Why Did Pat Allanson Act as She Did About the Movie Deadly Magnolia?

¶ … American Justice: Deadly Magnolia. Specifically it will discuss why the main character, Pat Allanson, acted as she did. Patricia Allanson was a Southern belle who seemed to have a chip on her shoulder when it came to relatives. She convinced her new husband to murder his parents, and then she tried to murder his grandparents. She served prison time for that, and then attempted to kill two of her nursing care clients after she was released from prison. What made Patricia Allanson act the way she did, and kill for her own selfish wants and needs?

Patricia Allanson seems to have been motivated to kill by many different things in her life. She was raised as a spoiled Southern girl who was used to getting what she wanted and being taken care of in every way. Her mother was socially ambitious and her father was a strict Army man. Throughout her life, she needed continual attention and unqualified love. These things all seemed to combine to make her psychopathic or a sociopath. It seems she was unable to kill people herself, so she used other people to do the "dirty work" for her. She was extremely manipulative, and she seemed very convincing. That seems to be one reason she could convince people to do the things she had in mind. She even convinced Tom's grandparents to put her in their will, so she seemed to be good at leading people where she wanted them to go. When she saw how simple it really was, she began to try it herself. What kind of a society creates a woman like Patricia Allanson?

Patricia seemed to live in a dream world. The film shows her marrying her second husband, Tom, in a dreamlike wedding where he was dressed like Rhett Butler and she was dressed like Scarlett O'Hara. She called their home "Tara" just like in "Gone with the Wind." She immediately got on the bad side of her in-laws, and seems not to have been able to deal with reality, but only dreams. Our society allows this to happen by creating dream worlds that the media shows as "normal" and even desirable. For example, today there are numerous reality television shows that show needy people "rescued" by teams who come in and renovate their homes and create new lives for them. Many people seem to believe that if they wish hard enough, something like this will happen to them, and Patricia seems to be this type of person, except she acted almost as if she "deserved" it somehow. She always thought she was special, and she had to prove it to herself and others.

Ultimately, Patricia seems like a totally selfish and self-centered individual who only cared about herself and her needs and wants. She is shallow, she is manipulative, and she is intent on climbing the social ladder with money and prestige. Money is more important to her than anything, and she will do anything to get it. This also seems to be a product of our modern society that creates such greed and need for possessions in people today. People "rate" each other on what they own and the status symbols they acquire, rather than who they are inside. Patricia fit right into this scenario, because inside she was sick, but outside she appeared much like any other southern socialite who wanted more, more, more. There is a social ladder; especially in the South that Patricia felt she had to climb to reach her very unreal "dream" world. It was not only the way her parents raised her -- kind of like a princess -- it was also just a society that puts money and social status ahead of anything else. To someone who desperately wants to fit in, and who has some kind of sociopath tendencies, then fitting in, even at the cost of another's life, does not seem that wrong, or that bad.