Five Seasons of The Wire - Assignment Example

Emergent Themes – The Wire Theme 1: Institutional Dysfunction ‘The Wire` depicts institutional dysfunctional apparent in America via exhibiting the Baltimore police department, the Baltimore School system, the Drug Trafficking division and other similar institutions in fighting crime. The first season revolved around the investigation of D`Angelo Barsdale who is a classified murdered yet seeks protection by the drug cartel, in which even the institutions seem involved. When Detective Jimmy convinces Judge Phelan to take up the issue with the Police Department, it takes the shape of a police investigation. The investigation brings forward other drug trade cartels and classified homicides which haven’t yet been resolved due to the institutional dysfunction. However, the season takes a turn when Detective Kima gets injured during an operation triggering zeal in the entire department. Eventually Barksdale is arrested while Stringer takes control over the Barsdale Empire. Stringer was second in command to the Barsdale investigation earlier, but now due to chaos in the empire he takes control. However, the effect of antagonizing the seniors turns out extreme as Detective McNulty is kicked out of homicide reflecting a classic case of institutional dysfunction. The second season, however, determines the institutional dysfunction specifically amongst the police department and the FBI. McNulty is still holding grudges against his commanders and thus, he seeks opportunity when he finds out about the death of thirteen young women. This particular event provides an opportunity for McNulty and he places the case into his former unit for investigation. Again the police department is represented by Major Stan, who opens up a detailed investigation against Sabotka, the owner of the Docker`s union. Also, during the season, the police department comes across a mole in the department, further pointing out towards dysfunction. Also, Stringer is countered by Omar Little, who is fooled into believing that Mouzone was rather involved in killing his partner. However, in reality Mouzone wasn’t involved in the Murder of his partner and the story was fabricated to create chaos in the Barksdale organization. In the third season, another institution is involved in the complex game of institutional chaos i.e. the political institution of the state. The story-line of this season revolved around the legalization of drug trade and prostitution to decrease street crime. Council-man Tommy was preparing for running for the office of the Mayor, amidst strong drug lobbies and street trafficking of drugs. Also, an ambitious Major Howard sets up his task to eradicate drugs from an area where the police forces only monitor drug trafficking rather do nothing about it, further pointing towards institutional dysfuntionalism. However, due to the strong institutional lobbies run by media and politicians, despite starking decrease in crime, Major Howard is forced to cease the operation, and rather a scandal is made out of him to benefit the mayor-ship of the councilman Tommy. However, McNulty comes into the scene and informs Major Howard about Avon`s, who is currently handling the business of the Barksdale organization. Thus, Avon`s hideout is revealed and as a result, he gets arrested. The focus of season four has expanded to further include the school system as well to exhibit how there is institutional dysfunctionalism operating there as well. The season starts four boys Dukie, Randy, Michael and Namond who enter the eighth grade and Prez has also started his career as Maths professor. However, Nomond and Michael are recruited to work for drug cartels under a classified drug runner Bodie. Marlo is still in the streets, now even stronger, using murders as a weapon to enhance his business. Marlo, who heads the Stanfield organization, also convinces Bodie to work with him. Marlo is aiming at filling in the vacuum left by the Barksdale organization. Soon after the homicide department also comes into action, as the Marlo-Bodie combo is quite lethal in context to the drug cartels in the area. Detective Kima and Lester are now looking after the case, and Barksdale`s donations are helping out political factions. In the beginning, Royce is winning the mayor`s election`s race, however, once Councilman Tommy takes up the issue of drug cartels in the city, his position in the race becomes stronger. Since Barkdale`s donations are supporting Tommy, this leads to further dearth in fighting crime in the city. Also, Prez tries to convince the boys on the right path where he achieves a significant level of success, yet, Namond fails to listen, and is rather interrogated by police. Owing to institutional chaos, thus, the drug cartels from the earlier seasons are now integrated, and are stronger than before. Season five entirely focuses on the institutional dysfunction in media politics. The season uses a fictional newspaper, the Baltimore Sun, where the true picture is depicted on how the media curtails information and alters the stories wrongfully. The media is going through extreme crisis, as there is chaos on intense competition amongst media groups, the issue of increasing profits, decreasing journalists, also the depreciating quality of the news stories and most importantly the element of truth in these stories. Mayor Tommy cuts out the budget of the police department to serve the interests of the drug cartels who funded his campaign, which shuts down the Marlo investigation. Detective McNulty is recruited back into the homicide unit where he fakes the story that a serial killer is murdering homeless men with the aim to re-funnel resources back into the police department. The Baltimore Sun also goes through budget cuts after publishing certain stories against drug cartels, after which it has to omit certain stories and falsify facts on the paper. A reporter from the paper Scott claims to have been contacted by the serial killer murdering homeless men, which is used by Mayor Tommy again to run for governor. Thus, the entire season focuses on how the media plays a role in covering up the stories to serve the interests of the institutions and personalities. The season ends on a dramatic note where McNulty gazes over the entire city, Detective Freamon seeks retirement and Carcetti takes the office of the governor. Also, former city desk editor Haynes is found sidelines over the copy desk and his position in taken up by Fletcher, who was a general assignments editor. Also, Cercetti however appoints Rawls, who was the Deputy Commissioner, for the position of the Superintendent of the State Police of Maryland. On the other hand, Dukie who was the student of Parez, continues with his drug business with Micheal being the stickup boy, thus, institutional dysfunction continues and the trade cartels continue to operate and the people residing in Baltimore also continues with their daily lives. These characters keep coming back into the series with repeated intervals, to offer a supporting role to the main series. Theme 1: Institutional Dysfunction (500 Words) ‘The Wire` depicts institutional dysfunctional in America exhibiting the Baltimore police department, School system, Drug Trafficking division and other similar. The first season revolves around the investigation of D`Angelo Barsdale, a classified murderer who seeks protection by the drug cartel, where even the institutions are involved. When Detective Jimmy convinces Judge Phelan to take up the issue with the Police Department, a conspiracy begins. However, the season takes a turn when Detective Kima gets injured during an operation triggering zeal in the department. Eventually Barksdale is arrested while Stringer, who`s second in control in the empire, takes control over the Barsdale Empire. However, the effect of antagonizing the seniors is quite extreme as Detective McNulty is fired from homicide reflecting a case of institutional dysfunction. The second season determines institutional dysfunction specifically amongst the police department and the FBI. McNulty is still holding grudge against his commanders and places the case into former unit for investigation when he finds out about the death of thirteen young women. The police department, represented by Major Stan opens an investigation against Sabotka. Also, Stringer is countered by Omar Little who is fooled into believing that Mouzone was rather involved in killing his partner, which is inherently false. The story-line of the third season, Council-man Tommy was preparing for running for the office of the Mayor, amidst strong drug lobbies and street trafficking of drugs. Also, Major Howard sets up his task to eradicate drugs from an area where the police forces are reluctant to function, pointing towards institutional dysfunction. However, Major Howard is forced to cease the operation, and rather a scandal is made out of him to benefit the mayor-ship of the councilman Tommy. Season four has expanded towards the dysfunction in school where four boys Dukie, Randy, Michael and Namond enter the eighth grade and Prez has also started his career as Maths professor. Detective Kima and Lester are now looking after the case of drug cartels, and Barksdale`s donations are helping out political factions. Councilman Tommy wins the elections by campaigning on drug issue. Also, Prez tries to convince the boys on the right path where he achieves a significant level of success, yet, Namond fails to listen, and is rather interrogated by police. Season five uses a fictional newspaper, the Baltimore Sun, where the media is seen going through extreme crisis, as there is chaos on intense competition amongst media groups, the issue of increasing profits and decreasing journalists. Mayor Tommy cuts out the budget of the police department to serve the interests of the drug cartels who funded his campaign shutting down the Marlo investigation. Detective McNulty is recruited back into the homicide unit where he fakes the story that a serial killer is murdering homeless men. The Baltimore Sun also goes through budget cuts after publishing certain stories against drug cartels, after which it has to omit certain stories and falsify facts on the paper. Thus, the entire season focuses on how the media plays a role in covering up the stories to serve the interests of the institutions and personalities. Memo: Summarizing a thousand words summary into 500 words was quite a complex task which involved editing and re-editing with repeated attempts. In the first attempt, the unnecessary details were omitted from the summary which weren’t playing the role of supporting the theme identified. However, this wasn’t enough, thus a few lines which were too long had to be rephrased to make them shorter. Thus, rephrasing several lines led towards summarization of the thematic analysis of the five seasons. However, 500 words imply that each season had to be summarized into just 100 words which seemed to be an impossible task since the particular season being analyzed is a very complicated one with many characters and a long-story line. Thus, to avoid disturbing the story of the season, the adjectives used throughout were omitted. Also, introductory sentences which were being used as the opening theme for each season were also omitted. Thus, the modified summary just contains the perspective of the season which supports the theme being studied. More so, words used for grammatical purposes, rather as supporting phrases for the essay also had to be omitted for the purpose to serve the required word length. Therefore, cutting the initial summary in half without disturbing the balance of the theme and the original essay involved a lot of edits. In other words, each sentence, rather each phrase was analyzed closely to ensure that it is in entirety strengthening the theme of the essay i.e. institutional dysfunction or contributing towards the task of story-telling to clarify the story of the particular season. Also, even the most significant parts of the essay were rephrased to make a point and at the same time using words or phrases which take up less space. Conclusively, the 500 words summary was only possibly after the complete re-structuring and re-phrasing of the original essay. Read More