Charles Van Doren has a life that many people would be envious of. He is a member of one of the most intellectual and respected families in the country. Her uncle, Carl, is a well-known historian, and her father, Mark, is a distinguished professor at Columbia University and a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet. His mother, Dorothy, is also a well-known author with several highly recognized literary pieces. Charles is following in his father's footsteps as he works as an instructor at Columbia, preparing to take over for his father once he retires. Unfortunately for Van Doren, he feels he has no identity in this family of ambitious people. At this point in his life, he believes he should have done enough that people should not refer to him as "the son" but rather call him by his first name. Van Doren clearly doesn't realize how lucky he is and that, compared to almost all the men in America, he is still more successful than any of them will ever be. This insecurity and tragic flaw will ultimately lead to his death over the course of the film. The question is not whether or not this tragic hero will do something to get his relatives' attention, but rather to what extent he will be willing to compromise his values ​​in the process. The second scene of the film shows the seemingly safe process in which applications for the show are brought into the studio. They are taken from the bank vault by police officers and there is a large procession hand-delivering the applications to the studio. It makes the viewer think that the whole quiz show thing is completely free of fraud. The camera then shows how such shows have captivated audiences across the country. Everyone wants to be part of the quiz show phenomenon, even if that means simply watching the show on television from their own home. The audience ranges from couples to families to even nuns. Yet the corruption is shown very early on in the show when an executive makes a phone call to inform a producer that they want to get rid of the show's current winner, Herbert Stempel, because he is getting tired of him. Stempel, who is a working-class Jew from Queens, New York, had an extraordinary run on the quiz show "Twenty-One." He has won a large amount of money and is making the most of the glory. When he returns to his modest neighborhood, he is treated like a king;...... middle of the paper......he is almost shocked, saying that: “I wanted to get the television; the truth is that television will get us." Goodwin is rather vague and leaves this sentence up to the viewer to interpret. Perhaps he means that television has the power to ruin the lives of even those least likely to be morally seduced by it. Charles Van Doren's life is completely tragic as in his attempt to improve his life he ends up making it worse than when he started "Twenty-One". The money he earned and the fame he achieved could have been achieved through hard work and determination like his father. He was driven by the opportunity to do virtually nothing and be credited as a hero. In a way, though, Van Doren succeeds, as his ultimate goal is to be more than his father's son, but unfortunately he has achieved notoriety rather than honor. Dick Goodwin is the antithesis of Charlie, a man who could look temptation in the eye and simply turn away, knowing that simply giving up is completely wrong. Who knows what Charles Van Doren's life might have been if he had stayed on the path he had taken rather than succumbing to the temptations of easy fortune and fame that came with “Twenty-One”.