No one makes it on their own. No one, as much as people might imagine themselves as heroic, self-made men and women. In the case of Walt, he spent the entire series proclaiming how he was murdering and dealing drugs “for his family” but at the end it really was all about his own self-aggrandizement, no more, no less. He put his entire family in jeopardy and killed a few innocent people along the way, entirely for his own ego.
And he helped build the company originally, so why not accept help from someone who used to be a friend, who won’t end up homeless by helping to save his life.
Absolutely nobody makes it on their own. That’s why we need a social net and health care supported by heavy taxation of the wealthy. But that’s not the same thing as a wealthy person taking pity on somebody, which is problematic because it allows the wealthy person to present themselves as a “good person” simply for giving resources which other people don’t have the ability to give. Think of how robber barons from Andrew Carnegie to Bill Gates managed to turn their reputations around from villains to heroes just by giving some of their questionably obtained earnings back to society.
Yes, Walt was proud, and in typical Greek tragedy fashion, his pride led to his downfall. But my point is his refusal of Schwartz was understandable (his later actions less so).
But Schwartz wasn’t some rando rich guy looking to boost his public image. He was a former partner of Walt’s and a close friend at one point. And from how they spun it in the show, the reason that Walt left the company had to do with the girlfriend (Schwartz’ wife, Gretchen) and is never fully explained from Walt’s POV. Mayhaps more ego on Walt’s part that caused him to leave the business before it did so well?
But I have to agree with others that the core theme of the show is more about masculinity of the toxic variety and the inability to accept help from others, because of this notion that men have to make it on their own, or they’re not REAL men.
As for Gates, Carnegie, etc, sure there is a seriously selfish element to their philanthropy. No doubt. But I doubt it was motivated solely by those more selfish reasons, even if that’s part of it. I think they can be both sincere in their desire to improve the world and also be selfish in their desire to want to look better to the rest of the world. People are complicated, yo! I will say that I doubt my hometown would have had a library had it not been for carnegie, and I’m sure that these libraries vastly improved people’s lives over the years.
I’ve been trying to unpack this whole scene since it was brought up,
Charity can be a cold, hard thing to take, but help is easier to accept. The difference between the two, I think, is some sort of opportunity to pay back or forward. Being beholden to someone for your life without any chance to somehow reciprocate can be a very powerful thing.
So, given Walt’s motivations and the fact he’s a colossal douche, he would have seen this as charity. And charity from someone who he thinks sees him as somehow lesser. This is to be rejected because inflated self-worth, toxic masculinity, pride, resentment of others success and the self-loathing from knowing he made a bad call when walking away, along with all the other bullshit wrapped up in it. And regardless how the offer was put, he would have rejected any help too, for the same reasons.
There’s a need to see himself as the hero and the saviour, the big man, master of his own destiny, all that rubbish. Anything that doesn’t fit within that narrative will be twisted or rejected out of hand.
But of all the piss-poor decisions he made, this is maybe one of the more human ones. I’m not sure what I’d have done in the same situation.
This sums up why I could never get into Breaking Bad:
I’ve lived a few hours’ drive from the US my whole life, but this whole “medical expenses” thing is just unimaginable. I mean, we have medical expenses too, but not like that.
As opposed to Deadwood where they made the villain engaging enough that they SIGNIFICANTLY dialed down how evil he was in later seasons and made him more of an “asshole who speaks truth and gets things done” rather than EVIL. like he was in the first few episodes. –Where he arranged to have a family killed to steal their stuff and was trying to arrange the cold blooded murder of a child to prevent being found out.
