Tracey's character in "The Message"

POSTED BY: Rockysoap
UPDATED: Thursday, October 26, 2006 18:16
VIEWED: 6507
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ROCKYSOAP

Wednesday, October 25, 2006 3:30 AM

My roommate and I are currently have an... uh... enthusiastic disagreement about the character of Tracey, and we were wondering what others thought. I think he's arrogant and refuses to accept responsibility for his actions, and that he is manipulative and selfish. She thinks he is a lost little boy who is just scared. Anyone else?

PURPLEBELLY

Wednesday, October 25, 2006 5:32 AM

I don't find the analyses mutually exclusive; Tracey is Jayne with charm, and without the childhood abuse.

AGENTROUKA

Wednesday, October 25, 2006 6:34 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by PurpleBelly:
I don't find the analyses mutually exclusive; Tracey is Jayne with charm, and without the childhood abuse.

Jayne abused? Nah. ;)

Of the two, I'd say Tracey's the more likely choice of anything untoward in his past - though, obviously, he loves his family - because every scene that featured him was about using people. In the war, after it...

Tracey is childlike in the way that he is utterly determined to survive and instinctively selfish about it. Using his "cuteness" to manipulate people into protecting him.

(Children, of course, being not consciously that way. It's simply how they survive up to the point where they can stand on their own feet.)

SEESKYANDREMEMBER33

Wednesday, October 25, 2006 7:47 AM

Here's how I think of it. Tracey, as he says, never could find his feet after the war. Since he was very young going into battle, I don't believe he had a chance to mature out of that engrained mindset. Of doing what must be done to survive. And once the war ended, he tried to forge a life for himself. He was, however, unsuccessful. Unsuccessful in the fact that the world in which he found himself was cold, violent, and unforgiving. His life became one of scraping by, doing what he could to earn enough money for survival (very much like Mal and the crew). He took the "organ job" (for lack of a better name) as a final try to make a better life for himself and for his family. In that, I think he is very much like Jayne (in fact, being the genius that he is, I think Whedon was trying to make very obvious parallels between the two characters in that episode). Had Jayne not become under the employ of Mal, he might very well have ended up in the same boat. As for Tracey, however, he was not so lucky. He ran to one he knew would do whatever he could to help him, but I don't believe it was necessarily in a purely manipulative sort of way. It could be said that he cares for no one outside his family, but when it really comes down to it, I see Tracey in all his panicking moments as a trapped rat. He has nowhere to turn, and so he resorts to the gun. I honestly believe he didn't mean to hurt anyone (he isn't aiming at Wash's head, he doesn't even grab Kaylee, just shoves/guides her in a forceful manner). I think when things get tough, he panics. I think he had found himself in a world full of drama and violence, and he never truly learned a good way of dealing with his surroundings. So when push comes to shove, he doesn't handle it in a manner even resembling decent. But that doesn't make him manipulative. It doesn't make him a sneaky, oddly seductive (in regards to Kaylee), self-centered, ego-centric jerk. It makes him a confused and terrified boy. One who cannot fully think things through when the world falls to pieces around him, and one who makes horrendous decisions. But all that he does is out of pure survival mode. Were he not such a little boy, he would have been able to handle everything in a far more mature manner, and then his character couldn't be misconstrued as manipulative. But he found himself in a world he couldn't handle without the passing of age and time to guide him though it. He just didn't know how. Pure and simple, he is a confused, scared, lost little boy living on instinct alone.

AGENTROUKA

Wednesday, October 25, 2006 9:06 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SeeSkyAndRemember33:
I think he had found himself in a world full of drama and violence, and he never truly learned a good way of dealing with his surroundings. So when push comes to shove, he doesn't handle it in a manner even resembling decent. But that doesn't make him manipulative. It doesn't make him a sneaky, oddly seductive (in regards to Kaylee), self-centered, ego-centric jerk. It makes him a confused and terrified boy. One who cannot fully think things through when the world falls to pieces around him, and one who makes horrendous decisions. But all that he does is out of pure survival mode. Were he not such a little boy, he would have been able to handle everything in a far more mature manner, and then his character couldn't be misconstrued as manipulative. But he found himself in a world he couldn't handle without the passing of age and time to guide him though it. He just didn't know how. Pure and simple, he is a confused, scared, lost little boy living on instinct alone.

You make it sound as if Tracey is nine years old and doesn't know the difference between right and wrong.

He does know. He's fully aware of the fact that is he using Mal and Zoe "because they are saps", he remembers the ideals Mal preached in his "homilies" and he would have been 17 or 18 starting the war. That's young, but that's old enough to bear full responsibility for one's actions and, yes, war is hell and an absurd distortion of all the values of "normal life" and finding one's way int he world afterwards isn't easy, either, but others have done so, as well. Look at Mal and Zoe. Monty seemed pretty alright, too. And Tracey does have that family.

There are reasons, but no excuses.

Tracey is NOT a child and he should and, really, does know better. He simply chooses to take the easy road by using others to get along, He knows he's charming and uses that, and when it doesn't work he tries violence, it's simply... inexcusable, selfish and manipulative. No matter why.

RUGBUG

Wednesday, October 25, 2006 5:14 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by AgentRouka:
Tracey is NOT a child and he should and, really, does know better. He simply chooses to take the easy road by using others to get along, He knows he's charming and uses that, and when it doesn't work he tries violence, it's simply... inexcusable, selfish and manipulative. No matter why.

I agree. Tracey doesn't want to work hard at anything. He wants things handed to him. Even in the war, he's sitting down thinking of himself, eating his beans. He's not doing the hard work of being a soldier and staying alive...he's letting Zoe take care of that.

Then he thinks he's got easy money by housing the organs. And then even better money by selling them to someone else. It's all about taking the easy way out.

I'm not even to sure he really cares about his family. The whole family story was to manipulate Mal and Zoe and get them to take him away from the guys chasing him. Tracey thought he could get clear that way. When he couldn't he tries violence. Only when he's really dying does he think about his family.

***************
"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it." - George Bernard Shaw

MILFORD

Wednesday, October 25, 2006 5:43 PM

i'm with you, manipulative to the core. completely self centered.

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INDIGOSTARBLASTER

Wednesday, October 25, 2006 6:07 PM

Immature, self-centred, lazy, greedy, inept and manipulative.

And for all that, not a bad guy -- he's superficially charming and funny, not of good character but not particularly malicious or vicious either. But he is surely a sorry-ass disappointment to his family and to Zoe and Mal.

I have to agree with those who said he's not a "lost little boy" because he's just not a little boy. At some point, the cute and understandable missteps and gaffes of an inexperienced little person become the grotesque failings of an experienced-but-unable-to-learn-from-experience big person.

There isn't any evidence of physical or psychological damage from the war that would explain what he is -- from the flashbacks, it looked like he went into the war and came out of it as more or less the same kind of person. So there's really no excuse.

Sorry if that's a little harsh for the Tracey-philes out there -- just my two cents,

Indigo S.

ECGORDON

Wednesday, October 25, 2006 6:10 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by milford:
i'm with you, manipulative to the core. completely self centered.

Not only that, extremely dumb. How did he think he would get his own organs back after selling the smuggled ones to people other than the ones with which he made the original deal?

wo men ren ran zai fei xing.

TRAVELER

Thursday, October 26, 2006 2:43 AM

I was wondering about that organ exchange problem. Where was he going to get new organs? He had to know someone would have to be killed to give him new organs when he made the exchange.
That seems pretty selfish to me.

If he would have stayed with the original buyers he would have gotten his original organs back. So he new some was going to die or these new people were going to leave him gutted on the operating table. If your going to kill someone, why not the person who can finger you, namely Tracey. They would have left him like a Thanksgiving turkey.

Traveler

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