I’m working on a philosophy report and need a sample draft to help me study.
Blomkamp, District 9
(3 double-spaced pages)
Your job here is simple enough to state: watch District 9 and do a thoroughgoing character study of Wikus van de Merwe using the Levinasian theory we have examined for the last couple weeks. To complete this task, you will need to watch District 9 closely and note, for yourself, any and all scenes that are relevant to this study. When you start the written portion of the assignment, you will need to address some of or all the scenes you have noted.
Writing part 1:
At the outset of District 9, Wikus is a man who is deeply ensconced in his bubble of me. Levinas would conclude that Mr. van de Merwe is a totalizer, and he would be right. Your first written task is to explain how and why. By reference to specific scenes from the film, give an account of Wikus’s patterns of totalization.’ Do not forget to make use of the language we used in class and the concepts we covered in lecture.
Writing part 2:
By the end of the film, Wikus risks his life on behalf of the alien other. Something has happened; Wikus has begun to live in a manner that, as Levinas would say, is other than his usual modes of living. In class, we covered the most common way that patterns of totalization are interrupted and that ethics can fill our world. We also discussed the Ethical; that is, the space into which we are thrown, often against our will, and where we find ourselves choosing between ethics and the other on the one hand or freedom and the same on the other.
Your second written task follows from the first. By reference to the Levinasian theory you know, please discuss Wikuss transformation. To do this well, you will need to address and analyze specific scenes from the film.
Hint: His transformation does not happen all at once.
