Pranav--Week 3: You're a Good Man, Arthur Morgan (Spoiler Warning).
Pranav—Week 3: You're a Good Man, Arthur Morgan
Arthur Morgan's Death. Image from Red Dead Wiki Who are we when the person we want to be conflicts with the person the world expects us to be? We can spend years living by the expectations placed on us, even when they no longer reflect the person we want to become. What truly defines us is not where we come from, but the choices we make when given the chance to change. These expectations were embedded in the world of Arthur Morgan, from the video game Red Dead Redemption 2. Arthur was a member of the Van Der Linde gang, and society expected him to be a ruthless, cold-blooded outlaw, when he just wanted to be a better person.
Arthur started off as a typical Wild West outlaw, robbing, shooting, and travelling across the dusty landscapes of the American frontier. He never had a father, so h
e looked up to the leader of the gang he was a part of, Dutch Van Der Linde. As Arthur grew closer to Dutch, he began to view him as a father figure, allowing Dutch’s beliefs about loyalty and freedom to shape Arthur’s understanding of who he was. The Dutch would often send Arthur out to retrieve debts. On one occasion, Arthur was sent to collect a debt from Thomas Downes, a retired farmer with a family. When Downes couldn't pay, Arthur beat him mercilessly. Downes later died, but his death had a far greater effect than Arthur could have imagined. His family could no longer support themselves, forcing Downes’s wife into prostitution and his 16-year-old son into the coal mines. To make matters worse, Downes had tuberculosis, and while Arthur was beating him, he unknowingly contracted the disease himself.
Arthur's tuberculosis diagnosis changed the way he saw the world, and more importantly, changed the way he saw Dutch. He began to value life, rather than seeing it as expendable, and he also began to question Dutch’s judgment. Arthur began to see Dutch’s violent nature and started to see him as a monster rather than a father figure. The game's antagonist, Micah Bell, was manipulating Dutch into becoming a greedy, ruthless murderer rather than an easygoing father figure. As Dutch became more consumed by violence and paranoia, Arthur realized that he was no longer the man he remembered. In the end, Arthur had to decide for himself what he wanted to be, rather than simply following the life Dutch had chosen for him.
In the finale of the game, Arthur helps the gang escape from Dutch and Micah. Eventually, Micah catches him on a cliff and beats him ruthlessly. At this point, the tuberculosis had consumed Arthur, and he was too weak to protect himself. In a last-ditch effort, Arthur reaches out for a nearby gun; however, Dutch stops him from getting the gun. As he watches the sun set one last time, Arthur dies knowing that he finally became the kind of man he had spent his life searching for. Who would you become if you had one last chance to change?
Hi Pranav, your blog was really interesting to read! I like how you broke down the different events in Arthur Morgan’s life. Your blog was pretty easy to understand.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed how you contrasted between the identity that people expect you to have and the identity that actually reflects who you are. It got me thinking about how much of your identity you want to base on other people’s expectations and beliefs. With your opening paragraph, I thought about the typical Asian expectation to become a doctor, lawyer, or engineer, even though we might not want to have those jobs for the rest of our lives.
What I found the most interesting was how each of the events in Arthur Morgan’s life had an impact on his overall life but also the next event, like a domino effect. Like how his fighting and killing of Downes resulted in major regret that made him rethink his values, but the tuberculosis he contracted also played a significant role later on in his life and eventual death. I also liked how you described Arthur as becoming the man that he was looking for; it makes his character and death much more impactful. Personally, I would also want to become a more moral person, given one last chance to change.
Overall, your blog was very comprehensible and thought-provoking! I especially liked the way you organized your blog: starting and ending with impactful yet different questions, and chronologically detailing an interesting example that we can compare to our own identities and experiences.
The main reason Arthur’s story stuck with me is because of the fact that his change doesn’t come from a lecture or a fresh start. It comes from a consequence he can’t escape. For years, he did what Dutch asked him to do because it was genuinely the only life he knew of, and it took a deadly illness for him to even question it.
ReplyDeleteI think that’s true outside the game too. A lot of people don’t change just because they woke up one day and suddenly decided to. The change happened when something made the older version of themselves impossible to live with the current. What makes Arthur’s arc stand out to me is that it was too late to fix his past, but not too late to choose who he was in the end.
So, I too think I’d try not to wait for my “last chance” the way Arthur did/. I’d want to become someone who is more honest and more present with the people around me. I’d like to make choices based on what I actually value instead of what’s expected of me.