Flight: The Journey to the Moral Life

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Through taking this class, I have learned that moral life can be divided into two main areas, which are who we are as persons and our actions. In class, we watched the movie “Flight” with Denzel Washington in order to show us the true complexity of humans and their behavior as they try to lead a moral life. The movie follows the life of the main character, William “Whip” Whitaker, through many life-altering decisions and we watch him try to learn and understand how to cope with the consequences of those decisions. Through the entire movie, Whip is constantly trying to figure out who he is as a person, which I feel is why he made so many poor decisions in his life. At first, he seems to be a typical alcoholic and drug addict, but as the movie unfolded, so did his character. In my opinion, he is an extremely complicated and complex character, which is why it is so hard to understand his actions in the movie. Whip was majorly influenced by his past, which is why he allowed his drinking and drug problem to consume his life. He was influenced not only by his past, but also by the people whom he surrounded himself with. Overall, I feel that Whip’s confusion regarding who he is as a person finds expression in his actions, but in the end he proves that he is more complex than the sum of his behavior and redirects his life.
In my opinion, I believe that Whip Whitaker is a good person, but it just took some time for him to realize his true potential in life. Some examples of scenes from the movie that showed that he is a good person are when he landed the plane, when he finally told the truth in court about his alcoholism, and when he shared his story with his fellow inmates. In the first scene, Whip calmly dealt with the crew and passeng...

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...less judgmental towards others because I do not know their personal situation. In the movie, Whitaker has severe issues with drugs and alcohol, which can be traced back to his unhappiness with the past and his life now. In addition, this movie showed me that it is okay to make mistakes, but you should use them as a learning experience. In today’s society, mistakes have a very negative connotation, which is not always the case. Yes, Whitaker’s mistakes were very severe and life altering, but he would not have learned or been able to redirect his life without those mistakes. Also, he would not have been able to share his stories with others in order to prevent them from making similar mistakes in their life. Overall, this insight will allow me to alter my behavior and actions in order to live a more moral life as well as begin my journey to becoming a better person.

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