American Dreams: Portrayals of Race, Class, and 21st Century Capitalism in David Simon and Ed Burns’ The Wire,

From 2002-2008, the television series, The Wire, realistically conveyed the inner city problems of Baltimore, with a particular focus on the drug trade and its social and psychological effects on Baltimore’s black underclass. This dissertation values The Wire as a major achievement in television, for its sophisticated and intricate approach in exposing and critiquing systemic problems of inequality, disenfranchisement of the inner city black community, and bureaucratic dysfunction, and, in doing so, portrays the American Dream as a fallacy. By utilizing a Marxist ideological critique of late market capitalism I examine how The Wire positions Baltimore’s underclass in contention with neoliberal cutthroat market logic. My methodology is discourse analysis: I examine how the series stages this conflict through a series of paired characters or dramatic situations and how the tensions between these characters/situations expose the tensions/contradictions/lies in the American Dream. After setting up my theoretical framework, I focus on the paired relationship between drug traffickers, Stringer Bell, and Avon Barksdale, and their differing and contradictory philosophies toward the drug trade. This leads into an assessment of the “War on Drugs”, and how this is critically portrayed in the series, particularly in the context of Season 3’s representation of a Free Zone for illegal narcotics. I analyze the plight of inner city black male youth, and how they are incorporated into the drug trade, and how this is rendered in Season 4, as well as the potentially liberating pedagogical role that the education system might play. Finally, I address criticisms of The Wire that argue that the series is too bleak and deterministic, and in doing so, suggests that neoliberal capitalism cannot be reconfigured, ineffective institutions cannot be reformed, and that positive social change with lasting effects is not possible. My discoveries led me to conclude that The Wire is not deterministic, as it subtly proposes relationships that advocate for community involvement and community interaction as a discourse in opposition to closed, predominantly white, elite, patriarchal systems. The implications of my conclusion have led me to consider and question whether The Wire is a useful pedagogical tool in pragmatically addressing the real-world concerns and ills of African-American inner city youth drug culture, a possible departure point for further research.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Master's

Grantor dc:publisher

Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• Saffou, Mazin Bashire

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Ramsay, Christine

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Petty, Sheila
• Trussler, Michael

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

https://doi.org/10.82465/4651

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uregina.scholaris.ca:10294/5777