Wall Street Movie Analysis

668 Words2 Pages

Wall Street is a movie that exposes corruption and disguises all values, beliefs, and other ethical philosophy. Throughout the movie, Wall Street shows how ethics adapts to a person’s personality by power and wealth alongside honesty and truth. Bud Fox, a young stockbroker is looking for a way to make a name for himself. He is determined to get as many clients as he can to become successful. He later meets a ruthless man named Mr. Gekko where learns how to reach to the top by illegal actions such as insider trading. Bud Fox was an honest living man who had good ethics but was later showed what true power is became money hungry. The power of greed is fascinating the code that everyone lives by is inevitable once money comes into play. There are five types of interpersonal power; reward power, coercive power, legitimate power, referent power, and expert power. These types of power will be used to correspond relationships throughout the movie. In Wall Street we realize how Gordon Gekko uses Bud Fox for his benefit. In this paper I will show the types of powers that are used by Gordon Gekko and how they are used. One clear type of power that Gordon Gekko uses in his relationship with Bud Fox is the Referent power base. This power stands out because it is clear that Bud wants to become a top notch in the industry. Bud is striving to be successful when he exposes what he’s able to do at the meeting with Gordon Gekko he instantly become closer to his goals. There were scenes where Gordon had legitimate power. His knowledge and information was what made him rich. Bud Fox had to listen to what Gordon was telling him in order to become successful. This was an example of Gekko having legitimate power over Bud Fox. Expert power which is an ...

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...to borrowing money from his father, which he didn’t believe in doing. Bud also had a caring relationship with Darien, who he met at Gordon’s house when he went to go sign the papers. Bud didn’t know that Darien and Gordon had a relationship far before she met Bud. Coercive power gives Gordon to strip everything away from Bud including the women he loved, Darien. Thus if Darien had to decide between Gordon and Bud, she would pick Gordon because he has coercive power over her. If she leaves Gordon then she loses her clients. There’s an important role of powers being used between Gordon Gekko and Bud Fox. With these powers it lets Gordon to be in control all the time and benefit him from the inside information. Although the powers favor to Gordon, it’s also what keeps them together, Gordon looks to benefit from Bud whereas Bud needs Gordon to keep the money flowing in.

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