Deviance in Film Analysis Essay

Film And Book Analysis

Donna and Entry Level Deviance

In accordance to the cultural-transmission theory, deviance is a behavior that is learnt by means of interacting with others. Basically, individuals end up learning from other individuals who take part in deviant norms and also possess and display deviant values. Donna largely represent entry level deviance in the sense that she hangs out with cocaine and substance D addicts, but does not alter her behavior. More so, she acts as a supplier of substance D yet at the culmination of the film, ends up being a police officer who is keen on blowing up the operations of New Path. The manner in which law enforcement follows a chain of evidence from low-level deviants, such as Donna, is simply through direct supervision on a daily basis as several prospects for deviance can present themselves to such low level deviants. This enables the evidence not to be void and become valid in its use.

Officer Fred

Away from his undercover work, in the film, when Bob Arctor's real identity is shown, it is displayed as Special Agent Fred. Officer Fred plays an everyman in the film, A Scanner Darkly (2006). In accordance to Calhoun and Coyers (2013), this does play a role in relation to deviance. In particular, they would term this as elite deviance. Calhoun and Coyers (2013: 174) point out that an individual may perceive his or her own as either being criminal or non-criminal. As for Officer Fred, he perceived his own offending behavior as being non-criminal for the reason that he had not harmed any individual in his activities. More so, he considered his offences as being dissimilar to other normal crimes as it was legal to be an undercover cop and was undertaking his duties. This can be perceived in his deviant acts of becoming addicted to Substance D and also trying to be together with Donna yet it was going against his duties.

Substance D

In the film, Substance D brings about dementia or a split-brain disconnection, which causes a progressively fractionated, disjointed and illogical self-consciousness of an individual. Basically, it causes the separation between cognition and perception, and the two start battling for control of the person. This signifies the actuality that some of our awareness has cognitive elements, and some cognition has perceptual elements. This volatility in individual identity, and the progressively despairing fight to hold it together, reflects the society itself. This can relate to one of the elements in Robert Merton's strain theory. According to this theory, strain might also be individual, which alludes to the resistances and troubles experienced by a person as he or she seeks out manners in which to satisfy individual needs (Boundless, 2015).

Duality of Man Good/Evil

Bob Arctor does represent the duality between good and evil. This can be perceived in a number of ways in the film. To start with, Bob Arctor, in his undercover work, has come to be addicted to Substance D, and stays drunk all days with his roommates. Secondly, Arctor has befriended the woman whom he has actually started spying on. The woman, Donna, is not only a cocaine addict, but also a supplier of Substance D. Thirdly, Bob Arctor has the objective of buying a great quantity and amount of Substance D from Donna in order for her to make an introduction of Arctor to her drug supplier. However, the twist to this is that Arctor has, at the same time, developed outwardly unanswered romantic feelings towards Donna.

Role of Anonymity in Deviance

Anonymity within a group setting…