Discipline and Punish

This week in class we talked about Foucault's "Discipline and Punish," and applied it to two videos withing Bye Bye Birdie and West Side Story. In West Side Story one of the gangs sings a song about being shove around from psychiatrists to social workers to penetentaries so that they can be fixed of their "bad" ways. The song is a mockery of this system, but it was when they call their delinquincies a "social disease," is when they play into Foucault's power of knowledge. I think that the following clip of Life is Beautiful, clearly illustrates how these powerful positions can influence citizens just by saying what they think is true. In the clip, Guido, a Jewish man pretends to be an inspector from Rome, sent to teach the children in Italy that Jews are a less superior race. Guido goes to the school to impress a girl he likes and finds himself mistaken for the inspector. Guido then has no choice but to follow along and makes a mockery of the lies.



"Where can you find someone more handsome than me?...I am an original 'superior race' pure Aryan...The ear. Look at the perfection of this ear...They dream about these in France." During the holocaust, this superiority in races was taught and people on both sides were convinced because they were TOLD so.


Another movie I feel really reflects Foucault's theories of the Panopticism and universalizing versus individualizing is the movie, Law Abiding Citizen. I feel like this movie breaks down this idea of the Panopticism because Foucault says if you have guards at the center of the cells, the inmates will behave because there is a possibility of being watched. Below is the trailer to the movie. In Law Abiding Citizen, Clyde Shelton's wife and daughter are brutally murdered. One of the murderers is let out after three years and one sent to the death penalty. Ten years pass, and Clyde reemerges with a plan for Justice. He brutally kills both men, and then once arrested and inside the prison, he kills everyone who touched the case ten years ago and let the murderers walk free. Clyde is in solitary confinement, but still manages to "misbehave" while in the watch of the prison guards. Foucault would say that inmates would be less likely to misbehave for fear of being watched. Clyde has everything planned to a T, and completely breaks down the Panopticon. Clyde punishes those that did not give his family justise. He also tries to make deals with the D.A. so that other lives will be saved. But when they don't agree to the bargain he presents and they don't keep to their word, they are punished and the consequences are fatal.






Foucault, Michel. "Discipline and Punish." Literary Theory: An Anthology. Second Ed. Julie Rivkin & Michael Ryan. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2004. 549-565. Print.

Law Abiding Citizen [HD]. Clevvermovies. 31 Aug 2009. YouTube. Web. 22 April 2010.

Life is Beautiful for Roberto Benigni. Vlequang. 13 July 2007. YouTube. Web. 22 April 2010.