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I find Donald Draper, the main “hero” of AMC’s Mad Men, a very intriguing character. If you haven’t seen the show, it’s the ongoing drama series of one of New York’s finest advertising company in the early 1960’s, Sterling Cooper. A group of jet-set men and women are the key players in an ego-driven, ruthlessly competitive Madison Avenue advertising world. My attraction to the show was that it’s our history; it’s the beginnning of our mediated world and its very interesting to see how these people helped to shape the hopes and dreams of 1960 America on a daily basis. And, no one is more a part of the story than Donald Draper (Jon Hamm).

Not only is he the creative genius at the agency, he’s managed to keep three secret lives from colliding: his childhood, a girlfriend in the city, and a trophy wife (and kids). Don’s real name, as we learn in 5G (episode 5), is Dick Whitman and he doesn’t want anyone to know about his childhood of growing up on a farm during the depression. We don’t know exactly why but it may have something to do with being called a “whore child”; he was raised by a woman who was not his birth mother and wasn’t allowed to forget it. He left home to fight in World War II and he never went back, leaving them to think that he was dead. And its subtle, but its clear that he has a guilty conscience about leaving his little brother Adam thinking that he was dead.

As the creative director at the agency, Don has a keen eye for what sells and how to sell it. He is also well versed in selling a personal image. When a bank wants Don to help organize a new identity, he devises a private account for men only, an “executive liberty bank account”. As someone who could benefit from the account himself, Don’s advise is for an account that a man can keep separate from wife and family where statements are delivered straight to the office and security is a top concern.

But for all the trouble and stress that keeps Don walking the line between honorable family man and high profile (m)ad man, it seems to me that Don has a moral compass when it comes to the image that the agency sells. Just like his persona as Don Draper, the world he has helped construct is a pretend existence. When a rival company tries to hire him away, he finally rejects the offer and tells his bosses at Sterling Cooper that when he leaves it will be leaving advertising altogether to “go live life”. In the pilot episode of Mad Men, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, Don comes to the revelation that, since its counter-productive to argue against the studies that are linking smoking and cancer, he doesn’t have to convince anyone that one product is better than another (the standard way of advertising up till then). He tells his clients from Lucky Strike tobacco company that advertising is based on one thing, happiness. Cynically, he knows that smoking makes people happy and that’s all that matters.

Another interesting part of Draper’s life is his relationship with his wife, Betty Draper. Even though there’s another woman, Don loves his wife. We learn that Don had met Betty at a photo shoot where she was a model. Soon after, they’re married, she’s pregnant, and they move to the suburbs. At a time when women were expected to be beautiful to get a man and, yet, opportunities are starting to emerge for women to support themselves, Betty is starting to realize the conflict between her own desires and managing a household and husband. Psychologically, Betty is a mess. She’s been seeing a therapist and its become evident that she’s been kept in a state of perpetuating their suburban fairly tale. In Shoot (episode 9), the family dog attacks the homing pigeons that are kept by the next door neighbor and their keeper tells Betty that the next time he sees the dog in his hard he’s going to shoot it. Betty is starting to learn some independence but expresses it rather childishly; using the kids’ BB-gun, she decides to do one better and shoots the pigeons out the air herself. She can’t escape and fly away so neither will they.

How much of Betty’s problems are tracible to Don? Much of it has to do with the pressure her mom (and society) put on her to look and act a certain way but I can’t help from thinking that some of it has to do with knowing that her husband is an illusion. Does she have any incination about Don’s past? She wants to know more about him but he doesn’t talk about it. I don’t think she has any idea about the girlfriend. I can’t wait to find out more.

Don Draper’s life parallels the world he creates in advertising where the goal of future happiness is what is portrayed to the public. Don is running as fast as he can away from his past. He even states that he only lives for the future. The past is an imperfection that needs covered up. And sadly, our world today is the culmination of what Don and others like him worked hard to achieve.

Elsewhere: Alan Sepinwall reviews the latest episode Shoot in Mad Men: Gianni on the spot, TV Squad with their review Mad Men: Shoot, and Pop Matters says that Mad Men is stylish and clever.