ipl-logo

Jaws World War 2 Analysis

596 Words3 Pages

Emotions Derived from World War II Depicted in JAWS

Jaws expresses America’s complex feelings concerning war and cultural stereotypes. The film displays the fear and guilt that accumulated from the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. On August 6th, 1945, the US Army Air Forces detonated the first deployed atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. The nuclear bomb exterminated hundreds of thousands of civilians. Despite the numerous deaths, the United States had the prevailing view that the bombings ended the war months earlier and in turn saved countless lives.1 Although this may have ended the war, it resulted in many citizen feeling both fearful about what would happen next and guilty about if it had been the most reasonable decision, considering the vast number of civilian casualties. …show more content…

The most relevant connection to World War II occurs when Quint says, "Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief. It was comin' back from the island of Tinian Delady. Just delivered the bomb—the Hiroshima bomb. 1,100 men went into the water. Vessel went down in 12 minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about a half an hour."2 It is clear that he is referring to the literal sinking of the Indianapolis after it delivered the atomic bomb. However, it is less apparent that Quint is constructing a sublimial connection linking the sharks to Japanese soldiers. Quint states that the shark has " lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eye. When he comes at ‘ya, doesn't seem to be livin'." This easily could have been describing American’s perspective of the Japanese soldier with motionless eyes. Furthermore, both the shark and the Japanese soldier were made out to be an enemy that abruptly assaults the nation on its own territory; much like the "sneak attack" on Pearl Harbor, which connotes to Amityville being attacked on the 4th of

Open Document