The Enigma of Identity: Unraveling Nature vs. Nurture in 'Three Identical Strangers' - Free Essay

Directed by Tim Wardle, “Three Identical Twins” is a film documentary telling an astonishing story of triplets separated at birth and raised by three different families. Released in 2018, the film presents the accounts of three siblings, David Kellman, Robert Shafran, and Edward Galland, who grew up separately after they were adopted as infants (Wardle, 2018). Their journeys and lives become connected following a reunion at New York’s Sullivan Community College. Wardle combines archival footage, present-day interviews, and re-enacted scenes to make the story come to life as the brothers discover each other in what was a scientific experiment of the social concept of nature versus nurture. Aged 19, the boys meet up as the story meanders back and forth detailing their public and private lives. The film begins as a laidback human-interest story that begins with warmth and a feel-good factor before getting complicated. The backstory of this moving documentary involved a scientific study in which psychiatrists Peter Neubauer and Viola Bernard of the Jewish Board of Guardians decided to test the nature versus nurture concept using human subjects without the knowledge of the siblings. The resultant effects of this experiment have brooded mixed feelings and opinions from audiences as far as the purpose of the film is concerned. Entangled in the mix of this story is the culprit adoption agency called Louise Wise Services. This paper presents a reflectional analysis of Wardle’s film and how it has attempted to achieve its objective.

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The nature versus nurture concept has been widely discussed for decades with various experiments done to prove what can happen to siblings raised in different environments. The concept of nature is rooted in biological components and genetic wiring of the person and how the same affects a person’s development. The concept of nurture is all about the factors in the environment and how they shape the development of an individual. In this film, the three siblings are raised in relatively high social classes within New York. At a glance, the three siblings share a number of biological traits obviously because they have similar genetic makeup. They all have meaty fingers, the same hair, grins, and similar expressions (Wardle, 2018). Their near-identical physical appearance is prominent hence supportive of their similarity in the genes. One of the most interesting observations of the twins is that they share a lot in terms of tastes and enthusiasm. It is observable that they smoke the same brand of cigarettes and have the same taste when it comes to women. Their behavioral traits are also similar in a way that is suggestive of sibling traits. However, all three had different personalities as well as mental health conditions which can all be attributed to their different upbringing environments.

Mental illness is also highlighted in the film as a mini-theme. Because all the siblings are connected, their gene makeup is also connected. All the siblings suffer from a mental condition that leads one(Galland) of them to take his own life in what can be considered as the role of a depression-causing gene present in all three. The relationship between the three and other people in the film indicated difficulties showing that nature has a huge role in shaping human development and social life. As the triplets embraced and celebrated their union by hanging out all the time and starting a business together, I feel like the primary concern of the film is not fully achieved. That is because most aspects of their social life are incongruent with the expectations of people raised in different social environments.

One shocking aspect that the film also highlighted is the motive behind some adoption agencies which are only interested in profits. First, the immorality in this film begins with using innocent children as lab rats. People mandated with the responsibility of caring for them use them as lab rats for scientific experiments. Worse still is the adoption agency’s high-end scientists’ belief that they have no wrong-doing despite misguiding the lives of children. Their periodic visits and evaluations of the boys were not explained to adopting families (Wardle, 2018). From a personal perspective, their failure to do so underlines the problem of ethics and morals in adoption agencies when the motives are unclear.

While Wardle tells a compelling story about individuals who had a happier childhood than adulthood, questions still remain as to why the founders of the scientific project were not clearly revealed. The private charities that supported the creepy scheme led by Neubauer are not unmasked, which leaves the viewer with question marks. One can ask themselves what is the point if the foundation of the story is not being told? A keen look at the footage and the contemporary interview videos also indicates that only two of the three siblings appear. Thus the directorial work was not so great in a film of so many fictional re-enactments. With that in mind, it is not wrong to say the director was more interested in telling an entertaining cinematic story rather than an informative one bearing in mind that this was a documentary. Other than that, the film utilizes historical fragments and footage to piece together a compelling story that will never be forgotten. However, the idea of nature and nurture is an objective only relatively achieved.

References

Wardle, T. (2018). Three Identical Twins [DVD]. The United States and the United Kingdom; CNN Films.