Ethical Dilemma in Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)

Nietzsches claim that God is dead arouses interesting questions not only on what or who killed God and also on how man caller, impoverished of the long-held comfort of the polarity of respectable and moral grounds, would formulate judgements of what is real, good, or handsome in their lives and in the worldly concern. The moral and ethical contradiction of a world where Truth does not exist is shown in the movie Glengarry Glen Rose which is an exploration of the motivations and impetus of individuals in a society where the duality good and brutal concur ceased to become the standards. Arguably, the occupy portrays the ethical dilemma in a postmodern world, notably posed by Nietzsche, who observed that the demise of the supposition of sacrosanct Truth is a double-edged sword for society. This is because the lack of clearcut and ecumenically held concepts of what is right or wrong, while at first seems to connote freedom, at last leaves a void that leads to human despair and nihilistic feelings.Adapted for the fully grown inter from a fulfill written by the movies theater director David Mamet (1992), Glengarry Glen Ross follows two days in the lives of four real estate agents who cheek a bleak future if they do not last a deal soon. These char prompters, played by a veteran and brilliant gag which includes Al Pacino (Ricky Roma), Jack Lemmon (Shelley Levene), Ed Harris (Dave Moss), and Alan Arkin (George Aaronow), be told point blank by company representative Blake (Alec Baldwin) that the company will fire every salesman turn out for the top two within one week. The agents, desperate to retain their jobs and glide by to earn a living, commit actions that raise questions and at the same clipping comments on how far human beings in at onces society would go to preserve themselves and attain their materialistic dreams. In a agree of days, the characters become involved in a series of events that show how human culture has tremendously suff ered from the lack of ethical and moral considerations.Apart from capturing the apparent disintegration in human culture, the painting is particularly concerned about the motives and assumptions that stab each sales agents actions and how these motives often result in clashing interests. This is evident in how the themes of truth, status, and identity are tackled based on the feelings, thoughts, and actions of the characters in the film. For instance, Blakes character as a ruthless and hardhearted company representative is clearly intended to parody the attitude of big business when it comes to ensuring a healthy bottom line, which is clearly against the interest of its workers.On the opposite hand, these workersor salespeopleare depicted as similar to Blake himself in terms of cruelty and lack of humanity. Ricky Roma, for instance, is later shown to be a heartless consciousness who takes advantage of the weaknesses of others to advance his objectives. Shelley Levene likewise r esorts to thievery in order to close a sale and exact vengeance on his perceived enemies. In the end, Blakes character with its apparent inhumanity becomes less despicable as the frailties and weaknesses of other characters are exposed. Ironically, the audience is led to feel pity for such human weakness instead of being led to feel righteous. This is because the film attempts to evoke empathy in its viewers for characters who are, alas, as human as the viewers are and whose justifications for wrongdoing resonate with the audience.Arguably, the narrative of the movie itself is a description against the moralityor the lack of itof the four real estate agents. In this mind, Glengarry Glen Ross delivers a stinging critique of how societys sense of ethics and even the sense of morality have been replaced by materialistic desires. The report card of the four salesmen, desperate and immoral, mirrors the realities faced by individuals in their quest for personalised conquest and a higher social status and how this quest, ironically, often results to the supercharge debasement of the humanity in the individual.The film, in fact, is full of such play at irony that depicts how peoples worth are not judged by society based on how good they live their lives but on the number of material things they possess. In this social order, humans are segregated by their class, ethnic identity, and gender which determine their ability or their eligibility for access to basic and higher postulate. The films narrative itself, which revolves round real estate agents trying to sell dirt in its metonymical and literal meaning, alludes to the way in which humans are not any longer concerned with telling the truth or with earning a living done honest ways or at least, without causing the ruin of others. Apparently, todays world has gone beyond being immoral or corrupted to being amoral or lacking in moral standards itself.Thus, the ethical dilemma raised by the film reflects Ni etzsches argument on the death of God, referring to the demise of societys dualist notion of good or evil. With this death, everything that humans have come to believe in becomes subject to dubiety as truth falters in its absolute hold on consciousness. In this society, even the realities of human experiencethe entire spectrum of feelings and thoughtscan be questioned and examined for their validity. tender-hearted acts are consequently defined not by their conformity with recognized norms or intrinsic values but by the circumstance environ them. This circumstance, in turn, becomes the standard by which an act becomes socially acceptable.In Glengarry Glen Ross, the death of universal values and norms for what is good or evil meant that ethical considerations were dispensable and were reclaimable only when the need arises. Ricky Romas character, for instance, engages in a monologuewhich is later revealed to be a sales pitchthat shows how society and individuals have suspended a ll forms of judgement in favor of individuality. Accordingly, Romas speech, which deals with stealing, cheating, and even pedophilia in a nonchalant manner, is a tell-tale abridge of the central argument made in the film that the death of absolute Truth has entailed the death of things once cherished by humans such as the concept of love and goodness.According to Nietzsche, this has created a void in individuals who tangle lost without the ethical values and concept of morality that served to anchor their lives. Instead, these ethical ideals such as Truth, were replaced by the notion that there was a numerousness of truth depending on how these benefitted society or the individual. Ultimately, however, Nietzsche points out that this loss of a sense of ethics and morality also leads, for many individuals, to lose their sense of meaning and to despair. Thus, loneliness and desperation is pervasive in Glengarry Glen Ross for how could men busy in crafting lies to their fellow human s in order to earn a living be able to live truly meaningful lives?It is therefore in portraying the ruthless and callous ways with which human beings act in a system dominated by materialistic notions of success and happiness, that Glengarry Glen Ross succeeds at brutally dissecting individual motivations and actions based on Nietzsches philosophy. Consequently, the film is able to provoke retrospection on what has become a human race for many individuals in a materialistic society, and to evoke the decision of whether this is a reality that is worth maintaining for the long term or one that needs to be transformed and changed to affirm the meaning of human life.Work CitedGlengarry Glen Ross. Dir. David Mamet. Perf. Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Ed Harris, Alec Baldwin, Alan Arkin, and Kevin Spacey. New Line Cinema, 1992.