Minerva Ahumada

Watching Sons of Anarchy, it is easy to get caught up cheering for career criminals and hard not to root for SAMCRO's hijinks. Philosopher Nietzsche believes most philosophers have overlooked “where our good and evil really originated” and thinks we need to investigate this origin before we can assess the value of our reigning moral ideals. It is not the selfless or meek person, but the strong individual and the community that fosters and honors his strength that provides the basis for what Nietzsche calls master morality. The Sons of Anarchy exhibit master morality in ways that challenge our understanding of morality. Their goodness is so different from what we customarily deem to be good. We cannot be sure what Nietzsche's reaction to Sons of Anarchy would have been, but it is possible that at certain moments he would have regarded it as an answer to his prayers.

Questions of identity involve the attempt to determine what exactly makes a person or thing what it is—what makes Tara Tara or what makes Charming Charming? The chapter analyzes Ricoeur's ideas on personal identity to see if they can help us make sense not only of Tara's identity, but also of how SAMCRO and some of its members maintain their identity across time. Ricoeur describes how we weave the two types of identity, sameness and selfhood, together to form a narrative, a story that allows us to understand how we are able to preserve our identities through time. Narrative identity links up a person's character and the anchor of promise keeping, the practice of keeping one's promises. Finally, the chapter talks life history of John Teller, which is delicately intertwined with the fate of every member of SAMCRO.