’t as simple as
good or bad
There’s a whole lot
of grey area
between good and
bad and Walter lives
in that grey area
What makes you a
good man? A good
father? A good
mother? A good
wife? I felt like this gif really said “moral complexity”
Moral complexity is
the way to go

8. Time for some serious analysis
This article had some interesting things to say about the whole “American dream” aspect
of Breaking Bad. Through flashbacks, we see Walt looking forward to life he wants to build
with Skyler, but this dream (kids, good job, nice house) he and many other American men
try to live out crashes down around his ears. Walt is faced with the very real possibility
that he and his family might fall into poverty, and he desperately turns to cooking an illegal
substance to make sure this doesn’t happen. While he is “initially a sloppy, dangerous
novice…Walt enters the upcoming season having found his way to the top of a criminal
empire” (Rivlin-Nadler). This story arc is so appealing to so many fans because it embodies
some of middle class America’s secret desires. If so many people find the so-called
American dream unattainable or unfulfilling, Walt is a way for viewers to vicariously
escape into Walt’s life, where he has gained power over his life after being powerless in
the face of poverty and even death.
In Ashby’s chapter titled “Counterpoints to Consensus,” he discusses how “popular
culture [in the 1940s-1950s] provided outlets for feelings of uncertainty, doubt and
diminished personal power” and I think pop culture, and more specifically, Breaking Bad,
can still be outlets for those kinds of feeling among consumers of the show (303). The
American dream has let a lot of people down by generally being a big fat lie, and shows like
Breaking Bad can help people see how fictional middle class people deal with this giant let-
down. Walt has asked himself “If playing by the rules can only get you so far, why
bother?” and this is the heart of the show (Rivlin-Nadler). Walt has chosen to break away
from the status quo and in doing so has become an increasing amoral criminal—so is Walt
really any really better off having broken away from the myth of the American dream? I
don’t know!

9. Serious analysis continued
(American dream)
I came across a very interesting article about Breaking Bad’s handling of the American
dream dealing with a Walt Whitman reference made during the third season of the show.
For those that don’t know, Whitman was an American poet, most famous for “Song of
Myself,” which has been read as the intense celebration of the individual and the self but
the self as connected to every living being in the cosmos (it’s pretty awesome). Walter
picks up a book of Whitman’s poems and is seen reading them in different episodes, and
this is obviously not an accident on the part of the writers.
As Matt Orenstein points out in his article, “Whitman’s pithy humanism stands in stark
contrast to Walter White’s gradual indulgence of his own will-to-power and his
insouciance towards the lives of others,” but at the same time, “[w]atching Breaking Bad
in light of Whitman is to meditate on the American Dream through a glass, darkly.”
Walter’s “American Dream exists outside of the American legal system,” which isn’t
complicit with the proper American Dream—it should be achieved legally and honestly
(Orenstein). Walter’s “rugged individualism” isn’t enough to qualify him as a good old
American boy, like Whitman, because in the end, they are too different (Orenstein).
Ultimately, Whitman’s “America…was one of altruism: his poems professed a love of
everyone,” but Walter, “lives for and believes only in himself” (Orenstein). Having Walter
read the poems of someone who wrote about his connection to and love for his fellow
humans all while being an intensely rugged individual is a clear way of pointing out
Walter’s contrasting dehumanization and his grasping for some semblance of the
American Dream in an illegal, immoral way.

10. More analysis: Skyler and gender
Like I mentioned in a previous slide, almost everyone hates Skyler White’s
character and most people reason that because Walt is set up as our (anti)
hero, Skyler is his natural foil. She’s set up from the first episode to be seen as
the nagging wife who undervalues her quiet, intelligent, troubled husband, but
as the show progresses and Walt become more and more frightening, Skyler is
still seen as this unreasonable, hateful woman, even though she must deal with
the fact that her husband is placing their family in very real danger and is
possibly becoming a sociopathic murderer.
In her article, Alyssa Rosenberg explores Skyler’s character from a feminist
perspective. Rosenberg describes Skyler as “one of many TV wives…fans turn
on rather than visiting moral judgment on the anti-hero men themselves.”
Skyler’s relationship with her husband grows more and more complex and
more dangerous with each season—Walt becomes abusive and “Skyler sees
Walt as we’re [viewers] meant to see him: a self-deluding, pathetic man, but a
dangerous one” (Rosenberg). Her character has been criticized for not leaving
Walt, not realizing how difficult it might for Skyler to leave, with a teenage son
and infant child, a man who has been known to kill when threatened. Though
Rosenberg does point out that perhaps “Skyler has a moral clarity that those
of us who want to identify with Walt as a badass would like to deny,” she also
says that “it’s hard enough for women who aren’t married to evil geniuses to
leave abusive relationships” and that Skyler shouldn’t be villainized for trying
to work out a solution to the complex problem that is her life.

11. Works Cited
Ashby, LeRoy. “Counterpoints to Consensus.” With
Amusement for All: A History of American Popular Culture
Since 1830. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky,
2006. 302-347. Print.
Orenstein, Matt. “I See You Face to Face: Walt Whitman and
Walter White.” Full Stop. Full Stop, 19 September 2012. Web.
14 March 2013.
Rivlin-Nadler, Max. “Breaking Bad’s Failed American
Dream.” The Nation. The Nation, 11 July 2012. Web. 14 March
2013.
Rosenberg, Alyssa. “Stop Hating the Wives: In Praise of
Breaking Bad’s Skyler White.” Slate. The Slate Group, 16 July
2012. Web. 14 March 2013.