The Entrepreneurial Life of Jordan Berfort in The Wolf of Wall Street

Jordan Belfort was a Wall Street powerhouse owning his own investment firm called Stratton Oakmont in 1989. In 1987, Belfort was completely broke just coming into Wall Street and learning the ins and outs of the investment firms. Belfort was a true leader and got people to follow him, even in the presence of illegal activity like drugs, and prostitutes, and to top it off Stratton Oakmont was an illegal investment firm. Individuals joined in more often than backed away, due to how persuasive and how patient Belfort felt about money.

I will be using Burke’s Dramatic Pentad to analyze the Black Box scene from The Wolf of Wall Street. 1 will primarily point out the Agent, Agency, Act, Scene, and Purpose, concluding with the ratio. Burke defines act as “to designate the major division of a play”. The act is what happened in the text, and what was the action that caused the scene to occur. To begin, Belfort calmly asks his workers if they see the black boxes and reveals that they are telephones.

This whole time Belfort is lying to his employees; he really doesn’t care about them at all morally, they are only a number that brings in his substantial cash flow. Belfort then cleverly brings lures them further by saying “I’m gonna let you in on a little secret about these telephones. They’re not gonna dial themselves! Okay? Without you, they’re just worthless hunks of plastic. Like a loaded M16 without a trained Marine to pull the trigger”.

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Belfort’s speech makes his workers feel powerful like they can do anything with the phone in their hand. This is a prime example of what Belfort did for his business. He motivates his workers through money also by telling them to dial their phones. Belford boasts throughout this speech about being rich, a perfect example would be the quote “Let me tell you something. There is no nobility in poverty. I’ve been a rich man, and I’ve been a poor man.

And I choose rich every time. Cause, At least as a rich man, when I have to face my problems, show up in the back of a limo wearing a $2000 suit and $40,000 gold watch!” In this quote, Belfort brings his workers in once again and explains that being poor is nothing to be proud of. Belfort explains that being rich is what he wants his workers to be also. He listens and wants his employees to have the same thirst for money as he does. Belfort backs his case up with this, ”So, you listen to me and you listen well. Are you behind, on your credit card bills? Good. Pick up the phone and start dialing. Is your landlord ready to evict you? Good. Pick up the phone and start dialing. Does your girlfriend think you’re a loser? Good. Pick up the phone and start dialing! I want you to deal with your problems, by becoming rich! All you have to do today …is pick up that phone, and speak the words that I have taught you.

And I’ll make you richer than the most powerful CEO of the United States of America”. The Agent as defined by Burke is “ what person or kind of person”. The agent in the Wolf of Wall Street’s “Black Box” scene is none other than Jordan Belfort. The other people in the scene are Belfort’s employees who he is talking to. motivating them to make money by calling people. Riot mentality or groupthink is when multiple individuals doing the same act will attract other people and cause them to do things they normally would not do. There are over a thousand people in a gargantuan office space, and they are all screaming and yelling and are ready to dial and make money. Belfort was the magic behind this because he was an astonishing Motivational Speaker. The more excited they got the more influence they put on people who were not as excited. This was a strategy used by Belfort to get employees to get excited about what they were doing to increase revenue.

The scene is defined as “when or where it was done” ”. The first sentence that Belfort says is ”See those little black boxes? They are called telephones. This gives you a mental picture of a bunch of telephones on desks. Since Belfort was an investment firm, you could imagine rows of desks with little black telephones on top. The title of the movie gives away the location of the scene. The location is Wall Street in New York City. The time period is the late 1980’s early 1990’s in one infamous unprofitable time. “It’s clear that 1990’s bottom line was the worst for our industry ever,” the report said. “The 1990 loss, at $500 million, will easily set a new low”. Although unprofitable for most, Belfort persevered and flourished. The agency is defined by Burke as “conveyed by stressing the distinctive terms of the method or medium” (Burke, 1950). In this scene, every time Belfort talks the workers listen, and every time he gets loud and yells they get loud and scream too.

The employees are ready to make money for Belfort and themselves. A good representation of this is a particular paragraph of text to see how Belfort acts. ”So, you listen to me and you listen well. Are you behind, on your credit card bills? Good. Pick up the phone and start dialing. is your landlord ready to evict you? Good. Pick up the phone and start dialing. Does your girlfriend think you’re a loser? Good. Pick up the phone and start dialing! i want you to deal with your problems, by becoming rich! All you have to do today…is pick up that phone, and speak the words that I have taught you. And I’ll make you richer than the most powerful CEO of the United States of America. I want you to go out there, and I want you to RAM Steve Madden stock down your clients’ throats. Till they choke on and buy 100,000 shares! That’s what i want you to do. You’ll be ferocious! You’ll be relentless! You’ll be telephone terrorists!

Now, let’s knock this out of the park. Purpose defined by Burke is “why the act was done” (Burke, 1950). In this scene, Belfort wants nothing other than money. He could care less if his workers are rich or not. In fact, he would rather they weren’t rich because that’s the source of the motivation that he is giving them to work so hard. The whole movie itself is based on Belfort making money. Money is what drives the story and the characters or actors who are in it. ”There is no nobility in poverty. I’ve been a rich man, and I’ve been a poor man. And I choose rich every time. Cause, At least as a rich man, when I have to face my problems, I show up in the back of a limo wearing a $2000 suit and $40,000 gold watch” Ratio defined by Burke is “principles of determination“.

I believe the best ratio for the “Black Box” scene is Act-Purpose. The act of this plot is that Belfort is trying to make money by any means possible because he loves his extravagant lifestyle. He wants to keep his extravagant lifestyle, which causes him to partake in illegal activities to compensate for the money he is spending. The purpose of the plot, scene, movie, and his life is to make money. This specifically reinforces how money-hungry belfort was. It shines the spotlight on his greediness and carelessness for the people around him, making him more of an infamous hero. You can see that the two elements work very well together by stating that the purpose of the act is to make money, and the act is done for that purpose. In both ways, Belfort is making money illegally and does not change the way he is shown as in the movie.

Compared to the ratio Act Purpose ratio; the ratio Scene- agent talks about belfort in the light of him working his way up the ranks to own his investment firm in New York. Belfort could have done this in Vegas, but it just happens to be in New York. There is not enough evidence of a complete story in the other ratios. That is why Act-Purpose is the best ratio for this particular plot, scene mix. To conclude l have explained The act, agent, agency, scene, and the purpose of the scene. I have used Burke’s Dramatic Pentad, citing him throughout this essay. I explained ratio, along with what would be the best ratio for the “black box” scene and why. I have also compared two other ratios in order to further persuade why act- purpose is the best fit and why the ratio drives the story along more than any other ratio.