99 Homes Analytical Paper In 2008, Great Recession swept across the land of United States. Under the haze of the mortgage crisis, some american families failed to pay their mortgage loan and forced to be evicted from the homes they have been living for years. During the upheaval, many greedy real estate businessmen such as the role “Rick Carver” in the movie “99 Homes” who was taken by Michael Shannon earned dirty and cruel money by taking foreclosure houses forcefully from the unemployed and impoverished families. In the movie “99 Homes”, the ethic traps appear between the rigid law and ethic in the aspects of ethical fundamentalism and deontology. In the movie “99 Homes”, Dennis Nash is a construction worker and failed to pay his house loan, then he was forced to be evicted with his mother and son by Rick Carver’s real estate company who represents the bank and the police force. Even though he tried to prove evidence and explain his circumstances that he has good reasons to explain delayed payment in the court, the judge ignores him ruthlessly. However, Rick Carver finds out his potential abilities and asks Nash to work with him and promises to pay him with good amount of money. Under the life pressure, Nash starts working with Rick as a assistant to evict other unemployed and impoverished families from their houses. After he stepped into this industry, he finds out the cruel reality about the whole society. Ethical fundamentalism is an ethical practice that claims there is an absolute mortality that is set by an external source such as religious associations, law and corporate codes. Ethical fundamentalism gives guidance and improve certainty. When dealing with issues, ethical fundamentalism is more efficient and predictable since the rules are initially set up by an organization. However, it can also be negative. The concept of absolute morality could be too rigid and sometimes would not be agreed by everyone. In “99 Homes”, the reason that many impoverished and unemployed families failed to pay their loan is not only because they don’t work hard or they are not honest people, sometimes it is because of unexpected circumstances that cause them lose their jobs and fail to pay for the loans. Also, the impoverished people are more likely to be hurt by reality comparing with wealthy people due to their education level and growing experience. Nash loses his job under the influence of mortgage crisis, causes him fail to pay the loan, then his house is taken by the bank. In this circumstance, Nash does not do anything wrong, but he is still driven off from his own house. Rick, the police force, and the court follow the concept of ethical fundamentalism, they evict Nash by following the rigid law without considering his vulnerable circumstances and reasons, which cause an ethic trap. Also, after Nash works with Rick to evict another house owner and witnesses the hopelessness of the others, Rick says to Nash, “Don’t be soft, they all have sa.

1. 99 Homes Analytical Paper
In 2008, Great Recession swept across the land of United
States. Under the haze of the mortgage crisis, some american
families failed to pay their mortgage loan and forced to be
evicted from the homes they have been living for years. During
the upheaval, many greedy real estate businessmen such as the
role “Rick Carver” in the movie “99 Homes” who was taken by
Michael Shannon earned dirty and cruel money by taking
foreclosure houses forcefully from the unemployed and
impoverished families. In the movie “99 Homes”, the ethic traps
appear between the rigid law and ethic in the aspects of ethical
fundamentalism and deontology.
In the movie “99 Homes”, Dennis Nash is a construction
worker and failed to pay his house loan, then he was forced to
be evicted with his mother and son by Rick Carver’s real estate
company who represents the bank and the police force. Even
though he tried to prove evidence and explain his circumstances
that he has good reasons to explain delayed payment in the
court, the judge ignores him ruthlessly. However, Rick Carver
finds out his potential abilities and asks Nash to work with him
and promises to pay him with good amount of money. Under the
life pressure, Nash starts working with Rick as a assistant to
evict other unemployed and impoverished families from their
houses. After he stepped into this industry, he finds out the
cruel reality about the whole society.
Ethical fundamentalism is an ethical practice that claims
there is an absolute mortality that is set by an external source
such as religious associations, law and corporate codes. Ethical
fundamentalism gives guidance and improve certainty. When
dealing with issues, ethical fundamentalism is more efficient
and predictable since the rules are initially set up by an
organization. However, it can also be negative. The concept of
absolute morality could be too rigid and sometimes would not
be agreed by everyone. In “99 Homes”, the reason that many

2. impoverished and unemployed families failed to pay their loan
is not only because they don’t work hard or they are not honest
people, sometimes it is because of unexpected circumstances
that cause them lose their jobs and fail to pay for the loans.
Also, the impoverished people are more likely to be hurt by
reality comparing with wealthy people due to their education
level and growing experience. Nash loses his job under the
influence of mortgage crisis, causes him fail to pay the loan,
then his house is taken by the bank. In this circumstance, Nash
does not do anything wrong, but he is still driven off from his
own house. Rick, the police force, and the court follow the
concept of ethical fundamentalism, they evict Nash by
following the rigid law without considering his vulnerable
circumstances and reasons, which cause an ethic trap. Also,
after Nash works with Rick to evict another house owner and
witnesses the hopelessness of the others, Rick says to Nash,
“Don’t be soft, they all have sad stories, but the law is the
law”(99 Homes). The world is unfair and many impoverished
people could have more disadvantages in their life than the
wealthy and powerful people, but the law was set based on the
concept of everyone is equal, some of the laws are too rigid and
ignore the disadvantages and special circumstances of
impoverished people.
Also, there is another ethic trap from an aspect of
deontology in this movie. Deontology is a duties-rights based
ethical concept which claims: We all have duties to respect
others’ rights. One of the significant concept of deontology is
Kant’s theory. Kant believes in “Golden Rule”, which is people
can do things unless he or she accepts others to do the same
thing to him or her. For example, when you steal a phone from
the others, you admit that it is fine and acceptable to let others
steal your phone. This reversibility could make people behave
well and get along in the society. However, the biggest problem
about deontology is that it is impossible to be realistic. In the
movie “99 Homes”, even though Nash is one of the victims of
evictions, he still chooses to work with Rick and forces others

3. evict from their homes due to the life reality pressure. Rick
says, “Only one in a hundred’s gonna get on that ark, son. Every
other pour soul’s gonna drown”(99 Homes), under the reality of
Great Recession, the demand is higher than supply due the lack
of social resource and the greed of people, some people have to
hurt others’ rights to earn money, and only those who have
power and resource will survive eventually. In “99 Homes”,
Nash wants to get his house back and gives his family a better
life after being evicted, so he starts working with Rick even
though he doesn’t want the eviction happen to himself. Rick
also says, “American doesn’t bail out winners. By rigging a
nation of the winners, for the winners, by the winners”(99
Homes), people have to unintentionally or intentionally
sacrifice others to acquire their own benefits sometimes. And
the reality of wealth inequality could make the wealthy people
become richer and luckier, and make the impoverished people
become more impoverished unluckier. For example, if one of
the Rick’s houses is taken by the bank, he still have enough
money and resource to make up for the loss, but if an
impoverished person loses his or her only real estate, he or her
might be beaten and ruined by reality forever due to education
level and life experience. Therefore, there is no absolute
freedom and equality in the first place and there would not be a
“Golden Rule”.
The relationship between law and ethic is always a
controversial topic, the movie “99 Homes” exposes one of the
ethic traps. The ethic trap of ethical fundamentalism is that,
even though everyone should always follow the law, some
people could be part of the vulnerable sides and hurt by law
although they doesn’t do anything wrong intentionally. The
deontology seems to be a fair and good concept, but it is almost
unrealistic because of the complexity of the world.
BSL 212 Analytical Paper Grading Rubric

4. 90 - 100 Complies with Analytical Paper
Instructions; Contains no or minor
grammatical or spelling errors.
Identifiesand explains an ethically ambiguous
business
practice/action; Correctly explains two ethical
theories and two
ethical traps; Provides in-depth
sophisticated analysis of the
practice/action utilizing the ethical
theories and ethical traps.
Analysis is bolstered by the use of all
relevant facts as well as apt
analogies.
80 – 89 Complies with Analytical Paper
Instructions; Contains minor
grammatical or spelling errors.
Identifiesand explains an ethically ambiguous
business
practice/action; Correctly explains two ethical
theories and two
ethical traps; Accurately but
mechanically analyzes the
practice/action utilizing the ethical
theories and traps. Analysis lacks
depth and breadth of the “exceptional”
response in terms of
application of the ethical theories and
traps or the use of
relevant facts.

5. 70 - 79 Fails to fully comply with Analytical
Paper Instructions; Contains
significant grammatical and spelling errors.
Identifiesan ethically ambiguous business
practice/action, Correctly
explains at least one of the ethical
theories and one of the ethical
traps; Provides only a cursory analysis of
the practice/action.
60 - 69 Fails to comply with Analytical
Paper Instructions; Contains
numerousmajor grammatical and spelling
errors.
Identifiesan ethically ambiguous business
practice/action, but is
unable to explain an ethical theory or
trap required to analyze
the practice/action. Analysis of the
practice/action, if any, is based on
common sense or (inapt) legal concepts
learned in the course.
0 – 59 Fails to comply with Analytical
Paper Instructions; Contains
numerousmajor grammatical and spelling
errors.
Fails to identify an ethically ambiguous
business practice or action.
Fails to explain any ethical theory or
trap; Fails to provide any ethical

6. analysis.
BSL 212 Analytical Paper Grading Rubric
90 - 100 Complies with Analytical Paper
Instructions; Contains no or minor
grammatical or spelling errors.
Identifiesand explains an ethically ambiguous
business
practice/action; Correctly explains two ethical
theories and two
ethical traps; Provides in-depth
sophisticated analysis of the
practice/action utilizing the ethical
theories and ethical traps.
Analysis is bolstered by the use of all
relevant facts as well as apt
analogies.
80 – 89 Complies with Analytical Paper
Instructions; Contains minor
grammatical or spelling errors.
Identifiesand explains an ethically ambiguous
business
practice/action; Correctly explains two ethical
theories and two
ethical traps; Accurately but
mechanically analyzes the
practice/action utilizing the ethical

7. theories and traps. Analysis lacks
depth and breadth of the “exceptional”
response in terms of
application of the ethical theories and
traps or the use of
relevant facts.
70 - 79 Fails to fully comply with Analytical
Paper Instructions; Contains
significant grammatical and spelling errors.
Identifiesan ethically ambiguous business
practice/action, Correctly
explains at least one of the ethical
theories and one of the ethical
traps; Provides only a cursory analysis of
the practice/action.
60 - 69 Fails to comply with Analytical
Paper Instructions; Contains
numerousmajor grammatical and spelling
errors.
Identifiesan ethically ambiguous business
practice/action, but is
unable to explain an ethical theory or
trap required to analyze
the practice/action. Analysis of the
practice/action, if any, is based on
common sense or (inapt) legal concepts
learned in the course.
0 – 59 Fails to comply with Analytical
Paper Instructions; Contains
numerousmajor grammatical and spelling

8. errors.
Fails to identify an ethically ambiguous
business practice or action.
Fails to explain any ethical theory or
trap; Fails to provide any ethical
analysis.
BSL 212 - INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS LAW
SPRING SEMESTER 2019
Analytical Paper: Ethics
After reading Chapter 2 of the textbook, watch the film 99
Homes, directed by Ramin Bahrani. There will
be a public screening of the film at 3:30PM on Monday,
February 18 in Storer Auditorium, followed by
a panel discussion lead by Business School faculty. Plan ahead
to ensure you have time to view the film
at least once before beginning your paper.
Essay Prompt:
There are numerous examples of ethically ambiguous practices
featured in the film. These practices may
include actions, affirmative statements, omissions and/or
schemes. Identify and explain a specific

9. ethically ambiguous practice, including a brief description of
the parties involved and how the practice
worked. Then, utilizing the ethics material discussed in class
and Chapter 2 of the textbook, analyze the
ethics of the specific practice you are focusing on. Your
analysis should:
(1) Include two of the “Theories of Ethics” (excluding
“Egoism”) and two of the “Ethics Traps”
presented in Chapter 2.
(2) Define and explain the theories and traps you are utilizing.
(3) Apply the theories and traps to analyze the ethics of the
specific practice you are focusing on.
(4) Use specific conversations and evidence from the movie to
assist in your analysis.
Your paper must be written in essay format; in other words, it
should not be divided into individual
answers to the above questions. Your paper must include an
introduction and a conclusion. There is no
need to consult sources beyond your textbook, your class notes,
and the film itself (outside research is, in
fact, discouraged). Your paper must be a minimum of 1000 and
a maximum of 1200 words, and must
be double-spaced, utilizing Times Roman 12-point font and 1
inch margins. In the upper left-hand

10. corner of the first page of your paper, list your name, your
instructor’s name, the course (BSL 212),
the date, and the exact word count of your paper. Direct quotes
from the film or the textbook should
be placed in quotation marks and the source should be noted in
parentheses directly after the quote (99
Homes for the film, and Mann, Roberts, followed by the page
number, for the textbook). Failure to
comply with these specific instructions will negatively impact
your grade, as reflected in the Analytical
Paper Grading Rubric posted on Blackboard. You are to turn in
a hard copy of your Analytical Paper, no
later than the start of class on March 6, 2019. Your Analytical
Paper must also be submitted in Word
format on Blackboard under the designated “Assignments” tab
by the same date and time as the hard
copy. Please note that the papers will be run through Safe
Assignment, which will compare them against the
entire Internet and our internal database to help detect
plagiarism. There is no makeup for this Analytical
Paper; it is not subject to the quiz make up policy articulated in
the course syllabus.