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Formal Paper 3
My Interests: I am interested in Inception, a film directed by Christopher Nolan. Inception
discusses a number of concepts that I would like to explore further. Inception makes me question
what is real and what is not. Specifically, Inception explores the realm of ideas, experiences, and
thoughts. The question is whether these ideas, experiences, and thoughts are truly our own. The
whole concept behind inception is implementing a foreign idea into someone and convincing that
someone of being the originator of that idea. In Inception, Cobb, a highly trained extractor,
someone who steals his target's ideas, is hired to plant an idea into his target. Does the entire
movie take place in someone's dream or is it reality? Every time, the team moves into another
dream, they are experiencing someone else's experiences. Is it possible that maybe these
experiences are not their own? Maybe by being in the target's dream, their own thoughts and
~eriences are being influenced by the target. Maybe everything happe~ing, even what se;;s
like reality, is a part of the dream. The possibilities, the questions and the abstractness of
Inception is what draw
it[Even Inception has connections to the real world and to
everyone. YQ actions for anything are determined primarily by your experiences. If you
become ccustomed to a person's actions, your actions become similar to that person's actions.
Sim' arly, being constantly exposed to a person and his experiences, thoughts or ideas, can cause
y to share those experiences, thoughts or ideas as your own. As a result, you become
onvinced that those experiences and such originated from yourself. There are real world
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questions that arise as a result of this. One is, h2w do you know the line between whether an idea
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is ~ours or not? Is your idea truly original or is it another rip-of~ Nolan does a good job of
questioning oneself. Is it possible that Nolan's intended message in Inception could possibly be ~~h'

related to self-doubt?Maybe, similarly to Furedi' s article on self-determination, Inception could (

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be a personal take on the percieved plethora of self-doubt as a result of the media and our

culture.

I am working 011 the topic of self-doubt in Inception because I want to find out w~ether or not
ose in order to help my reader understand better, the influences of media
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W\'r.v-~.v-~..,.. and society on people and their ability to trust themselves.

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'. '') Crux:. How convincing is Nolan's Inc~ption in achieving its pUI'l'.0se. of casting self-doubt?
~.(*' ~~, " What IS the purpose of Nolan's InceptIOn l,uhCAt k!vJ- ,..p Q IS 1tu~ ?

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Motive:
Thesis: Nolan's Inception is partially convincing in achieving its purpose of casting self-doubt.
It causes us to question the reality of certain abstract things such as experiences and ideas. The
character of Cobb and certain events, such as the spinning totem at the end, in the film,
continually poke at the audience to question themsleves.
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Introduction: Introduce Nolan's Inception and give thesis. Define inception. \ 1\1\ CR.f h CY1" ? ~..v
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1st Body: Discuss the implications of ~n using examples from Inception to work as -He UJ ~
parallels. An example would be Cobb's guilt and it showing through the appearance of Mal. -f1,.. 11 reYa-k:'

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2nd Body: Discuss events where audience might align themselves to Cobbs or interpret an event
such as the totem spinning and take that as a sign of self-doubt, unbelieving.

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3rd Body: Counterargument: Inception- casts aside self-doubt with symbolism of waking uP. / <wO{) -J b1 7
from dream representing the release from some sort of chains (figurative).
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Plan of Action
April 10th- Complete research and have a finalized outline
April 12th- Finish first draft
April 14th- Touch up on logic and reasoning of essay
April 17th- Have essay in final form

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Anderson, Nathan. "Inception and Deception~ In Inception and Phi os h Ideas to Die Fo~~d.
Thorsten Botz-Bomstein. Chicago: Open Court, 2011: 39-51. Print(\
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Nathan Anderson, a philospher, discusses the ideas behind Christopher Nolan's Inception afell
as Nolan's obsession with IAYtraying altered version of ordinary experience. Anderson contends
that Nolan's film Inception casts doubts on ourselves and our ideas. Our understanding of our
e~eriences and desires, Anderson argues, could originate e]sewher~. Anderson takes this idea
and applies it to other films directed by Nolan. In every film directed by Nolan, there is a driving
idea of implanting ideas into others by playing on peoples' basic emotions. One of the ideas
behind Inception is the casting of self-doubt and the release from that self-d~bt. By going i~to a] 7l1J';,
dream where people can manipulate you, self doubt is cast. By waking up from that dream and
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into reality, you become more sure of yourself and hence, the loss of self-doubt. What Anderson .~~
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offers as an explanation s~ms very plausible to me. What I do disagree with Anderson is
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. (\). ()(,~W)~ Nolan's purpose. Anderson sets argument up to suggest that Nolan wanted people to imagine
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()\W~\ ....,,1:. (i.~. going into a dream and then waking up). Ileel that Nolan's Inception wanted the audience to A~(;'l1'i?
vf ~J~\~bntinUalIY question the origins oftheir understanding, their ideas and their desires. I do not feel ~'\
\\\C\' ~~S thithe original intent of Inception was to cast doubt onto people but rather convince people that +L
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there may be something more to everything than they think it is and possibly draw more insight CjcxA: 'So. bLt1
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Fisher, Mark. "The Lost Unconscious: Delusions and Dreams in Inception." Film Quarterly 64.3
(2011): 37-45. Print.
Mark Fisher, a film critic, argues that characters in Nolan's films lie to themselves for simplicity

reasons (happy, easier). I think that I would be able to incorporate this into my essay in 2

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~ifferent ways. One would be that since, the characters are taking shortcuts to find thei~peace,
they do not trust their own abilities to be happy or easier or in a sense, lazy as well. Another way
is that, this lying is a way of convincing andencouraging oneselfto do better.
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Furedi, Frank. "The DIminished Self." Therapy Culture: Cutivating Vulnerability in an

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~utledge, 2004. Pnnt

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Frank Furedi, a sociologistAITgues agains40ciety's therapeutic culture, saying that the patient ck
experiences a loss of self-d~terminatinon w en in con ctJ t a
ith other eople. I feel ?l"u'> IS hc:f-
that I could use this effectively in my essay. The mfluencing of ideas and thou hts is similar to c.f4,CJlJ~.
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to contact wi h 0 er people. When coming mto contact with ot er people and relymg
rc~ ') on them for help, Furedi's claim argues that the ones depending will lose their independence
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(self-determination). In theory then, I could argue that since sharing or exchange of idea~
similar, it is possible, every idea is not your own as every idea is manipulatable by peopttlsuch
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