Logical fallacies are seen all over, especially in movies and television shows. In the movie Gone Girl a woman, Amy Dunne, has gone missing and it is about the search to find her. Her husband, Nick Dunne, is framed for her murder because of his lack of knowledge of their recent relationship because of marital problems. As the story goes on the audience finds out that Amy Dunne had actually committed her own murder and is trying to frame her husband once she found out he is cheating on her. In Gone Girl the logical fallacies seen are red herring, guilt by association, and appeal to pity or sentiment.
Red herring- A misleading clue that is introduced into an argument in order to divert attention away from an item of significance or from what is being argued.
This is seen in Gone Girl because Amy is purposefully leaving clues to frame her husband. She created a crime scene and set her husband up. He didn't know at the time but all the clues would eventually lead to him as the murderer. The whole murder was a red herring because it was all false and trying to accuse Nick Dunne when he never did anything.
Guilt by Association- Assuming because someone associates with someone else, they have the same qualities as the associate.
Nick Dunne is assumed guilty for the murder because he is married to Amy and didn't know much about her life. They had a distant relationship and he didn't even know who her best friends were. This made him seem guilty for the murder because of their distant relationship as well as the clues. If Nick wasn't married to Amy he wouldn't have been the top suspect for her case.
Appeal to Pity or Sentiment- Attempting to win an argument with a pathetic appeal to the emotions of the opposition or the audience.
In the end, Amy has to return home because she is found out. She makes up stories that she was raped and kidnapped so that people wouldn't think she was crazy enough to commit her own murder. She says that she was taken by her ex- boyfriend who was obsessed with her and he raped until she killed him. Her ex- boyfriend and Nick were the only people who knew the true story about her death, so she killed him. Once she tells her story to the news she receives love and the whole country loves her because of all she has been through.
I completely agree with your fallacy statements. I have heard multiple comments about the movie and how there are some very obvious fallacies intertwined in the plot. I have noticed that a lot of the new m,ivies that come out involving a kidnapping or a murderer, the person who is the first suspect is always either the mom, dad, husband, etc.
ReplyDeleteI really like this post, I think you pointed out a lot of really good fallacies in the movie, as well as making good analytical statements.
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