Nabeel Solehdin

Professor Srmabekian
English 114B
2 February 2015
White Bear
In the episode White Bear from Black Mirror season 2 episode 2, a woman is being
placed in a small area of space where she experiences the same reoccurring routine every day.
Her fianc and her kidnapped a kid and killed her in the woods, leaving a white bear as reminisce
of the little girl. The purpose of placing the women in a trance of reoccurring activities is to show
discipline to the girl instead of torture or execution because it is inhumane to break human rights
regulations but instead teach the proper way of right and wrong when someone commits a crime.
This is to show the advancements in capitalism because the owners of the means of production,
bourgeoisie, can control the proletariat class under surveillance and controlling there every
move.
In the show, there are people with cameras recording her every move so she is subjected
to how she moves and where she can move. All the events are recreated every time she has her
memory wiped out in order to teach a lesson to the women. The women took part in a kidnapping
and murder of a little girl by taking her the woods and burning her. In order for her to learn her
lesson of what she did was bad, they put reoccurring things in her head to make sure she is
traumatized of murder or committing crimes.

Execution of a person is supposedly inhumane and can be argued good or bad but the
show is depicting a form of leadership in which their society can control the crime by putting
fear in everyone indirectly. People of the world use technology as leisure and the citizens of that
society are watching the girl who committed the crime go through the same deal every day. The
government can possibly use the recordings of the girl as a way to enforce proper behavior in the
community or else they would end up like her. In an earlier episode of Black Mirror, Fifteen
Million Merit, Bing was opposing a threat to the societys class issue but instead became a
commercial to show the citizens that he is taking care of the rebellion. The woman is the one
who committed the crime and is receiving the punishment so no one else wants to be put in her
position.
The show has a lot of pathos in way of symbols such as the masks, the phones, the fork
symbol and the white bear. The mask symbolizes evil because the fiance wore the mask while
he kidnapped the girl and the people trying to kill her wore the mask. The cell phones symbolizes
the surveillance of everyone. Everyone is watching the girl but she doesnt know people are
watching her which can be related to now a days on how the government is watching us. An
argument about comparing the commercial to how the government deals with discipline can
emerge from the usage of technology recording every detail about life. The fork symbol on the
television is the same symbol on the fiances neck. The purpose of the symbol is to recreate that
image of the fiance for the woman. The woman was accused of being manipulated by the
fiance which is why throughout the reoccurring life she has, the symbol always pops up. The
white bear symbolizes the little girl and her innocence. A little girl being kidnapped is a tragic
story and the remains of the bear is the only thing that could really be a tribute for the girl which
is why the woman freaks out when she sees the bear. The bear symbolizes the childs death and

the reason why the woman is put in a discipline reoccurring like is because of the crime she
committed.
The usage of this type of disciplinary action is for the purpose of changing people instead
of killing them for their faults. It is a smart and deceiving way the government is using the
technology to manipulate someones life. In the end, it relates to everyone doing the same actions
in a constant. For example, the womans life is not just reoccurring for her, it is also reoccurring
for everyone who took part. It is a system in which people of society are given a role and
complete the role for the sake of living. It is a job that the citizens do in order to continue their
lives. The government is controlling the actions of the citizens and allows them to watch things
that will only manipulate their minds in one way.