Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad is a serial drama produced by Vince Gilligan from 2008 to 2013. The series is about Walter White, an underpaid, overqualified and frustrated high school chemistry teacher who is struggling with a recent diagnosis of lung cancer. As a result, he starts getting into the drug business and criminal activities with his former student, the drug addict Jesse Pinkman, manufacturing crystal meth to secure his family's financial future before he dies. The series is one of the most watched series on American television and has accordingly won numerous awards, including several Primetime Emmy Awards and Golden Globe Awards.
The series Breaking Bad plays an important role within American Fiction, addressing socio-critical issues in America. First, the poor image of the teaching profession is shown by seeing the simple life that Walter White lives with his family mainly due to poor pay. Second, America's health insurance system, which often does not provide treatment for illnesses to people with little or no income, but makes them pay for treatments themselves. The poor pay and health insurance that covers little treatment is the basis of the narrative, which is why Walter White finds himself in a hopeless situation when he has to pay for his treatment for lung cancer. Furthermore, the series deals with the image of a "real man": a man who expresses strength and self-confidence and can take care of his family alone. Walter White tries to embody these qualities by becoming a seemingly important and irreplaceable crystal meth cook. This makes it difficult for him to get out of the criminal drug business and get financial and psychological help. Finally, the drug problem of America is dealt with, mainly linked to the neighboring country of Mexico.
The teaching profession in the US
In Breaking Bad, the main character Walter White works as a high school chemistry teacher. The series shows some aspects of Walter’s daily life as a teacher and opens up different questions about the teaching profession in the United States. Do teachers earn enough money? What is the status of their profession in American society?
Teachers’ salary
Although Walter is working full-time, he still has to work in a car wash after school. Even though he works two jobs, his family is not able to afford to replace things around the house when they are broken. In the very first episode, Walter’s son complains about having to shower with cold water as the water boiler is broken and does not heat up enough water for the whole family. Unfortunately, Walter and his wife tell their son that they cannot afford a new and bigger water boiler. In addition, there are other hints towards the family’s financial situation throughout the show, which open up the question whether teachers in the United States do not earn enough money.
As there is a huge variety regarding teachers’ salary across the United States, the investigation of this question needs to focus on the actual setting of the series, which is Albuquerque in New Mexico, and the release year of the first season, which is 2008. In the school year from 2008 to 2009, the average salary of teachers in New Mexico was $ 47,341. In comparison, in all of the United States, the average salary was $ 53,910, which means that teachers in New Mexico earn slightly less than the average American teacher. Nevertheless, in comparison to the average salary of all occupations in 2008 ($ 32,390) (United States Department of Labor), teachers actually earn a lot more. However, this average of teacher salary includes teachers that have been working in education for years or even decades and therefore probably had several raises over time. At what level a teacher's salary starts also depends heavily on the degree you have. The lowest paid teachers are the ones with a bachelor’s degree and teachers that have just started the job. The lowest ten per cent earn less than $ 35,000 a year, which comes close to the average American income.
In Germany, there are also different factors that influence a teacher’s salary. It is mostly affected by what type of school you are teaching at, which is similar to the United States, but also depending on which ‘Bundesland’ you are working in. Nonetheless, the average yearly salary on high school level in Germany in 2017/18 was € 55,000, which is around $ 62,000. So there is a significant difference in the salary of teachers in Germany and the United States, especially New Mexico.
Keeping in mind the context of the show and the family situation, there might be other reasons for the lack of money. On one hand, Walter’s wife is pregnant and currently not working. Walter’s job is the only source of income for three people and another baby on the way. On the other hand, Walter’s first son is physically challenged and might need treatment or special equipment.
Teachers’ status in the American society
Furthermore, in the series, there is kind of a rivalry between Walter and his brother-in-law, Hank, who is a police officer. In the show, there is a conflict between the statuses of their professions. Hank seems to be the hero of the family, talking about all the criminals he caught and showing off his gun. Walter’s son admires his uncle and really enjoys listening to his stories. The whole family watches news reports of Hank’s work, but does not really care about Walter’s job. Even the students in Walter’s class do not seem to care at all about chemistry, although Walter is really passionate and has a lot of ideas to make his classes fun. These scenes in the show make the teaching profession look boring, unspectacular and like nothing that anyone cares about. Teachers do not seem to be respected, either by adults or by the students.
The Global Teacher Status Index 2018 investigated the status of the teaching profession across different countries. Factors or aspects included in this index are the social standing of teachers, how well teachers are respected in comparison to other professions, what people think teachers should be paid and whether parents would encourage their children to become teachers. In this index, the United States got a score of 39.7 out of 100 and places 16th out of 29 participating countries.
Having a closer look at the different factors and answers by the American public, the teaching profession seems to be a mid to low-status profession. When asked to rank 14 different professions, including teachers, doctors, lawyers, police officers, nurses, librarians, social workers, etc., teachers got ranked 7th. Interestingly, when the participants of this survey were asked which profession teaching is most comparable to, the average answer was ‘librarian’, which placed 14th in the ranking of professions. Furthermore, teachers ranked themselves lower than the public, which says a lot about how educators perceive attitudes towards their profession from the public.
Another notion regarding the status of teachers in the show is that people who decide to become teachers failed in their original profession. Walter studied chemistry at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), which is one of the best universities in the United States. After graduating, he worked as a researcher and helped win the Nobel Prize together with his team. He later founded his own company called ‘Gray Matter Technologies’ together with a former classmate and close friend. Unfortunately, their company was not very successful, which led to Walter selling his share for $ 5,000 and becoming a high school teacher.
There are not any surveys or specific research regarding this question. Nevertheless, on Quora, people have been discussing this topic as there has been the assumption that teachers take up the profession because they are failures in their professional field and not because they have a passion for teaching. There are several teachers among the people commenting on the discussion, who allegedly have graduated from well-known universities like Oxford or Stanford. Some argue that teaching is a totally different skill than the skills of a practicing scientist. Therefore, it is not possible to make a comparison and to assume that teachers are failures in their field. Others list different reasons why people quit their jobs to pursue teaching. You might have noticed over the years that you have a passion for education, maybe you wanted to work with people. These reasons do not justify the assumption above.
In an article in the New York Times, the author argues that TV shows and movies play a big part in stereotypical views about teachers. More precisely, there are usually two extremes, the incompetent teacher and the inspiring teacher. Nevertheless, what these shows and movies have in common is that they hardly depict the reality of schools and teachers.
In the show Breaking Bad, there are some stereotypes about teachers and the teaching profession, which are, as shown above, partly true. Nevertheless, these assumptions are presented in extremes, which is usually done in TV shows and movies and therefore have to be examined in more detail.
US health care system in Breaking Bad
“People have [been] talking for years about the lack of proper health care […]. My personal feeling, if I can interject a political note, is that I don’t think it is right that basic health care is a privilege. It shouldn’t be. It should be a right of all human beings. And certainly in the richest country in the world“ (Bryan Cranston, 2011).
Bryan Cranston, the actor who portrays Walter White in Breaking Bad, talks in an interview about one of the issues addressed in the series – the health care system in the United States. A key scene that expresses the above mentioned issues of the US health care system can already be seen in the first season, episode 4, "Cancer Man". In this episode, Walter White tells his family at a BBQ that he has lung cancer. After his family slowly comes to terms with the news following their dismay, his wife, Skyler White, seeks and finds a doctor who gives Walter White the treatment he desperately needs. However, Walter White's insurance does not pay for this excellent treatment, which is expected to cost $90,000. At the same time, as a teacher, Walter White does not earn enough to pay for his treatment himself. Thus, he is faced with the question of whether he can raise the money to undergo the treatment to fight his lung cancer or whether treatment is not possible and he is helpless against his disease.
For some German viewers, this scene may seem strange at first. In Germany, health insurance is compulsory, which means that all German citizens are insured, either through a state health insurance scheme or privately. Roughly speaking, both health insurance organisations ensure that patients receive the treatment that is necessary – such as, in Walter White's case, treatment for cancer. The idea of having to face an illness helplessly because treatment is denied or cannot be financed thus seems to be an implausible idea for Germans. The American health care system is different.
US Health Care System
The United States does not have a universal health care programme, according to the Commonwealth Fund, a private U.S. foundation with the goal of improving the U.S. health care system. This means that American citizens are not entitled to health insurance in principle and are not obliged to have health insurance. The task of maintaining the health of citizens is not in the hands of the state, but is a private matter. This mentality seems to come from the idea of the "American Dream", which claims that everyone is the architect of their own fortune, which is why some American citizens choose not to purchase health insurance
Types of Insurances
In 2020, the United States Census Bureau reported that 91.4 per cent of Americans had health insurance for the whole year or part of the year. In America, similar to Germany, a distinction is made between private and public health insurance. Of these 91.4 per cent of Americans who were insured, 66.5 per cent were insured through private health insurance. Work-related insurance is the most widespread among private insurers, accounting for 54.4 per cent. It should be noted that in most cases employers only provide health insurance for employees who work full time, not for those who work half time. However, the National Association of Health Underwriters (NAHU), a professional trade association representing more than 100,000 health insurance agents, found that a major trend in employer-sponsored insurance is the increase in deductibles and co-payments for medical services. That means patients typically pay for their own health care up to a certain deductible, which, as stated by the Commonwealth Fund, was an average of $1,846 for a single person in 2018 before health insurance pays. Some plans cover primary care visits before the deductible is reached, requiring only a co-payment. Also, these health insurance plans differ greatly in their benefits. Some only cover emergencies and basic services, while others also cover psychiatric treatment or the costs of dentures.
Only 34.8 per cent of the insured citizens were insured through a state health insurance. Of these, 18.4 per cent were insured through Medicare and 17.8 per cent through Medicaid, per the report of the United States Census Bureau. The national Medicare programme is funded by the federal government and is for those citizens 65 years and older and some people with disabilities. The Medicaid programme is also funded by the federal government and includes several programmes for low-income people and children. In addition, the United States Census Bureau reported that 0.9 per cent were covered by veterans' health insurances.
However, many of the insured citizens are underinsured because not all health insurance companies and their agreed packages adequately cover the needs of their insured citizens. A 2003 study by Sara Collins, Michelle Doty, Alyssa Holmgren, and Cathy Schoen estimates that 16 million adults in the United States are underinsured, with lower-income people disproportionately affected. Valerie Ulene, a writer for the Los Angeles Times, also talks about how a patient's treatment can vary significantly depending on which healthcare providers they use. This is also confirmed by the authors Samuel Dickman, David Himmelstein, and Steffie Woolhandler in their article "Inequality and the health-care system in the USA.” According to them, the importance of underinsurance becomes clear when one considers that insured people with inadequate insurance coverage often do not receive the medical care they need because parts of the medical care are not included in their health insurance. Another 2001 study by the Commonwealth Fund found out that only one-third of adults aged 19-64 are "very confident" that they will receive quality health care when they need it.
Unfortunately, 8.6 per cent of American citizens did not have health insurance in 2020 at any point during the year. That means that there is no protection from the financial harms of illness. Jessica Smith and Carla Medalia, authors of the book “Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2014” claim that it is primarily minorities and children who are disproportionately uninsured. In 2014, 7.6 per cent of White people were uninsured, 11.8 per cent of Black people were uninsured, 9.3 per cent of Asian heritage and 19.9 per cent of people of Hispanic heritage were uninsured.
Negative Effects
With this critical evaluation of the American health care system come negative consequences, one of the most significant being mortality. A 2009 study conducted at Harvard Medical School in conjunction with the Cambridge Health Alliance by the co-founders of Physicians for a National Health Program, a lobbying group that advocates for the implementation of a single-payer system, found that nearly 45,000 deaths per year are linked to the lack of health insurance coverage for patients. The U.S. has the highest rate of preventable deaths due to a lack of timely, quality care when compared to other OECD countries, and also the lowest life expectancy compared to other OECD countries.
Furthermore, according to the Commonwealth Fund, the health system and the treatment of diseases have a major impact on people's financial lives. In 2018, households financed about the same share of total health care costs (28 per cent) as the federal government. Out-of-pocket spending accounted for about one third of that, or 10 per cent of total health spending. Krysten Crawford, a member of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, found that 17.8 per cent of Americans have medical debt, which averaged $2,024 in 2020. It can be seen that 27.9 per cent of black households have medical debt, compared to 17.2 per cent of white households and 9.7 per cent of Asian households, further revealing the inequality within society.
Positive Changes
To reduce the high number of unvaccinated people and the negative effects associated with the healthcare system, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was established in 2010 under the Obama administration, which made many important changes to the U.S. healthcare system between 2011 and 2014. The ACA aims to expand access to health care, improve consumer protections, and also promote prevention. In their 2016 report, the Department for Professional Employees (DPE), a coalition of 24 national unions representing over four million professional and technical employees, attempted to clarify for their members exactly what improvements they could expect to see; in terms of health insurance, more people were given the chance to get coverage. The total number of non-elderly uninsured adults dropped from 41 million in 2013 to 32.3 million in 2014, with the largest increases in coverage occurring among low-income people, people of colour and young adults. In terms of consumer protections, health insurers are now prohibited from excluding children and adults with pre-existing conditions. In addition, insurance companies have been prohibited from cancelling coverage unless it is fraudulent. Furthermore, they are required to give their customers a discount if they spend less than 85 percent of premiums on medical services. As for prevention, a Prevention and Health Fund has been set up to provide $7 billion between 2010 and 2015 for preventive measures such as disease screening, vaccinations and prenatal care.
Conclusion
US healthcare specialists are among the best in the world. However, treatment in the US is unequal and neglects primary and preventive care, argues James Cox in his essay “The Future of Health Care”. According to the Commonwealth Fund Commission, the US ranked last in a 2014 comparison with Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. The end result of the American approach to health care is poorer health compared to other advanced industrialised nations.
In relation to Breaking Bad, it can be stated that the situation in which Walter White finds himself is not an exception. Walter White, a teacher who is insured through his employer, does not get the treatment that would be necessary to cure his lung cancer. Accordingly, he has to pay for parts of his treatment himself, which he does not have the money for. Therefore, his only options are to refuse treatment altogether, accept treatment that is inadequate, or somehow find money to pay for his treatment.
Finally, the negative consequences of the U.S. healthcare system are becoming increasingly clear. More and more citizens and organizations are making their voices heard and drawing attention to the problems. Even politicians, especially from the Democratic Party, are more committed to improving the healthcare system. For this reason, it is to be hoped that an improvement will come about in the next three years with Democratic President Joe Biden.
The US war on drugs in Breaking Bad
The prize-winning television series Breaking Bad aggressively tackles the ongoing issues with drugs in the United States of America by examining the topic from various angles. In Breaking Bad the viewer is not only confronted with the consumer side of the story, but rather gains insight into the world of drug producers, such as drug lords and drug cartels and their radical fight for supremacy in the drug supply market. As a result, Breaking Bad does not only feature drugs as a main element of the show, but also involves the constantly recurring element of violence throughout the story. Besides multiple drug producers such as the main character Walter White, the Mexican cartels and the Chilean drug lord Gustavo Fring, acts of violence are also committed by the federal law enforcement agency DEA, as they wage a war on drugs and their producers, suppliers and consumers. All in all, this leads to an endless and chaotic cycle of violence that leaves behind nothing but death and destruction.
Breaking Bad highlights both the negative consequences of drug abuse and the criminal and highly violent machinery of drug production and distribution in and around the United States. As it is suggested by the series, the illegal drug business is naturally connected with the use of violence or as the United States Department of Justice puts it: “Drugs and violent crime often go hand in hand“. In order to stop this cycle of violence, the United States of America maintains a special federal agency, which is concerned with law-enforcement in the field of drugs. The Drug Enforcement Adminstration (DEA) is “the federal organization in charge of enforcing the controlled substances laws of the United States“, which was established by Nixon in 1973. In Breaking Bad the agency is represented through Hank Schrader, the brother-in-law of Walter White, who is trying to track down the druglord Heisenberg (the alter-ego of Walter White). The intense and year-long investigation by the DEA and their Special Agent Schrader eventually succeeds, as they expose both the empire of Walter White's biggest rival in the drug business Gustavo Fring and Walter White as Heisenberg. However, this success comes at a high price, as Hank's DEA partner and friend Steven Gomez is shot in a gunfight and Hank loses his life through execution.
Even though Breaking Bad is fiction and things are carried to the extremes, the series reveals several issues in the US drug policy and the associated war on drugs. The war on drugs was initially started in 1971 by President Richard Nixon, who declared drugs as 'public enemy number one'. Nixon later implemented measures such as mandatory prison sentencing or the creation of a new federal agency, the DEA. As a result, the number of incarcerated Americans increased rapidly between the 1980s and the 2000s. While there were below 500,000 Americans incarcerated per year before Nixon's reforms in drug law enforcement, that number quickly rose to over 2 million annual incarcerations within two decades. This resulted in the USA having the highest incarceration rate among all countries in the world.
Source: November Coalition (november.org/graphs) Graph by Drug Policy Alliance
Even though this might be perceived as a sign of success by those supporting stricter laws on drugs and drug abuse, the war on drugs is not close to come to an end. Instead, the numbers of drug related deaths have risen to an all time high in the recent past as the NCHS reports. As it seems, drug consumption is not effectively inhibited by stricter laws or special federal police agencies. Despite all efforts to fight drugs with a zero tolerance strategy in the past, the war on drugs created a system that does not stop drug abuse effectively and severely punishes consumers. Moreover, the laws implemented by Nixon were politically motivated, as they targeted opposing minority groups such as African-Americans and the antiwar left, as Nixon's former domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman revealed in 2016 (for a closer look at Nixon's downfall, see the Forrest Gump article). And no matter what Nixon intended in the past, it still has consequences today, as the non-white population in the US is disproportionately more likely to be imprisoned for drug offenses. Despite Latino and African-American US-citizens represent only 30% of the population, these ethnic groups are imprisoned in federal prisons at a disproportionately high rate in comparison to white Americans. Furthermore, both Latinos and African-Americans are imprisoned at federal prisons for drug-related offenses at an higher rate than white Americans are, resulting in roughly half of all Latino or African-American prisoners being locked up for drug-related crimes.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau; Bureau of Justice Statistics. Graph by Drug Policy Alliance
The result of a failed war on drugs is a system that does not effectively stop drug abuse, but instead discriminates against minorities through disproportional imprisonment and harsh mandatory sentencing, which lead to disrupted families and destroyed lives. The war on drugs campaign that cost about $1 trillion so far is nowhere close to remove the large-scale drug trafficking businesses by criminals like Walter White or Gustavo Fring in Breaking Bad, but rather aims at the weak and poor of the US society, as addicts and consumers are threatened with losing their freedom for the possession of drugs. Stories like the one of Kevin Ott, a prisoner in Oklahoma, who was sentenced to a life sentence without parole for trafficking three ounces of methamphetamin, illustrate the disproportion between aim and outcome of a zero tolerance approach within the war on drugs. Reportedly, there are about 210,000 such cases of inmates who will have to serve several decades despite being sentenced for non-violent crimes.
All in all, Breaking Bad sheds light on the ongoing failed war on drugs by US authorities since its declaration by Nixon in the 1970s. Ever since, stricter laws, harsh punishment and police budgeting have steadily increased, but have not resulted in a significant rate of success. Instead, the US prison system is flooded with drug offenders, which lead to globally unmatched incarceration rates in the United States. Furthermore, the established system facilitates inequality among the racial groups in America, disproportionately punishing people of color and other minorities. At the same time, the US is nowhere close to resolving the root of the issue: stopping drug lords and cartels from producing and distributing dangerous and illegal drugs. As opposed to the restricted ban of drugs and the criminalization of consumers and addicts that regularly results in violence and death for all parties involved, an approach which decriminalizes the consumers and provides them with advanced health care and rehabilitation while channeling the actions of law enforcement towards drug producers might be more likely to lead to success than the war on drugs the United States fought in the past.
Masculinity in Breaking Bad
In its general understanding the Encyclopedia of Mental Health describes masculinity as a “form of gender, variously defined as an identity, a social role, and a form of power and is typically, though not exclusively, associated with men” (Mankowski/Smith, 2016). The following paragraphs try to examine how the role of a man in American society is depicted within Breaking Bad and which implications are connected to the word.
What is a man?
A theme that is featured throughout Breaking Bad is the question of what it means to be a man. In her article on the series Laura Hudson writes that this question sits at the “dark, warped heart of Breaking Bad and its anti-hero protagonist, Walt” (Hudson, 2013). There are many scenes that thematzie this. The one that may show the question's influence on the characters decision making best is in a discussion between Walter White and Gustavo Fring, after Walt is offered to cook meth for Gus.
Walt acknowledges that he got into drug business and crime by “a series of very bad decisions”. Gus however points out that since those decisions were made for the sake of Walter’s family, they weren’t bad decisions. He proceeds to ask “what does a man do?” and answers that it is a man’s job to “provide” for his family and that being a “man” means doing this regardless of whether his actions are appreciated. The way Gus says this makes it seem like failing to live up to this standard means failing at life.
The American Dream and a struggle for recognition
Within the series Breaking Bad the main character Walter White is portrayed as a power hungry individual seeking to realize his ambitions while in many ways not pulling back in regards to the very obvious harmful consequences of his actions. This is shown in many scenes throughout the series. He uses explosives in public places like a nursing home, poisons a child with a dosage he measured out not to be lethal but also planned killings. However what makes the series interesting to watch and research is its ability to depict Walter White as a very complex multi-dimensional character. He is shown as not only the ruthless business man, but also a family man trying to guarantee his children a quality life after his foreseeable death. This however is also used as an excuse and in the very last episode Walt admits to not having done it for his family but for his own pleasure. He states that he was good at it and he was enjoying it.
His character development implicitly and explicitly touches on many stereotypes connected with American culture and values. One of those concepts can be seen within the American dream which I understand as the belief to be able to shape your own destiny, to not be bound by your heritage and the ability to fulfill your own potential through hard work. An article by the public opinion quarterly describes the American Dream as the belief of being successful through hard work (Hanson/Zogby, 2010). However they also describe a decline in this belief connected with the assumption that it will be harder for future generations to achieve the American dream.
Though the American Dream might not be reality in American society, characters like Walter White and Jesse Pinkman's friends believe in it. Another reason why Breaking Bad is so interesting is because it creates conflicts. In contrast to Walter White, who sees himself as cappable of becoming the head of the food chain there is Jesse Pinkman, a young meth cook and drug addict who finds himself in a cycle of withdrawal and rehabilitation attempts relapses. He is a lot more pessimistic about life and struggles to see a better future and in a sense is the victim of the masculinity of the characters around him. The more the story progresses the more Jesse is faced with moral conflicts, becoming a counterpart to Walter White.
The male characters of American society depicted in Breaking Bad all seem to have a tendency towards strong masculinity. This can also be seen in the YouTube video showing Walt's Birthday Party. Hank accuses Walt of not being a real man. He continues that Walt has his heart in the right place and that they appreciate and love him but it becomes apparent that his social status, his place in the hierarchy is perceived lower than the “real” men, such as Hank himself.
Social pressure on men and masculinity as a legitimization
The problem within the masculinity portrayed in Breaking Bad is not in the fact that men perceive themselves as responsible for providing for their families, but within the combination of having a potentially noble motivation and corrupting it with greedy personal desires. Walter desires to earn enough money so that his disabled son and his newborn daughter can live a good life even after he passes away. The problem is that social norms are pressuring them into fulfilling a role regardless of the costs and consequences. However this can also be adressed to egoistic tendencies such as power seeking, which is seen in Walt as he openly states to be in the Empire business. The tendency of justifying selfish behavior with social norms has been studied and confirmed in American society. Hank 2013 for example shows that meat consumption is legitimized through being a "man".
Others emphazise the fact that they, being men in the United States are experiencing a great amount of pressure. As depicted in the paragraph US Health Care System above there is no universal health care programme within the United States. Though maybe not obvious the idea of masculinity and the health care system are connected. The health care system supports or rather is based on the notion that a man provides for his family and that he needs to be able to do so, alone and without the help of for example the government.
This seems to be so strongly believed that asking for help would be perceived as being weak and as the inability of being a man, or so to say as being a failure in life. The pressure of not being good enough is so strong that characters like Walter consider a path where they sell drugs and end up killing others.
American society seems to be very much focused on masculinity. Just by looking at the presidents of the USA it becomes apparent that all of them have been male and that gender has played a big role in presidential elections (Wolf, 50; for a closer look at this theme, see the American Presidents in Film podcast). Breaking Bad shows that characters like Walter White experience great social pressure in fulfilling their role as a man. This pressure combined with the belief to be responsible for everyone around you while ignoring your personal interest leads them to bad decisions. However this victimization is also used to legitimize crimes creating a cycle characters life Jesse Pinkman desperately try to escape, and struggle to do so without help from the outside.
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