Corkern- Ladder 49

Upon receiving the assignment, yet before viewing the film Ladder 49, I thought I knew the answer to the essay question. I was sure Jack Morris’ relationship with his family was more important than his relationship with his firefighter comrades. Again, this was before I viewed the film. I was awfully mistaken. Jack Morris is first and foremost, a firefighter. Every other role in his life is secondary. This is evidenced throughout the entire film. In his very first flashback, Jack remembers his first day as a firefighter. He recalls meeting the guys and the captain, and the instant brotherhood he felt. Facing death, one would imagine that your first flashback would be what is most important to you. As the film goes on, it is more and more clear that Jack has a stronger relationship with his firefighter comrades than with his family. Things that happen at the firehouse elicit more of an emotional response from Jack than things in his personal life. He is deeply affected and changed by the death of his fellow firefighter. To further evidence his commitment to his job and life as a firefighter, he replaces his dead friend and steps up into a more dangerous position within the district. Jack is quite afraid of his own mortality but does not admit that, because the thrill and joy that saving lives brings to Jack could be put in jeopardy. He ignores his wife’s pleas for him to not do anything more dangerous, and tells her that it is not “more” dangerous. As his children grow, Jack senses his son’s fear, and tries to quell it, but never considers doing another job or entering another line of work. After he is injured in a steam accident, and his firefighter buddy severely injured, Captain Kennedy offers him a chance to move on and take a new position- better pay, better hours, much less danger. He talks it over with his wife, and I think briefly considers it, but ultimately decides against it. That decision ends up costing him his life. However, I have to wonder, what kind of life would he have led had he taken the job? For a person like Jack Morris, he was born to be a firefighter, and nothing short of that would have satisfied him. The tragedy is that a wife lost her husband and two young children lost their father.