#dick whitman

[fr1yys]

Dick + Anna

[jonny-be-gewd]

Jon as Don Draper

MAD MEN 4.07 | The Suitcase

[gyavaforradalmar]

the numerous love affairs of don draper

[vrisbian]

Im only on season 2 of Mad Men. But its been so interesting seeing when Don Draper can’t help be Dick Whitman. His distaste for Kennedy, for Campbell, because some people are born into wealth and given a red carpet while others scratch and climb. The part of him that can’t help blurting out ‘thats not fair’ and its the part of him that sees itself in Peggy and gives her some runway. Betty can tell but refuses to see the consequence that her husband clearly has never had a family, and is only ever playacting at being a family man.

[ohwolfling]

I finished Mad Men tonight. My first watch. Don Draper is yet another character I've deeply identified with or felt a sort of shared anguish with that hoards of media illiterate, unknowingly dissociative men water down to a literally me, alpha male, the Sigma™️ sort of idol.

I'll be digesting for a while but I think the real genius of the show in a thematic sense is that everything Don sees as evidence that he is bad, a failure, a poison, incapable of love, commitment, or connection, are things he only does in pursuit of the American Dream. Secondhand in my life, I've seen a lot of Don is America™️ discourse. But he isn't.

He is a disposable boy neglected, groomed, abused, locked in poverty and- by design- he is swallowed by the military. The American Dream coerces Dick Whitman into Don Draper. Dick Whitman is baptised by fire and blood. He is changed before he decides to be Don Draper. In a lot of ways, he doesn't choose violence. Violence is repeatedly offered up to him and he falls into it. The dance between what is left of Dick- working class, intrinsically part of a community because of it, an observer of people, a servant of man- and what is the facade of Don so often has Draper stand quite literally on a precipice. Staring down elevator shafts. Pacing in front of balconies. Standing on the edge of a cliff. The life of Dick Whitman is not livable. Not practically, not emotionally, not financially. But there are depths to the idea of Don Draper that Don is terrified of...

Don Draper is more tangible than the American Dream. The American Dream isn't real. Whatever Don is, he's real because Dick made him real. He's real because he's Sally's father and she feels how fake it all is too (in opposition to Betty who repeatedly locks herself in more rigid cages over the show's seven seasons). He's real because Peggy is born of the parts of Don that are still Dick and because when Peggy literally gives birth, Don is there to tell her that baptism is as relevant as a natural disaster.

I think the ending is both cyclical and a step forward. It doesn't mean there are no steps backwards but Don successfully stops falling further into hell. Before the final episode, all his moves were about building a wall. When he hugs that man he chooses to open a window. At the end, I believe we see that he's finding room to be both Dick and Don. By the same measure, we see that idea of harmony be used to sell the Coca Cola he abandoned. The Dream will find him again. It's adaptable. It's maybe the only thing more adaptable than the Whitmans who learn to survive it.

[annaarroz]

don draper, saul goodman, the vampire armand, long john silver. would anyone like to add? does harper stern fit into the mix?

[iateabunchofsmartiesandnowimdumb]

don is so much better a person and interesting a character when he is completely platonic with women

[speakspeak]

Timeless Cool: Don Draper

Miss ya, Don.