Joker Falling Through the Christless Cracks!

There is a reason why Joker has smashed the record for the highest rated restricted movie, moving past 750 million mark globally. Our culture resonates with the story. Joker is a story about the suffering of a lonely soul. This is the story of a man falling through the cracks in the society into an abyss of war of all against all.

Why do some people fall through the cracks of an increasingly fragmented society? Could someone have done something to break the fall?

The very first scene of the Joker sets up the fundamental tension of the whole movie. Arthur Fleck is in front of a mirror, painting his face. Using both hands, he pulls his lips laterally as though in a smile, he pulls so hard that his eyes tear up, a tear smudging his painted cheeks. The smile has become a tear. His attempt at finding happiness hurts, turns tragic. The fundamental struggle for Arthur is the attempt at trying to find happiness will turn horrifically tragic.

Arthur is driven by multiple motivations. The most obvious motivation is that Arthur wants to live up this mother's dictum that he was placed in this world to bring laughter to the world. He is driven by this motivation to become a stand up comedian, while working as a clown in an ad agency.

However, Arthur Fleck is opposed by multiple systems. Gotham as a city itself is oppressive. He is violently abused by teenagers on the streets, hazed by rich brats on the subway, treated apathetically by the social services worker. At his work place, his colleagues are there to exploit him. He does not have a supporting family either. An inexorable confluence of these forces will eventually get him, sending him on a psychotic tail spin.

Arthur's second motivation is subconscious, the desire to find a father. Arthur projects this desire for a father figure on Franklin Murray, a TV show host. Arthur has hallucinations about Murray calling him the son he wished he had. Arthur wants to be seen as a son, beloved by a father.

(big spoilers ahead!)

Through a strange coincidences, Arthur's bumbling attempt at stand up comedy lands him as a guest at the Murray's TV show. Meeting Murray in person, Arthur realizes that his imagined father figure is merely someone at the top of the societal hierarchy jeering at and profiting from his inane performance. This disenchanted Arthur keeps repeatedly asking Murray, "do you know what it means to be the other?". This is a poignant question, because right from the beginning of the movie Arthur has been expressing the unrequited the need to be recognized and affirmed. Arthur seeks empathy from his boss, his social service worker, his colleagues, but is rejected again and again and again. Murray apathy angers Arthur. He pulls out his gun and shoots Murray on live TV.

Eric Fromm is a psychiatrist who lived through the Nazi era. He wrote a book called The Heart of Man. In that he say that unhealthy human being respond to disappointment and suffering by going into a depression or aggression towards the other. Arthur Fleck is initially depressed, in fact that gun he took to the Murray show was meant to be used on himself. But then at the show, Arthurs flips and chooses to go down the aggression path, killing Murray.

Is there anything that could have stopped Arthur from killing Murray.

In as much as Joker is a criticism of the society we live in, what Joker lacks is a Christ figure. Christ figure is one who suffers for the sake of the 'other,’ following the model of Jesus Christ. We believe that in Christ, God incarnated into the world as an act of solidarity with human suffering. Through the movie, Arthur's constant complaint against the society is that he is not seen by people around him. This makes one wonder if someone had expressed unconditional Christ like love to Arthur, showing solidarity with his suffering, perhaps it could have stopped his slipping through the cracks. But none does. None gives him the affirmation he desires.

Arthur's one attractive quality is that he loves his mom. She gives him the impression that he is the son of the billionaire Thomas Wayne. Wanting to find a father figure, Arthur tries to connect with Wayne, he is rejected. This unravels the relationship with his Mom. He realizes that his Mom not only lied to him about his dad, but that she had adopted him, then let her boy friend to abuse him, likely leading to his mental instability. Angry that his Mom abused him as a child, he commits the most unforgivable sin of all, matricide. Ironically, he says, "life is a comedy," while using a pillow to snuff out the life of his sick mom. It is a horrifying scene to behold!

How can anyone justify matricide?

The roots of this high crime is in Arthur Fleck deep psychological motivation at the beginning fo the movie. Arthur's first interaction with a human being is his meeting with social service worker. He tells her that all he wants to do is 'feel good.' The social service worker reminds him that he is on seven medications. Despite taking seven medications, he fails to feel well. This desire to want to 'feel good' becomes his deepest motivation.

Arthur’s deepest desire to feel good is never satisfied. Before he kills his mom he says, "all my life i have never had a moment of happiness." He blames her abuse for his inability to be happy. Then he says, "I thought my life was a tragedy, but now I realize that life is a comedy." Then he kills his mom. This brings a change in Arthur. He leaves his identity as Arthur Fleck, takes on the identity of the "Joker." He is no longer stoop shouldered, rather, he is square shouldered as he dances his way down the stairs, to the tune of Gary Glitter's Rock & Roll.

What we see in Arthur's interaction with his Mom and Social Worker is that his deep desire to 'feel good.’ One could make a case that Arthur's life project was one of attempting to chase away bad feeling by taking medication or killing people. Arthur's life is filled with pain, he does not know how to handle it.

Richard Rohr, the Franciscan friar, says, "pain that is not transformed is transmitted." Here too the Christ figure gives an answer to the question of what could have created a less tragic outcome in the movie. Christ on the cross, does not transmit pain, rather he accepts the pain inflicted upon him, and his pain is transformed into a new form of blessing, the resurrection. One of the lessons of the Jesus Christ is that we are called not to avoid suffering, but to partake in it as a way of solidarity with others who suffer. This kind of suffering solidarity transforms the suffering into a new form of blessedness.

We see the dynamic of the Christ figure turn a redemptive arc in the movie Forrest Gump. Forrest Gump is mentally challenged, but fortunately he has a Mom who shows him unconditional Christ like love, suffering alogside him. So Forrest has a more loving and affirming foundation for life than Arthur Fleck. The adult Forrest does not try to avoid suffering, rather he often embraces suffering for the sake of the other. In the Vietnam war, he goes in the danger zone to save his compatriots. Forrest gives up his ping pong money to keep his word to his deceased friend, Bubba. All the suffering and distrust he endures creates a new form of blessedness, bringing healing to people around him especially Lieutenet Dan, and even Jennie.*

To go back to the question with which we started. Is there a way the falling through the cracks have been stopped? The answer is yes, if someone had shown Christ like empathy, if someone had stepped into his world to understand him, may be he may not have flipped out. If Arthur could have embraced suffering as Christ does on the cross, then too the carnage could have been avoided.

Christ figure is needed for there to be stability in the society, both at the level of trying to understand the 'other,' and also at the level of being willing to embrace suffering instead of trying to always chase good feelings.

We live in a society which is increasingly fragmented. Millennials are one of the loneliest generation. Durkiem was a sociologist who analyzed the pattern of suicide in the early 20th century. He found that the persons who committed suicide often were isolated individuals. Durkiem coined the word “anomie” to describe such disconnected individuals. Arthur Fleck turned Joker is one such anomie, in fact one of his jokes in the journal read, "may be my death will make more cents than my life." Arthur Fleck was an anomie who if he had been living in the early 20th century would have committed suicide. But the Joker is the anomie of the 21st century, a psychotic murderer.

The call of Joker is for us to be Christ like towards other, embrace suffering for the sake of others as Christ did on the cross. A society that does not have this as an ethic will slowly fragment away. The sad part is the Church is supposed to model this way of Christ like self-giving empathic love, but often fails. Joker needs Jesus. In as much as the society we live in does not have have Christ figures, loving people around them unconditionally, challenging the ethic of suffering-avoidance, we will likely have increasing number of anomies devolving into anarchists, perhaps not unlike the Joker.