Roman Open City Sociology

During World War II, almost every social indicator was impacted in many ways. There were many differences between the war's impact on the Italian society and the American society. As a matter for some background, the Italians were fighting with the Axis Powers and the Americans were fighting with the Allies. The war lasted six years with a large number of casualties and home fronts destroyed. The three social indicators that stuck out to me in Rome Open City and the sources listed above is clothing, children's conditions and schools, and the availability of goods and shops. Within these social conditions, the Italian society and American society shared many differences and similarities.

Fashion changed as the war developed, which was in different

In the Italian society, the children dress almost accordingly with the adults and this manner gets greater as the war continues. In the movie Rome Open City, the children have a great connection during this hard time with their priest. Also, in the movie, the children roam around more while the parents got mad at them. Much of the children in Italy, like in America, had to grow up fast in order to help their families survive during this time. The American society was a little different with their children during the war. Many children dropped out of high school and went to either fight (if old enough) or went to work. The dropout rates increased as the war years continued (U.S. History). There were child labor laws in place, but many employers ignored them as they needed workers with many men gone to war. Many American children went through an abundant amount of grief and depression as their fathers left to go to war. Many children that were male had to step up and be the acting father figure until their father could return. Some children felt that they were robbed of their childhood years and had to grow up very fast in order to take care of their family (U.S. History). The war for Americans brought a lot of positive factors, but also many negative as well. For both societies, Italian and American, many children had to adjust their everyday life and step up for their

Since Italy was under Nazis control at the time, most of their shops and goods were limited since the government controlled it. They also rationed like much of the Allied Powers, but with a strict limitation on clothing. Under military control, much like in Rome Open City, the government is everywhere and watching people do almost everything. They had much of the power and could dictate what people bought as well as do. Also, in the movie, characters make slight remarks about how expensive products and foods are, so in this regard prices went up because of the war making it harder to afford to survive during this time. In the United States, rationing became an everyday lifestyle as people adapted to this new trend. They rationed almost anything that could be essential to the war efforts especially food and gas (U.S. History). Propaganda was used to influence Americans to ration and help with the war (U.S. History). The government decided to push "Victory Gardens" which were to collect vegetables (U.S. History). This helped tremendously to collect good, cheap produce. As you can see, the availability of goods and shops during this time were very hard to get with the government's policies during this time, but both the Italian and United States societies made contributions at home to help the