Jerry Lundergaard Character Analysis in the Fargo Film (Essay Sample)

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Jerry Lundergaard Character Analysis in the Fargo Film
The 1996 film depicts a violent society of hatred, death, kidnappings and robbery. It highlights current societal changes such as the shift in gender roles and other vices that have erupted from generational change. The characters in the film are Jerry Lundergaard who is a salesman in a Car Dealership Company in Minneapolis. Jerry encounters tough times in the business with loans and economic downtimes; he was shrewd and could decide anything so long as it benefited him. Carl Showalter is a funny looking criminal who agrees to kidnap Jerry’s wife in exchange for 80000 dollars and a car. Gaear is a quite partner in crime with Carl, Marge Gunderson is a pregnant police officer in Minnesota involved in solving murder cases related to kidnapping. Jean Lundergaard is Jerry’s wife, Wade Gustafson is Jean’s father and father in law to Jerry. Others are Scotty Lundergaard, Shep Proudfoot, Stan Grossman, Norm Gunderson and Mike Yanagita. The character analysis is based on Jerry Lundergaard.
Jerry is best described as a total wreck who tries to manipulate every possible encounter in his father in law old car dealership business. He takes loans on non-existent cars and embezzles over $320,000 in the car business. He plans evil even to his wife and close family members such as his father in law. The character Jerry depicts is cunny without remorse, he was willing to sacrifice in blood to get him succeed and off the hook in the hefty loans he was being pursued for. When Jerry hires kidnappers to kidnap his wife, he tries to con the kidnappers he asked Wade, his father in law to give 80000 dollars as ransom for his daughter, instead, he had asked for a whooping million dollars. He tried to swindle the kidnappers but it backfired when they murdered the state trooper and other important witnesses.
Jerry is a liar and used backdoor means to swindle customers of their money; he crafts the customer to paying for an option that he didn't agree. He executes his tricks uncalculated does not decisively clear his backlogs of traces. He shows no remorse when he tries to convince his father in law to loan him $ 750,000 but he humbly declines his offer. Given that he regularly borrowed loans using the company's cars and committed other resources. The kidnapping plan is riddled with flaws using the kidnappers he never knew and involving other shady characters to sabotage the process. He foolishly steals the dealerships to be used in the kidnapping not bearing in mind that the car could be tracked by the company. He also depicts the character of a thief when he gets involves in crafting a strategy to steal the car to be used in kidnapping the wife.
The character shows a sign of no -thankfulness when he kidnaps his wife in a bid to force the father by law to give a ransom and use it for loan repayment. He does not take note that the father in law has groomed and provided him with an opportunity as a salesman in his company. Jerry should instead have thanked his father in law for the opportunity and appreciate his wife as a complement to his life. The motive of kidnapping could also be instigated by a revengeful mood that his father in law denied him the loan to bail out his other expenses. It would have been unfair for the Wade to continue accommodating with the loan whereas Jerry was stealing from his businesses. It is apparent that Jerry was driven by greed and extravagance to living a financial life of loans and constant repayment.
Lundergaard shows signs of desperation and anxiety when he is cornered by the GMAC Company on the payment of the loan freezes and appears defensive when he is interviewed by Marge on the stolen Ciera. He narrates everything transparently with no sense of aligning the story to his side. Suspects in any case always tend to behave defensively and dodge reality but Jerry has none of that. He flatly talks everything and behaves defensively when there I nothing to defend. Jerry in his character shows naivety in approaching issues and making judgments. He entrusts his wife to goons he did not even know for the sake of money, he is solely responsible for the death of his wife as he orchestrated the whole strategy. He depicts the same character of naivety in the meeting deal with Stan Grossman. In the whole film Lundergaard shows clear signs of incompetence in everything he does from the decisions, he gets involved in criminal activities and fakes his salesmanshi...