Assignment 3

Brief synopsis of the Good Shepherd (2006)
Edward Wilson, a meticulous and devoted citizen, leads the CIA’s failed efforts in the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion. Just after the failed invasion, Wilson receives a cryptic audio clip and image that he attempts to decipher to reveal the leak that led to the failure. As he examines the audio clip and image, he revisits his life in the CIA (induction into Skull and Bones society, recruitment into the Office of Strategic Services, and role in the emergence of the Cold War). In the end, he’s asked which is more important, family or country.

Intentional State Entailment
Bruner suggests that the protagonists in narratives have intentional states that allow us to interpret the reasons for characters actions. The intentional state is what we might imagine is going on in the mind of the character before they encounter an event in a narrative. What are their beliefs, desires, theories, values, etc.? What is their purpose? What are they intent on doing? As Bruner explains, the state doesn’t fully determine what will happen when the character is thrown into an event since a character is free to do practically anything. However, the intentional state does allow us to predict how the character will have perceived the event.

Discussion
In the Good Shepherd, Edward Wilson’s actions can be interpreted by analyzing his intentional state. This state includes a desire to be a good citizen, a value for brotherhood, the lack of value for family, and a strong sense of duty. The value for citizenship and brotherhood always remain priorities, but they blend and grow into a devotion to the CIA.

Edward Wilson’s greatest desire is to be a good citizen. This intentional state is tested in the first event with Sam Murach, an FBI agent. When he clarifies with Murach that he is being asked to spy on his professor, Murach responds by saying he’s just asking him to be a good citizen. Once the FBI agent says this, Wilson reluctantly performs the duty.

Wilson values an elite brotherhood in place of a family. We never see him develop family bonds. We see him when he is six years old standing over his dead father’s body and that is the only scene we see of any immediate family. The first group we see Wilson be a part of is the secret Skull and Bones society. When a senior “bonesman” urinates on him during his induction, he attempts to leave. Another bonesman chases after him and says, “We’re all in this together. Come back inside. We’re all brothers for life.” This appeal to brotherhood is enough for Wilson to reluctantly turn around. This value for brotherhood is perhaps Wilson’s greatest value. His wife externalizes this priority when she mocks at a skull and bones dinner, “Brotherhood first, God second.”

Wilson has a strong sense of duty with respect to his brotherhood. When he gets a fellow bonesman’s sister pregnant, the brother tells him he knows Wilson will do what is expected of him. Without much hesitation, Wilson ends the relationship with his girlfriend and enters into a shotgun marriage. He never develops a sense of family in this failed marriage, but remains in it out of obligation, which he states during a fight with his wife later in life. He tells her that he has stood by her and states the only reason he married her was because of her pregnancy.

His desire to be a good citizen and his eternal value of brotherhood unite when he is asked to join the fledgling Office of Strategic Services (OSS) by General Sullivan. Sullivan tells him during the recruitment that he is looking for patriotic, malleable, bright, young men. As the OSS transforms into the Agency, Wilson’s value of brotherhood transforms into a value for the Agency. His wife again externalizes this transformation when she mocks at a dinner, “Agency first, God second.”

Wilson’s dedication to being a good citizen and love of country are tested in several events that end in murder. The first involves his former professor. When the UK asks him to help silence the professor, he at first resists. A fellow member of the Agency who is a former bonesman tells him that if he won’t do it, someone else will. Wilson reluctantly complies. Before the professor is murdered, the professor tells Wilson, “Get out while you still can… while you still believe… while you still have a soul.”

Wilson doesn’t get out. Later, his boss and fellow bonesmen in the Agency asks him, “Why is it that people like us choose to serve for nickels a day in a profession that makes us constantly look over our shoulder to see who is watching us?” He suggests the answer to his own question is out of a desire to “do what is best for the country.” But this idealism is questioned most vividly when Wilson authorizes the torture of a Russian defector leading to the Russian jumping out of a window to his death.

In the end, his Russian counterpart, Ulysses, asks him “what is more important to you, your country or your son?” He chooses his country, which we might predict from his intentional state that didn’t include a value for family. Indeed, Wilson’s intentions to be a good citizen and eternal brother left everything else subject to death and destruction.