Cody Ofisa
Mrs. Cline
Essay #4
April 21, 2012
Up in the Air
The tragic
incident of September 11, 2001 has changed Americans forever. It has inspired
and captivated many of us. The book and film Up in the Air is a great example of this. With the book being
centered around flying and traveling and written before the incident of 9/11,
the film brings a different twist to the book. It brings to life the high
security and changes in American travels. The book Up in the Air and the film Up
in the Air are different politically and economically due to the impact on
the American society from 9/11.
In the book Up in the Air, Ryan Bingham, a business
man from Minnesota
that travels by plane to different companies to fire people because they don’t
have the time or just don’t want to deal with the mess that may follow. This is
the sad truth for many companies that do not value their employees; rather they
value the profit and power of the all mighty dollar. He is perceived from the book as a lonesome
man who is socially awkward and does not maintain relationships outside of the
air world other than a half hearted meaningless relationship with a woman he is
assigned to fire while travelling and his sister who is about to get married
for the third time. Some of his closest friends are the pilots, flight
assistants, and car rental employees, all who have no inside to his personal
life.
He enjoys traveling and is trying to rack up
one million flyer miles so that he can earn a card for the “Million Dollar
Club.” Ryan is willing to make any changes to his already hectic schedule in
order to accumulate the miles. Mr.
Bingham is trying to rack up these miles before his boss gets back from
vacation and reads his letter of resignation. Ryan has decided to change his career
path because he is fed up with his job and would rather work for a different
company. Bingham is feeling his job has no direction and feels like he is
stagnate in the company. Ryan is only driven by the new opportunity of a new
job and the flyer miles. The book took place before the September 11, 2001
incident that dropped our economy and nearly eradicated the business world.
The book differs
from the movie, Up in the Air, starring
George Clooney as Ryan Bingham. He is a successful businessman who does not maintain
relationships or have much of a life outside of work in the movie as well. As
well as in the book, Bingham has a half hearted relationship with a woman he
meets while travelling and his sister who is about to get married. He, like the
book, is also trying to rack up flyer miles but it is ten million miles rather
than one million miles, but has put no time limit on the accumulation and
actually enjoys the travelling.
The difference with
Bingham in the movie is that he is not trying to find a new job; rather his job
is trying to eliminate his position to save time and money. They wanted to use
technology and computers to lay people off rather using their own employees to
travel around the country and personally do the job. Mr. Bingham was desperate
to show his company the value of his position and the importance of a face to
face lay off rather than communicating through a computer screen. This is a
great reflection of the business world after the September 11th
tragedy. The economy decreased severely and business men started losing their
jobs by the handfuls. During the time that the book was written our economy was
not something American’s feared on a daily basis. The business world was
blossoming and the jobs were what seemed endless. As in the book, Ryan Bingham
was easily discarding his old job and searching for the next, whereas in the
movie Ryan Bingham was fighting to hold on to his job and to show his company
the value of himself and his position. This reflects the modern business world
so accurately, as many American’s are struggling to find a new job due to the
increase of lay off over the last decade.
Not only did our
economy and business world change from what American’s knew of it, so did the
political world. American’s were now in wartime and terrified of the Middle East. Jason Reitman, director of Up in the Air, depicts this image for a
brief moment in the movie when Ryan Bingham is teaching his assistant, Natalie
Keener, the ropes of traveling efficiently and in a timely manner through the
airport. As Mr. Bingham goes through different kinds of people to avoid getting
stuck behind in the security line, he states “Never get behind people traveling
with infants I have never seen a stroller collapse in less than 20 minutes, old
people are worse their bodies are littered with hidden metal and never seem to
appreciate how much time they have left on earth, there you go (points to
Middle Eastern group of people) five words ‘randomly selected for additional
screening,’ Asians, they pack light, travel efficiently, and they got a thing
for slip on shoes, God love em.” (movie.) Ryan Bingham jokingly brings to life
the assumption and fear that American’s and the flight industry personal have
brought against the Middle Eastern culture and people due to the 9/11 terrorist
attack on America. The director was able to depict this very real and
unfortunate stereotype into the movie without too much repercussion given the
lagging time between September 11 of 2001 and the release of the movie in 2009.
American’s had time to grief the incident and their losses, yet still relate to
the fear and discomfort that people feel towards people of the Middle East.
Author Walter Kirn
does not mention any word on terrorist, long security lines or stereotypes in Up in the Air because it was irrelevant
to the American culture at that time. Our means and efficiency of travel
changed dramatically after the tragedy. Security was less strict and family
members and loved ones could walk you onto your flight, bag checks and “pat downs”
were minimal compared to today, and Americans did not fear traveling by plane
with people outside of American soil. Americans were less high strung about
flying and the price of flying was more affordable. Companies would pay their
employees to travel and considered it an investment. Once tragedy struck,
people did not want to travel, the price of flying sky rocketed, and the loss
of jobs started to unfold.
It was this one
terrible incident that changed the business, economic, and political world as
Americans knew it forever. It was a wake up call that America did not see
coming but that showed it that it needed to protect itself at all times and in
all aspects. American flight industry has been deeply affected by this incident
and the book and movie, Up in the Air,
is a great reflection of both pre and post political and economic life of the
twin tower destruction.
Word Cited
Up In The Air.
Dir. Jason Reitman. Perf. George Clooney and Vera Farmiga. Paramount. 2009. Film
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