The Dark Knight Allegory Analysis

In class paper

In “The Dark Knight: An Allegory of America in the Age of Bush”, Ron Briley comparing the terrorist acts of 9/11 to one of America’s top movies, The Dark Knight Rises from the Batman series. Briley gives many different ideas of similarities and a lot of good points, but is not as clear as you would hope someone would be when trying to persuade and convince you to believe such an allegory. Briley is comparing many of the main cast in The Dark Knight to many real people who are not as great as these characters are seemed to be.

The first comparison of 9/11 to the film is one the main character, the Joker whose main concern is to cause constant chaos is compared to the disturbed terrorist, Osama Bin Laden. Saying, “The both have no morals”, “no motive, just wanting to cause chaos.” Both not caring about money or fame, just caring about causing pain to others. Though, as much as this might have been a good theory, Briley does not put too much into it and explain as much as you’d hope he would.

A second

Example, in the first claim saying Joker is to represent the terrorist Osama Bin Laden, though that maybe true, they can share those similarities, but that was always the role of The Joker. Even before 9/11 happened that was how the created the Joker to be. Insane and always having a constant urge to cause chaos. Whether they would apart of Marvel comics or simple T.V. shows, this was a look we always give our villain’s. The second claim is when the allowance of torture became acceptable, that maybe true and may have resemblance to real life acts which all type of torture was already in the comics long before 9/11 happened. The last claim and point is having the government spy on our everyday phone conversations, though I believe that is a very strong point Briley says, but I do not believe that was meant to imitate