This American Life
359: Life After Death (the transcript is
linked)
"One day at church camp, David Maxon challenged the devil to show
himself. Just then, a huge thunderstorm started, and David felt sure the devil
was behind it. So when the thunderstorm led to two campers getting killed,
David couldn't help but blame himself. Twenty years later, host Ira Glass talks
to David about being innocent but feeling guilty."
Binary Opposition Analysis:
-the natural vs. the supernatural
A random strike of lighting (natural) or sent from the devil
(supernatural)?
-believers vs. non-believers
Those who believed in the devil and believed that David was responsible
and those who did not believe in the devil and did not hold David
responsible for the accident.
"Everyone told Darin Strauss that there would have been no way to
avoid hitting the bicyclist who swerved into the path of his car. When the girl
died, the police said Darin wasn't at fault. He tells what it's like to live
with being the accidental cause of someone's death. Darin also tells this story
in his new book Half a Life."
-the driver vs. the general public
The driver, Darin, who knew that he could not have prevented the
accident vs. the general public who held him responsible for the death and
wanted to accuse him of being reckless
"When John came back from fighting in Iraq, he refused to leave his
house. He was paranoid. He had violent nightmares—the same ones every night.
Unlike a lot of vets, John got treatment. His doctor at the Veterans Affairs
hospital felt optimistic about his case. And then John attacked his fiancée and her
mother. Chris Neary tells the story of one veteran's struggle to return to
being the person he was before the war."
-the soldier vs. the post-soldier
John claims that "there are two of you", the soldier you were
in wartime, and the soldier you are when you return home.
-the VA hospital vs. the "real world"
In the VA hospital, everyone understands what you are going through and
are there to help so you respond well and are able to function (normally) or
what seems normal in a VA hospital; however, in the "real world",
John didn't leave his house because the general public wouldn't understand what
he was going through and a normal situation, like going to the grocery store
seemed unbearable.
"John:
We have two faces. There's two faces to everybody that has been in a
war. You have a face that wants to get help, an optimistic face. And then you
have like the real face. And at the hospital they're like, everybody's doing
well. And everybody's cool.
And I'm like you really don't know that Roger can't get on the elevator
with anybody. I used to not even go into stores to get food. I would pay drug
addicts to go in there and get me food, because I didn't even want to go in the
store. That's the stuff that really happens, what people are really acting
like. I haven't left the house since like Tuesday."
Implications:
Using binary
opposition as a critical perspective, guilt and innocence are clearly
defined. In each act of the podcast, there is the notion of the guilty and the
innocent. In the prologue, David is either innocent and an act of nature is
guilty or David is to blame for tempting the devil, therefore, anyone that
doesn't tempt the devil is innocent. Either way, binary opposition allows (more
like forces) for the reader, or listener, to choose their side. You either
believe that David is the reason for his friend's death or you don't. You
either believe in the supernatural powers of the devil or you don't, but binary
opposition clearly establishes these two conflicting sides, allowing the
reader to align with whatever side they deem to be the truth. Likewise for the
following two acts. Binary Opposition sets up the two sides, the audience,
perhaps unconsciously, chooses their side and is not easily persuaded to
jump ships. Thus, they then judge whoever they deem guilty and carry that
judgment from the podcast into their daily lives.
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