Have you ever have felt like two completely different people? Dexter Morgan has been throughout his entire life since he was little. As a child, Dexter witnessed his mother’s murder. A cop named Harry Morgan found Dexter in a pool of blood beside his mother’s body. He taught Dexter his “art.” This education by a monster turned Dexter into a monster. His learned skills; both as an investigator and as a killer, drive him from the early seasons of the series. In the beginning, he is driven by a lust for blood and a warped sense of justice. He punishes people he deems worthy of death, killers whom he feels are inferior. He does all this while evading capture and making sure the blood trails never lead back to him. Dexter’s character arc is symbolic of the human struggle to evolve and mature from the monstrous to messianic.
As a blood-splatter pattern analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department, Dexter uses his unique skills as an observant investigator and as an undisclosed serial killer to hunt down criminals who evade discovery and capture. Dexter is quite different from a “normal” person’s life. He is a very intelligent individual; while multitasking being a father as well. At the same time, he follows all the moral codes his step-dad Harry, coached him to follow when he was young.
In common with some serial killers, Dexter is intelligent and likeable. He is handsome and unassuming while possibly coming off as a bit of a “blood-spatter geek” to his colleagues. However, Dexter differs from other serial killers in one key element; he has a family to whom he feels a great sense of attachment.
“The Code of Harry,” as Dexter calls it, includes rules such as never killing innocents and faking emotions and normality to fit in and avoi...
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...elf? Dexter asks himself this questions almost every episode. He knows he has problems and psychological issues. Comparable to addicts overcoming addiction and people overcoming immaturity. His human condition from going into a monster to a noble protector is quite a story from his journeys and trials he went through.
Works Cited
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Tally, Ted, Kenneth Utt, Edward Saxon, Ron Bozman, Jonathan Demme, Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn, Ted Levine, Tak Fujimoto, Craig McKay, Howard Shore, Kristi Zea, and Thomas Harris. The Silence of the Lambs. Santa Monica, CA: MGM Home Entertainment, 2001.
"An Inconvenient Lie." Lewis, Robert. Dexter. Showtime. 14 Oct. 2007. Television.
"The Getaway." Lewis, Robert. Dexter. Showtime. 13 Dec. 2009. Television.
Dexter denies his background as coming from the middle class and wanting to have more in life. He started as a fourteen year old golf caddie and was the best one around. Dexter one day while working thought to himself that he could have so much more than just being a golf caddie. Then and there he decided to quit his job and move on with his life. As Dexter grows up and moves out west to fulfill his dream, there is a duality inside of him that ultimately is his own downfall.
Dexter, although he could have attended a state university, chose to attend an older and more prestigious university in the East. However, he struggled with his limited funds while studying there. After college, he invested in a laundry business, which he grew and eventually became very wealthy. He returned to the golf course to play with the wealthy old men he once caddied for.
Little did Dexter know that Judy was going to play him like she has played every other man in town, dinner, dates, and get booted to the curb when she got bored. Judy preyed on Dexter’s so-called love throughout his childhood, adulthood, and his engagement with Irene. Dexter and Judy’s relationship was based off Dexter’s dream to have the prettiest girl even if she couldn’t be
During the summers, Dexter works hard at being the best caddie at the Sherry Island Country Club. This is foretelling of the hard work he will do to change his socioeconomic status. We are shown how dedicated Dexter is by the tears in Mr. Jones' eyes on the day he decides to quit (Fitzgerald, 120). After meeting Judy Jones, Dexter developed a stronger sense of urgency to change his status. Dexter is so determined to fulfill his dream that he opts to go to a "more famous university in the East" rather than the state university that was more affordable (Fitzgerald, 122). This is an example of his determination to lift his status in the eyes of others. While speaking with Judy, he uses his prestigious university as the starting point of his life. Unfortunately for Dexter, he cannot conquer Judy Jones as he has every
The similarities between Jay and Dexter are quite apparent when reading each story. They both come from the Midwest and although Dexter’s family has some money, both are similar in the fact that they did not start out as wealthy, upper class men from rich families. Their hard work and determination to make their own wealth and acquire the luxuries and social status that come with it are completely by their own doing. Both men achieve their goals of the American dream at a relatively young age and are able to be a part of the high society they once observed from a distance. Their desire to amass wealth and the perks associated with it come with an ulterior motive, to win back the girls they desire that will only be with them if they have the wealth and status to bring to the table.
... own relationships, and depicted his own seemingly conflicted attitude toward the overweening masculinity of his time. In "Winter Dreams,", Dexter Greene attempts to exhibit the quality his generation associated with manhood will-power, self-sufficiency, and affluence, buts fall short, because he does not display a dominate roll in his relationship with Judy. He allows his willpower and judgment to be obscured but emotional desire. Thus, Dexter represents Fitzgerald’s reconceptualization of male identity, an identity made more emotionally realistic by balancing what were historically considered feminine traits with conventional male attributes. Showing the ways in which these exceptions are illusions. (“Modernist Portraits” American Passages Voices and Visions.)
The most common characteristics that many serial killers share are killing and abusing of animals during childhood, fetishism, anti-socialism, high I.Q.’s (while also doing poorly in school), and alcohol and/or substance abuse. Fictional character, Dexter Morgan, exhibited serial killing tendencies from a young age. He would kill neighborhood animals and was forced by his father to fake emotion and normality to fit in. It appears that Showtime hit the nail on the head with this one. One of the most well known serial killers, Ted Bundy, was infamously known for being cold and merciless. During interviews, he responded to questions about his victims by calling himself cold and explaining that he could not care less about his victims. Cannibalistic serial killer, Jeffrey Dahmer, started out by killing dogs and leaving their heads out on a stick for others to see before moving on to killing and eating people. These are just a few examples of many that prove that commonality is what makes a serial killer, a serial
Sadly, the story doesn’t end that way. The story had many similarities and differences considering the plot, atmosphere, tone and characteristics, to a fairy tale. The plot of “Winter Dreams” is similar to a fairy tale. The story begins with a middle class young boy dreaming of fame and fortune. Dexter always wants more in life than he already does.
Dexter fantasizes his life and falls victim to his adolescent dreams that he is never able to fulfill. In his quest to achieve Judy, Dexter never sees more than the outside beauty of Judy, which haunts him for the rest of his life. Judy simply goes towards the direction of wealth. She confesses that she was breaking off relation with another man just because he was not able to support her financially. Dexter is in love with the idea of having Judy as a wife because of her beauty and her social class, which blinds him from the reality of who Judy is. For Dexter, the American Dream is not just about wealth; it is also about acquiring social status to have the ability to marry a woman who is rich. We see the dark side of the American Dream, where even though the main character achieves success, glory, and wealth, he still cannot find true happiness. This is the irony about the American Dream. One would expect that once he or she achieves wealth and success, they would live happily, but for the main characters in the two works, it brings more pain and suffering. Through the use of irony in Winter Dreams, Fitzgerald exposes the shallowness that comes from the pursuit of American Dream. The pursuit of the American Dream makes Dexter blind and prevents him from achieving true happiness. Similarly, Jay Gatsby also deals with identical problems where he is not able to find happiness because of his desire to gain social status and the woman of his dreams proving another area, where Winter Dreams acts as a microcosm of The Great
Our society loves crime dramas. We have so many TV shows that focus on murder, police, and solving crimes - real or imagined. What’s always creepy about murderers on TV and in real life, however, is that they usually seem like completely normal people, and that makes their crimes so much more terrifying.
In ‘Winter Dreams’, the ending is unexpected. Throughout the story, we are under the impression that this is the story of Dexter Green's love for Judy Jones. But at the end of the story, once Dexter finds out that Judy has lost her charms and settled into a bad marriage, we begin to wonder if this story is about something else entirely. Dexter does not weep for Judy. He weeps for himself, for the young man he once was and for the illusions he once held.
Murderers and Serial Killers in the Chicago Area. A notorious murderer or serial killer is the typical next door neighbor one would hardly associate with a serious crime: an educated psychopath with little regard for life. Most of them commit murder for some misplaced psychological benefit. Their actions border on insanity, as some commit theft by stealing their victims’ belongings and committing rapes, an indication of a need for financial gain or a craving for distorted sexual desires.
"Sherlock Quotes ." Planet Claire Quotes. Planet Claire, 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.
In order to identify serial killers before they kill repeatedly, a person needs to study the characteristics that make up this type of criminal. Most serial killers have been abandoned, by one or both parents, they are emotionally, physically, and even sexually abused by a family member, or relatives from unstable families who have criminal, psychiatric and alcoholic histories, or tend to have hate for their parents and people in general which makes them have antisocial personality disorder. They have conflicted, pained, or tortured animals at a young age and most are highly interested in gaining control over things. Even though not every serial killer posses these characteristics, most share these characteristics the same way they share the psychological need to have complete control and power over people. Dennis Rader was one normal average citizen until he shocked the public when he was caught as a serial killer who caused tragedy in their town.
The Netflix show I chose is titled Dexter and it falls in the crime, drama, and mystery genre categories. The show is about a character whose name is Dexter that is employed at a police department being a blood splatter analyst along with his sister, Debra who is a detective. Though he works at a police department, he also lives a double life as committing violence. When he isn't working, he is murdering bad men that have gotten away from the justice system and living life. However, Dexter doesn’t just kill anyone, he kills men that have committed crimes. The show experiences some terms we've learned in communications which is, the Johari window, mindfulness, and conflict.