The Many Sides of

Walter White
MULTI-GENRE ESSAY BY TERESA MORALES
Dear Reader.
Dear Reader,
Id like to introduce you to Walter White. Walter is a brilliant chemist turned high school Chemistry teacher in
Albuquerque, New Mexico. At 50 years old, he was leading an ordinary life with his pregnant wife, Skylar
and son, Walter Jr when he develops a severe cough he believes to be a bug. After collapsing at his
second job at a car wash, Walter is forced to see a doctor who reveals he has inoperable Stage IIIA lung
cancer with only a couple years to live. The news turns his world up-side-down. The fear of not being there
for his newborn daughter and leaving his family with large amounts of medical bills and debt motivates
Walter to find a way to build a nest egg for his familys financial survival after hes gone.
After watching a drug bust on the evening news and seeing the large amount of money confiscated from
the crime scene he decides to manufacture Methamphetamine. In an effort to learn more about the
trade, Walt takes a ride-along with his DEA brother-in-law as he searches for a local dealer nick-named
Captain Cook. As his brother-in-law runs in to make the bust, Walter White sees former student, Jesse
Pinkman fleeing the scene and driving away in a car with a license plate that read THE CAPN and figures
out he is the dealer they were looking for. He locates Jesse and blackmails him into getting him in the
business. They team up and Walter makes the worlds purest formula of meth that Jesse must then sell. Walt
begins calling himself Heisenberg and tells lie after lie to his family to protect his new secret life.
As Walter goes from well-meaning husband and father to a cut-throat drug lord, youll find yourself making
excuses for the decisions he makes. We begin to believe he has no other choice as he pushes the moral
lines of what is right and what is necessary to the very edge in his desperation and motivation to take care
of the family he loves so much. Walt becomes increasingly violent and before long he is completely
disconnected from who he started out being.
In the following pages, I hope to give you a glimpse of the many sides of Walter White, the life he leads and
the extreme intelligence that gives him a leg up in a world of drugs and crime as he breaks bad.

Sincerely,
Teresa Morales

Walt Whitman


Although on the surface Breaking Bads character, Walter White seems to
be a stand-up guy, as with most people, a closer look reveals many more
layers. He is a teacher, a family man, decent, rational, and a master of his
craft who is not living up to his potential. As we peel back the outside
layers we find he is more complex than that. Desperate circumstances
reveal a sociopath, a killer, and an entrepreneur who is driven and very
impulsive. At the core of the many sides of Walter White is the brilliant
scientist. That intelligence and his drive help him to thrive in the dark world
of drugs and crime, while his good guy persona make him the last person
anyone would suspect. When Walter finds himself with only two years to
live he becomes desperate to make money to secure his familys financial
future and every dark part of him comes out along the way. It leads us to
ask, was it his love for his family that lead him to the evil that came from
being in the dark world of manufacturing methamphetamine or were
those wicked characteristics in Walter White all along?

Walter White is an extremely intelligent man. It is what has lead him to
succeed in each opportunity that has come his way. It landed him an
award as Contributor to the Nobel Peace Prize, a job teaching science
at the high school, and ultimately lead to his success in the underworld
of drug manufacturing and distributing. Walts knowledge for science
seems to come in handy throughout the show and not only saves his
life at times, but also earns him respect on the streets as he uses it to
blow up buildings and kill his enemies. That cleverness is probably my
favorite part of the show. As a viewer, you want him to win and its
exciting when he wins in a way wed never dream of. It makes it that
much better. The problem is Walter is well aware of his genius and
sometimes believing youre too smart can come back to bite you.

When faced with the difficult news that he has inoperable Stage IIIA lung
cancer, Walter believes he knows whats best and sets out to make his
way in the world of manufacturing methamphetamine. With only two
years to live, he quickly becomes driven by greed. He wants to make as
much money as quickly as possible in order to financially take care of his
family long after he passes. His limited time causes him to place himself in
morally questionable circumstances with the only thought being to get
what he needs even if it means he must plow down anything and anyone
who tries to get in the way in the process. Its difficult to watch because
you dont know whether to route for him or despise him. One minute you
can almost understand what hes doing because his motives are good.
The next his actions are so far bad that you want to yell at the T.V. in
frustration. At the end of the day, his actions seem to come from his
feeling that he has nothing left to lose. Since Walt always lived under the
radar and had been such a good guy, who would ever suspect him
capable of such heinous acts anyway?
so ci o path [soh-see-uh-path, soh-shee]
noun
a person with psychopathic personality whose behavior is antisocial, often
criminal, and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience.
As a science teacher, father and husband Walter White seemed to
be a push over. He was mild mannered, easy going and soft
spoken. His character is easy to feel sorry for because in his normal
life he is somewhat pathetic. To his family and friends he was smart,
but nothing he showed on the outside would make them believe
hed use his knowledge for making meth, much less kill the people
who got in his way. In many ways this worked to his advantage. It
was the reason the DEA searched for someone already existing in
the drug world before ever looking at a science teacher or someone
with a science background. Thats why it was so genius. Since his
brother-in-law, a DEA agent, knew him best hed never imagine him
capable of what was going on in the streets. For so long he could
only view him as the loving family man hed always known.
Walter had great love for his family. They meant everything to him. They were the driving
force for everything he did. When he was diagnosed he knew he had to quickly find a way
to take care of them after he was gone. Love can make a person do great things and in
Walts case it can cause the lines of morality to become clouded. He was willing to
achieve his goals at any cost. He hurt people and committed crimes in his effort to care for
them. This was the hardest part for me to watch. Never a huge fan of violence, I watched
half the episodes with my hands covering my eyes. When he stood to lose his family
because of his questionable actions, and going straight was not bringing them back, he
felt like he had nothing left to lose and it sent him back into a life of crime. He was easily
persuaded to use his intelligence for bad.
Mr. White knew anything worth doing was worth doing right. He made a name for himself in the streets
as the best methamphetamine manufacturer. He put out the purest and highest quality product anyone
had ever seen. He was clear on the best way to make the most money and he pursued it. He showed
drive and persistence in a way he lacked in his normal life. Although I wouldnt endorse his lifestyle, a
part of me can respect his work ethic and drive. Ultimately Walt was great at this new line of work and
only his pride in that fact could lead him down the dark path he never intended to go.

Walter soon became possessive of the process he felt he created in making meth. After all, he was the
scientist. He went from viewing his relationship with Jesse as a partnership to believing he was solely
responsible for all of their success. Instead of taking pride in his ability to teach Jesse science in a way
he hadnt as his teacher, Walt became angry at the idea of Jesse cooking on his own. He began to
believe Jesse was nothing without him. In his eyes, those who wanted Jesses product could only be
using him to get to Walt. He was the best, not Jesse. Walts ego and his pride took him from seeing the
meth as a way to make enough money to help his family to feeling he was the only person who should
stand to make money on his genius. He broke bad and never looked back.

Genre Notes
Walt Whitman Poem- When I Heard the Learnd Astronomer
This was page 3 of Gales lab notes. Gale referenced poet Walter
Whitman several times throughout the show.
Dictionary definition of a Sociopath
The Outline of Walter Whites Face in his most memorable quotes
Walter Whites Wanted Poster
Obituary
A copy of the actual obituary published in Albuquerque Journal by fans.
We Can Cook It Image


Works Cited
http://thenosebleeds.com/2013/10/albuquerque-newspaper-publishes-
walter-white-obituary/
http://www.creativefeed.co.uk/2012/07/brilliant-breaking-bad-posters-
from-electric-zombie/
http://www.kulfoto.com/funny-pictures/52886/breaking-bad-we-can-
cook-it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoOHaa8MPmw
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/06/05/all-bad-things-must-come-
to-an-end-poster-and-ten-second-promo-for-breaking-bads-final-
episodes/
http://doyouremember.com/wild-breaking-bad-halloween-costumes/
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sociopath?s=t