Wolf Of Wall Street Essay

The Wolf of Wall Street: More, More, More The Wolf of Wall Street is a shocking film that plunges viewers into a life of excess— full of drugs, sex, scandal, and money. This film has been controversial claiming the director, Martin Scorsese, is endorsing Jordan Belfort’s fraudster and immoral behavior; however, this film is actually a cautionary story on Capitalism. The film contrasts the public image of Wall Street with the internal debauchery that goes on within the office walls. The audience follows Jordan as he goes from selling penny stocks to being one of the most wanted brokers in America. Jordan represents America’s addiction to success as he lives out everyone’s internal dream of getting rich, very quickly. Like society, Jordan’s
Jordan is forced to find a new job and the only place he finds one is called “The Investment Center”—very far away from Wall Street, selling penny stocks. This is where Jordan realizes that he can make something out of nothing. He vows to scam as many people as he can into buying these useless penny stocks, robbing his clients from their money without the them realizing. Jordan represents greed, at this point he doesn’t care about any of his clients making money; all he cares about is getting his 50% commission of the stock. Scorsese sets up the shots of Jordan making the fraudulent phone calls by only showing Jordan’s side of the phone call, never cutting to the clients on the other line and never letting the viewers see all of the innocent people he is scamming. Scorsese hides the innocent on purpose in order for Jordan to have a greater emotional appeal to the audience. If viewers saw the people’s lives that he was greedily ruining they would begin to hate him. In contrast, the audience becomes fascinated with Jordan’s schemes, in awe of the power he holds. In the essay, “Wall Street Scandals: The Myth of Individual Greed,” Laura Hansen and Siamak Movahedi say that not only the people on Wall Street, but all people, are filled with some sort of personal and selfish
Stratton Oakmont represents excess to the extreme. While working, Jordan and his employers do a surplus of drugs, have tons of sex, and make and spend an overabundance of money. Jordan manipulates the stock market through his firm, all well living a Gatsby-esque lifestyle, full of partying and not caring about anyone but his self. He ditches his old less-attractive wife only to be with a more beautiful one, he moves out of his apartment into a bigger mansion, and is constantly on the hunt for a more intense high. Stratton Oakmont is similar to a premodern society in which Jordan is on top of the hierarchy. He acts as a modern day king ruling his giant empire he built. In one scene, Jordan gets up on stage to give a speech to the whole floor about the glories of being rich. Jordan preaches, “There is no nobility in poverty. I have been a rich man and I’ve been a poor man and I choose rich every f***king time!” Jordan is the ultimate salesman, using his lifestyle as an example for what people can become if they scam hard enough. Jordan fuels America’s addition to Capitalist success and while he is giving his speeches to his workers he is also preaching to the viewers in the audience. In the essay, “Koros: From Satisfaction to Greed” by James Helm, he states how humans have long been ambivalent to be satisfied. He says, “Critics of the current generation