In today’s freshman comp class, I presented two papers on the same topic students are being asked to write on right now. I found one of them by doing a search on Google. It was on a site that offers papers for sale. You pick the topic, and they provide the paper. It was a sample of the type of paper you could get through them, so theoretically a slice of their best work. One of them was written by AI with the following prompt (where I cut and pasted the writing assignment word for word–no doctoring was allowed after the paper was written. I had to take whatever AI came up with the very first time):
Write me a 900 word essay on this prompt: The analysis essay invites you to explore a recurring theme in Batman adaptations—such as fear, justice, identity, or morality—and examine how it is portrayed in a specific adaptation or across multiple versions of Batman’s story. To strengthen your argument, you will incorporate some research, such as critical commentary, historical context, or scholarly insights on Batman’s cultural significance. For example, you might analyze how The Dark Knight uses the Joker to explore chaos and control or how Batman: The Animated Series examines duality through its villains, supporting your claims with evidence from the adaptations and external sources. This essay emphasizes critical thinking, helping you develop a strong thesis, synthesize research, and use evidence effectively to uncover the deeper messages behind Batman’s enduring legacy.
We talked about the pros and cons of each paper as a class, and then we voted to see which they thought was written by AI and which they thought was written by a person. To let you play along at home, here are the essays:
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ESSAY 1: Deconstructing the Duality of Chaos and Order in the Joker of the Dark Knight
In Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, the character of the Joker, portrayed by Heath Ledger, embodies a complex interplay between chaos and order, challenging traditional notions of good and evil. The Joker’s philosophy and actions serve as a catalyst for exploring the duality of chaos and order, pushing both the characters within the film and the audience to confront their preconceptions about morality and the structure of society.
The Joker’s introduction into Gotham City is marked by a stark contrast to the existing order maintained by Batman, the city’s vigilante hero. Batman, with his rigid moral code and desire to protect Gotham, represents a force of order. His approach to justice is systematic and controlled, seeking to impose a sense of stability on a city teetering on the edge of chaos. The Joker, on the other hand, is an agent of chaos, reveling in unpredictability and anarchy. He views society’s structures and rules as facades, thin veils over the inherent disorder of human nature.
This duality is most evident in the Joker’s own philosophy, which he articulates through his actions and dialogue. He sees himself as an agent of chaos, stating that his purpose is to disrupt the artificial order imposed by society. The Joker’s assertion that the only sensible way to live in this world is without rules encapsulates his belief that true freedom and authenticity come from embracing chaos. He challenges the idea that order is inherently good, suggesting that it is instead a mechanism of control used to suppress individuality and the chaotic nature of existence.
Throughout the film, the Joker orchestrates a series of events designed to expose the fragility of Gotham’s order. His attacks are not random acts of violence but carefully planned assaults on the city’s moral and social fabric. By forcing individuals to make impossible choices, he reveals the moral compromises and hypocrisies underlying their adherence to order. The Joker’s manipulation of Harvey Dent, Gotham’s White Knight, into becoming the vengeful Two-Face is a prime example. Dent, who once embodied the hope and order of Gotham’s future, is transformed into an avatar of chaos and revenge, underscoring the thin line between order and chaos.
The Joker’s chaotic influence also extends to Batman himself. The vigilante is forced to confront his own principles and the effectiveness of his methods. The Joker’s chaos challenges Batman’s sense of control and justice, pushing him to the brink of his moral limits. This is most evident in the interrogation scene, where Batman’s desperation to stop the Joker leads him to use brutal and uncharacteristic methods. Here, the Joker’s chaotic nature infects Batman, blurring the lines between hero and villain, order and chaos.
One of the most poignant illustrations of the Joker’s philosophy occurs in the ferry scene, where two boats, one filled with civilians and the other with prisoners, are rigged with explosives. The Joker forces each group to decide whether to blow up the other boat to save themselves. This scenario is a microcosm of the larger chaos-order dichotomy: it exposes the inherent selfishness and fear within individuals when stripped of societal order. The Joker bets on human nature to choose chaos and self-preservation over collective morality. However, the refusal of both groups to detonate the bombs serves as a counterpoint to the Joker’s worldview, suggesting that even in the face of chaos, a collective sense of morality and order can prevail.
Nolan’s portrayal of the Joker is multifaceted, avoiding a one-dimensional depiction of chaos. The Joker is not merely a chaotic force; he is a mirror reflecting the latent chaos within Gotham and its inhabitants. His actions and philosophies compel other characters to confront their own beliefs about order and justice. The film suggests that chaos and order are not mutually exclusive but are interdependent forces within society and individuals. The Joker’s chaos brings out the latent order in people, just as Batman’s order sometimes provokes chaotic responses.
The duality of chaos and order in The Dark Knight is further complicated by the film’s visual and narrative structure. Nolan uses contrasting imagery and scenes to highlight this duality. The film’s cinematography often juxtaposes scenes of pristine order, such as the elegant cityscapes of Gotham, with the chaotic aftermath of the Joker’s attacks. This visual interplay reinforces the thematic tension between chaos and order, underscoring the idea that one cannot exist without the other.
In conclusion, the Joker in “The Dark Knight” serves as a profound exploration of the duality of chaos and order. Through his actions, philosophy, and impact on other characters, the film delves into the complexities of human nature and societal structures. The Joker’s chaotic influence reveals the fragility of order and the latent chaos within individuals, challenging the audience to reconsider their notions of morality and control. Nolan’s film ultimately suggests that chaos and order are intertwined, each necessary to define and give meaning to the other. In the Joker’s world, chaos is not just an absence of order but a force that reveals the true nature of humanity and the structures we build to contain it.
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ESSAY 2: “You Either Die a Hero…”: Justice, Vigilantism, and Moral Collapse in The Dark Knight
From his earliest comic book appearances in 1939 to the grittiest of modern cinematic reimaginings, Batman has been haunted by a single question: what does justice look like in a broken world? While many adaptations explore Batman as a symbol of justice, none interrogate the complexity of that symbol more intensely than Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (2008). In this film, Batman’s pursuit of justice becomes a moral gauntlet—one that ultimately collapses under the weight of its own contradictions. Through its depiction of Batman, Harvey Dent, and the Joker, The Dark Knight dismantles traditional notions of justice and replaces them with something darker, more fragile, and disturbingly real. By situating the film within post-9/11 political anxieties and drawing on scholarly interpretations of vigilantism and moral ambiguity, we can see how The Dark Knight forces us to question whether justice and heroism are even compatible.
The Joker’s anarchic presence in The Dark Knight functions as a philosophical provocation, designed not just to create chaos but to expose the hollowness of institutional justice. “Introduce a little anarchy,” he growls. “Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos.” His plan isn’t to kill Batman—it’s to corrupt Gotham’s soul. In academic terms, the Joker represents a “disruptive agent,” as Will Brooker puts it in Batman Unmasked, whose goal is to deconstruct the myth of moral certainty that Batman represents (Brooker 278). While Batman tries to operate as a tool of justice within a system that is breaking down, the Joker weaponizes that system’s hypocrisy, revealing that fear and violence lie at the core of even the most noble attempts at order.
Harvey Dent, Gotham’s “White Knight,” initially offers a foil to Batman’s masked vigilante—a district attorney who believes in due process and the power of legitimate institutions. But as the film progresses, Dent’s transformation into Two-Face becomes a case study in the failure of both legal and moral justice. His downfall is not only personal but symbolic: when justice is built on fragile ideals and unchecked power, it becomes vulnerable to destruction. As cultural critic Chris Gavaler argues, Dent’s arc illustrates how “justice turns arbitrary when individual trauma takes over civic duty” (Gavaler 142). His coin, once a private talisman, becomes a stand-in for randomized justice—a haunting metaphor for the way ideals can be warped under pressure.
Batman himself undergoes a transformation, not into a clearer moral agent, but into a necessary illusion. The film’s climax, in which Batman agrees to take the blame for Dent’s crimes, cements him as a sacrificial figure—a guardian of the idea of justice, even if it means embodying injustice. Commissioner Gordon’s final words sum up this paradox: “He’s the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now.” Batman becomes both savior and scapegoat, highlighting the way justice in Gotham is less about truth and more about perception. This choice reflects what scholar Liam Burke identifies as “the postmodern hero’s shift from moral certainty to moral utility” (Burke 99). Batman’s decision isn’t right—but it might be necessary, and that moral ambiguity defines the film’s version of justice.
The film’s visual language and narrative structure reinforce this instability. Gotham is a city of shadows, glass, and fire. Surveillance and fear are tools used by both the heroes and the villains. Batman’s sonar system, which uses every cell phone in the city to locate the Joker, eerily mirrors real-world debates about mass surveillance and government overreach, especially in the context of post-9/11 America. The Patriot Act and questions of “security vs. freedom” loom large in the cultural backdrop of the film’s release. As Slavoj Žižek notes in his essay “The Dark Knight: A Superhero Movie for Post-Political Times,” Batman operates outside of democratic accountability, making him an ideal hero for a moment when citizens had lost faith in institutions (Žižek, 2008). He does what governments can’t—or won’t—but that power comes with deep ethical costs.
What makes The Dark Knight endure is its refusal to offer clean answers. Instead, it leaves the viewer with a provocative question: can justice exist in a world where fear and chaos are inevitable? Batman’s answer, at least in this film, is not to restore justice but to maintain the illusion of it. That choice is as emotionally resonant as it is philosophically troubling. It places the audience in an uncomfortable position—not cheering for the victory of good over evil, but wrestling with the compromises made in the name of peace.
Ultimately, The Dark Knight does not celebrate Batman as a hero of justice. It presents him as a reluctant figure of sacrifice, burdened by the realization that justice is messy, conditional, and often incompatible with truth. In a world of increasing polarization, misinformation, and institutional collapse, Batman becomes not a solution, but a mirror. And what he reflects is our own uncertain relationship with justice, power, and the stories we tell to make sense of both.
Works Cited
Brooker, Will. Batman Unmasked: Analyzing a Cultural Icon. Continuum, 2000.
Burke, Liam. The Comic Book Film Adaptation: Exploring Modern Hollywood’s Leading Genre. University Press of Mississippi, 2015.
Gavaler, Chris. On the Origin of Superheroes: From the Big Bang to Action Comics No. 1. University of Iowa Press, 2015.
Žižek, Slavoj. “The Dark Knight: A Superhero Movie for Post-Political Times.” In These Times, 2008.
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RESUME DISCUSSION:
So what did you think? The class as a whole felt like the first essay was weak and repetitive. It was just okay overall, but not great. They all agreed the second one was much stronger, with quotes and sources and a good organizational structure. Doing a quick search, all sources in the second exist, though we didn’t have time to dig deep enough to see if the quotes in those sources were accurate.
11 out of 17 students believed the second one was written by a human.
In reality, the second one was written by ChatGPT Pro.
Students asked, “So what you’re saying is it’s better to cheat using AI than it is to cheat using an actual human?” I had to agree with them. It’s cheaper, and their end grade would be better. I also explained that there would be no difference to tell whether they’d used AI to write the assignment out of whole cloth for them, or if they’d used AI to help them improve an essay they wrote themselves.
As I’ve taught the class, it’s become increasingly obvious to me that the days of freshman composition as we once knew it should be numbered. There’s just no need to take an entire semester to show students how to write when they can have a better end result just using AI. Yes, you can make the argument for teaching them how to think, but that second essay is better written than almost any freshman essay I’d expect to see in college. But what is the goal of freshman comp? To me, it’s to get students to the point where they can effectively express their thoughts in writing, so that they’re prepared to write papers in their future classes. True, there are aspects to it (how to effectively research, how to evaluate the quality of sources, how to persuade, how to properly cite sources, etc) that can’t be covered by AI just doing it for you, but the actual writing part of it?
I no longer see the need. I would encourage universities to shift their focus to information literacy as a foundational class to take the place of freshman composition. I see many more people struggle with telling truth from lies these days, and it’s only getting worse. That’s the skill we need our society learning. Actually expressing the ideas effectively?
AI has that down pat.