Do you believe that life has inherent meaning? Are you one of those people who thinks that every action we do has greater implication than how it initially appears? Or are you like those who believe that there is nothing more to ‘now’? That everything is what it appears to be, and that no guiding force, no universal order is at play? While a debate between these two opposing question rages on, which I honestly think will never reach a satisfying conclusion, I believe there is another more pressing question to ponder: Will it matter if if does or doesn’t? I will not give you answers, as I do not have them. I am merely exploring, trying to just scratch the surface of this age-old question. Join me as I yet again reflect on this through the lens of the highly-acclaimed film, Joker. And of course, spoilers ahead.

Nothing but a FLECK of dust.

Arthur Fleck or Wayne (we don’t know for certain) is a pitiful Gothamite. For someone who experienced pain and misfortune day after day, it was quite amazing, and frankly, inspiring, to see him put on a happy face through all of it. The sobering reality in this film is people like Arthur really do exist. He could be the drunkard we pass by the train station everyday, the hobo who routinely looks for scraps at the dumpster, or that yuppie who, at face value, looks like he has his shit together. But dive deeper and you’ll see he barely holds it all together. These people keep trying to better their lives. In Arthur’s case, he knew he was facing mental problems, hence the psychiatrist we see him talking to at multiple points of the film. He took medicine to combat this illness yet life seemed to JUST WANT HIM DOWN. Life, society, call it what you want, relentlessly kicked him down figuratively and literally. French philosopher and journalist Albert Camus perfectly captures the struggle and exhaustion Arthur exhumes throughout the entire film:

“Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.”

Camus is well-known for his take on absurdism, which, simply put, means that life has no inherent meaning. This philosophy is the subversion of everything that religion or anything that implies meaning in the grand scheme of things. In Joker, we see this type of absurdity right from the get go when a couple of teenagers steal Arthur’s sign board, bait him into chasing them, and finally beat the living hell out of him. Or during the bus ride when he was called out by the mom of the child he was making smile. The entire film is absurd.

Stairway to madness.

Arthur’s slow, painful descent or (ascent) to madness is what I’d call logical. Yes, logical. Arthur did try to change his status and even his condition, seeing how he kept on working on his career as a comedian and see the psychiatrist in hopes to at least cope with his mental problems. He had hope. He was resilient. Arthur was many things wrong but he did not just snap like a twig. There are man factors to consider on what led to his descent. What arguably was his tipping point was his mother.

Penny Fleck, played by the praise-worthy Frances Conroy, was the source of Arthur’s unstable character way before society kicked the hell out of him. She herself suffered from a mental illness – psychosis and others more – which opened an avenue for abuse. Don’t get me wrong, the illness wasn’t the direct cause of Arthur’s own. It was the subsequent physical abuse that came from Penny’s former boyfriend. This led to a traumatic childhood for the young Arthur that ultimately led to his then-present condition. Given his unpleasant childhood, do we get to blame him for the person he turned out to be? For the circumstances he didn’t choose to be born in? We’ll never know.

We live in a society.

I mentioned society numerous times for valid reasons. And besides, we knew it was coming. Society created Joker. What I mean by society creating Joker is that the people, the government, Gotham itself created him. From the corrupt officials stealing the resources meant to improve the lives of the citizens they have sworn to serve, to the indifference of the Gothamites themselves towards their fellow citizens, the hypocrisy of the rich who promise a bright future to the poor, and many more reasons to list, all these factors either directly or indirectly created chaos incarnate we all love to hate.

Killing 3 Wall Street boys as his first debut as the Joker, Arthur’s action (or reaction to the injustice dealt to him) was seen as a righteous vengeance, a resistance if you may, by the suffering majority of Gotham. From this stirred beast arose chaos, anarchy – rebellion. It’s almost as if the sleeping majority was just waiting for the first move, and in the afterglow of that movement, anger, resentment, rage followed suit. Once more, Camus had the right words to describe this:

“In order to exist, man must rebel, but rebellion must respect the limits that it discovers in itself – limits where minds meet, and in meeting, begin to exist.”

After his first stunt, he began to exist in the minds of Gothamites, hence he began to rebel. Arthur was finally becoming noticed and he wasn’t letting this opportunity slip away. He began to have an idea of who he was or rather, who he was supposed to be, thus he further asserted himself on Gotham. We must assume that, in all the pain and suffering he experienced, Arthur believed his rebellion against the system, against society is right. Camus, in a way, affirmed Arthur’s actions by saying:

“Rebellion cannot exist without the feeling that somewhere, in some way, you are justified.”

And he is right, I believe. That Arthur wanted to be noticed was seeded in the entire film, and fully blossomed during his biggest moment: his appearance on live television. During his brief appearance, Arthur expressed all his resentment towards society and materialized it by killing Murray Franklin. This created waves throughout Gotham which fully awakened the sleeping beast.

Society birthed Joker. Can we blame him for it?