LISA AND MR BURNS

Lisa and Mr. Burns represent two sides of American society which are totally contrary and different. Mr. Burns is the purest representation of what Lisa despises of the American social system, extreme capitalism, he cares nothing for environment and is depicted as a corrupt, cruel and cold man with no feelings who seems to hate life.

He represents the harsh side of American capitalism where is shown that profit can be achieved through having important contacts and influence on life. Mr. Burns embodies some stereotypes about Corporate America due to his obsession with money and power. Because he gives more importance to his own profit and becoming wealthier than the wellbeing of his workers or society, apart from being considered and exploiter, he can represent the stereotype of big American managers or unscrupulous billionaire magnates. For this reason, this character can be seen as a satire about capitalist executives and unsupportive or uncaring bosses which don’t even bother to learn their employees’ names or care about their needs and welfare.

His wealth and power allows him to control almost the entire city of Springfield, manipulating the political, legal and media systems to as he wishes for his own benefit. This assimilates to American society where high economic power is often related to important political influences, especially when it comes to political campaign financing.

In addition to this, burns as he is presented as an old man, he represents the most conservative side of America which doesn’t seem to be adapted to the new progresses of the society. In contrast, Lisa represents the millennial part of the society which aim a change in the American system. The series reinforces this idea because, although all the efforts Lisa makes, Springfield has little changes, this can be considered satirical fatalism because, although in American society there are people like Lisa who are worried about progress and the welfare of the country, it is still ruled by institutions and billionaires like Mr. Burns who are uncaring about the society.

On the other hand, Lisa is the vivid representation of reason, equity, science and justice, in contrast to burns who is only focused on his own self-progress. She represents the social values which are totally contrary to what Mr. Burns does, she is an intelligent young girl which cares for environmental wellbeing. She is fully aware of politics and defend her ideologies which are totally against capitalism and everything that Mr. Burns represents in society. However, despite her intelligence and her efforts to make Springfield a better place which cares for environment, animals and feminism, she is commonly ignored and ridiculed in the series considering her efforts and worries as exaggerated or not taking them into account. This is present in American society as the ones who claim uncomfortable realities and bring into light the hidden problems that the system has, are often marginalized or ignored.

To sum up, all this ideological contrast between them is very well represented in the episode 21 , 8^th season “The Old Man and the Lisa” where Mr. Burns promises Lisa, he will use his money for better purposes when she helps him to redo his life following a better path as is seen in the following video.

However, he then he uses her help, and influence creates an, according to him, “ecological” factory which uses recycled animals to create pet food. Here can be seen how economic power can absorb and transform all the ideals into its own benefit.

Claudia Román