ipl-logo

How Does Entertainment From The 1930s Express Our Past Fears

620 Words3 Pages

How Does Entertainment from the 1930s Express our Past Fears? The Great Depression was a time of economic hardship in the United States that lasted throughout the 1930s. The collapsed economy left both upper and lower class American families poor and unemployed for nearly a decade. This period was one of the longest lasting economic tragedies to ever hit the states, which struck fear in the majority of the population. Entertainment, such as film and literature, provided an outlet for people to express these cultural fears. In the film White Zombie, the director Victor Halperin uses the metaphor of disfigured zombie bodies to portray the connection between the fear of ego death and loss of autonomy in order to the demonstrate fears people experienced …show more content…

The multitude of losses that Americans felt were expressed figuratively in the film with the use of zombies. The zombies in this particular film are lifeless corpses that have been brought back to life by Haitian voodoo. The main physical difference between the zombies and an average person is the eyes. All the zombies have wide, white eyes that gaze blankly at the world. When the wealthy Haitian plantation owner Charles Beaumont is transformed into a zombie, his eyes lose their life and he loses his soul. This transformation metaphorically expresses the loss of pride men felt once they lost their jobs and power due to the Great Depression. The eyes are representative of the economy, as it fails and loses the life it once had. The loss of jobs are symbolic of his soul because once you are turned into a zombie you lose an important part of yourself: your soul. White Zombie uses body limitations, such as Charles Beaumont’s lack of speech, to also express fears. The zombies in the film are mute and unable to express themselves once they have been transformed. This is a metaphor for how people during the Great Depression felt about their situations. Most experienced poverty at the time, but had no way to speak out against everything they were going through because the whole nation was having the same issues as

Show More
Related

Great Depression Challenged American Families In The 1930s

548 Words | 3 Pages

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the 1930s. It was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. It challenged American families in major ways, placing great economic, social, and psychological strains and demands upon families and their members. Millions of families lost their savings as numerous banks collapsed in the early 1930s. In addition, farmers lost their crops and failed to make a living.

Read More

Essay On The Dead Family In Toni Morrison's Song Of Solomon

1121 Words | 5 Pages

The word dead generally means that a person is no longer living ,but another meaning is that one is deprived of life. The dead family is deprived of life because they are unlucky to experience the joys of happiness. You are truly unhappy if money is the only thing you care for. The names of many characters signify their personality, and many of the various things that they will do.

Read More

Our Zombies Ourselves Parker Analysis

621 Words | 3 Pages

In “Our Zombies, Ourselves” author James Parker speaks to moviegoers and monster fans about that slow-moving creature of horror known as the zombie. In the essay, he attempts to uncover the reason for the zombie’s sudden and extreme popularity. To do such a thing he unearths the history of the zombies in film, literature, video games, and other media, and he sheds some light on their real origins – which all lead him to the conclusion that zombies are popular because of their “ex-personhood” (345). Throughout the essay Parker uses analytic language peppered with metaphors, description, and colorful references to some of the latest and greatest depictions of zombies, which help to bring the essay and the monsters to life and keep the audience’s interest.

Read More

The Great Depression In The Film, Cinderella Man

1279 Words | 6 Pages

The Great Depression was a devastating period in United States History, the economy collapsed, and a staggering 25% of the population was unemployed. During this time, there were large wage disparity gaps that were very prevalent, there was no middle class, you were either wealthy or you were poor. It was hard for family life to continue, parents had to take up two and three jobs to make sure their kids were staying safe, and well. Most of these jobs were odd-jobs, and were temporary with no sense of security. It was a struggle to find work, and no job was too demeaning for you to do, because you may not find work again.

Read More

Living During The Great Depression Essay

328 Words | 2 Pages

Could you imagine living in a world with limited electricity, food, water, and other daily necessities? This is the kind of world people had to live in during the Great Depression. The Great Depression was a dark period of time in which the economy collapsed. Many people lost their jobs and money, but the government tried to give hope. To lead off, the Great Depression put millions out of work.

Read More

Night Of The Living Dead Analysis

885 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout history, individuals have deliberated on social issues faced in society through their works of literature. During the 1960’s, the United States consisted of sparks of change that impacted an individual or the society. George Romero, director of Night of the Living Dead, constructed a document of contemporary social changes by addressing social issues, such as women’s right, race, and the media. First of all, George Romero produced a document of contemporary social changes by incorporating the women’s right. To begin with, the 1960’s was a time period that changed the life of a woman because they began rebelling for what belonged to them.

Read More

Loss Of Autonomy In Movies

228 Words | 1 Pages

During the Great Depression era, an innumerable amount of Americans felt the effects of both ego death and loss of autonomy. Because the 1930s took so much away from people, including their pride and humanity, the majority felt humiliated by events out of their control. After the start of the Depression, it became almost impossible to find employment, and nearly all available jobs paid so low that people refused to take them. This resulted in people feeling ashamed of themselves. Consequently the American people viewed this loss of power, control, and pride as a monster and projected it into movies such as White Zombie.

Read More

Great Depression Thesis

747 Words | 3 Pages

The Great Depression is the most influential event of the 1920’s through the 1930s because it destabilized the economic health of countless countries, it shifted the population of the United States to the cities, and it led to the Second

Read More

Similarities Between Zombies And Vampires

782 Words | 4 Pages

When one compares two monsters such as a zombie and a vampire it is easy to see the differences between them. Zombies and vampires have more differences than they do similarities. With one being a walking corpse only seeking the consumption of flesh, and the other being a blood sucking un-dead creature with some human qualities. These monsters also represent specific fears that people have, and in return make the people of today so much more drawn to these movies. People like things they can relate to, and people can easily relate to a zombie.

Read More

History Of Voodoo In Africa

962 Words | 4 Pages

Having visuals that captures the different behavior of the Voodoo and showing what a Haitian zombie was believed to look like presents how powerful the Voodoo religion was within the West African

Read More

Fear Of Zombies

1817 Words | 8 Pages

Humans have always wondered what would happen to society if a disastrous event were to occur that would have the ability to wipe out the human race or put it in danger of extinction. We have created numerous theories of different natural disasters that can fulfill this requirement, including supernatural occurrences. Since these events are very unlikely to happen, we have created a way to portray these disasters as a form of entertainment for us to watch ranging from movies, television, and video games. We seem to enjoy watching actors play out in this disastrous scenario and see how they would be able to survive through it and save humanity. Zombies are one type of genre and supernatural event that people love to watch but also fear at the same time.

Read More

Figurative Language In The Masque Of The Red Death

731 Words | 3 Pages

Death can never be escaped no matter what. In “The Masque of the Red Death” Edgar Allan Poe shows the theme of death, a suspenseful mood, and an ominous tone. Through Poe’s use of literary devices, the reader can discover tone, theme, and mood. Throughout Poe’s life he experienced death with two of his mother’s and his young wife. Death is shown how inevitable it is with Poe’s writing and experiences combined together.

Read More

I Walked With A Zombie In Night Of The Living Dead

1491 Words | 6 Pages

Even though the zombies in both these films are different, they both have something in common, both these films use zombies and their historical backgrounds in order to make these creature more realistic and to fill us with fear which in the end makes us wonder if zombies truly do exist. In the film, I Walked With a Zombie, the use of creative cinematography is immediately revealed in the opening scene. A majestic long shot of two shadowy individuals pleasantly strolling on a windy beach is the first thing we see as the film begins. This beautiful first image is also supposed to be an inside joke since the two strollers are Frances Dee, the actress who plays Betsy, and Darby Jones, the actor who plays Carrefour, the mindless zombie slave of the voodoo priest.

Read More

Because I Could Not Stop For Death Essay

975 Words | 4 Pages

Through personification the speaker depicts death as a gentlemen, and not someone who brutally takes our lives quickly, but in a courteous manner. The use of symbolism to describe three locations as three stages of life. These three stages are used to show our childhood,adulthood, and us as elderly soon about to meet death, The speaker also uses imagery to show that all death is a simple cold, then we go to a resting place which is the grave, and from there on we move on toward eternity. Death is a part of life that we all need to embrace, and learn that it is not meant to be

Read More

Rhetorical Analysis Of What Is Poverty Jo Goodwin Parker

507 Words | 3 Pages

The author wants the reader to continously think about what poverty means to her, such as “Poverty is being tired” in paragraph 3, “Poverty is dirt” in paragraph 4, and “Poverty is looking into a black future.” in paragraph 10. This reminds the audience that not everyone suffers from poverty in the same way. For the author, poverty is having to take care of family when all the odds are against you, and this is what gives the reader a perfect understanding of it. As stated in the passage, “Listen to me.

Read More

More about How Does Entertainment From The 1930s Express Our Past Fears

Related Topics

Open Document