This American Life

The first story we heard on the “This American Life” episode was about a woman who pocketed money while selling drink tickets at a hotel. She was young and being paid minimum wage, and it all started out “innocent” as she thought, because she only stole three dollars in order to pay for the parking that the hotel did not cover. She thought this was unfair and that they should provide parking for free, and so this was how she first rationalized her theft. She began to steal greater amounts and rationalized it by saying that she was using it for good things, not to buy drugs or anything. She began to get a thrill from stealing, as she described it, and it drove her to steal greater amounts. I found it most interesting when she was describing her rationalization, was that she said that she felt like God was her “accomplice.” I also found it interesting that she said that she felt like she didn’t even feel like she was describing the same person when she told this story. She talked about how she liked spending time with God and how she felt like this time in her life actually drew her closer to him. Even though she was talking about stealing, I found her to be a likeable character somehow. I think that this just reinforced the fact that you cannot let yourself slip up and do even the smallest crime that you don’t think is a big deal, because it is still wrong and it can easily escalade.

The next story was about a man who committed a variety of crimes, such as grand theft auto, strong-armed robbery, bounced check, and multiple bank robberies (roughly 30). He said that he grew up in a religious household-he said that every decision was based on God in his family. From a very early age, his mother predicted that he would be involved in mission work. His mother died when he was still young, and his father became abusive. He began to resent his father, and with that, he also began to turn from God. His crime history began with stealing from his father. His father began dating a woman, and the son warned the woman about the father. The father sensed that the son had told Susie about his violent actions, and confronted the son. He admitted to it, and then said that it was the last time he would ever admit to a crime. After this, the father beat him, and then one day, the son stabbed the father. While I felt sympathetic towards the man at first, because his mother died and his father was abusive, my opinion changed when I heard his tone when he was describing the stabbing of his father. Also, when the woman said that he stole from his friends. What stuck out to me about this story was how sad it was, hearing about this boy go from having religious parents, and his mom feeling as if he was going to be a missionary to a major criminal. It made me sad to think about how things may have been different if the mom hadn’t died.