Middle School Thesis - Charlie Chaplin in History and in the United States.

Charlie Chaplin, who was born in 1889 in London and died in 1977 in Vevey,

Switzerland, was a British actor, director and cinematographic producer, also known

with the name of Charlot (his true name was Charles Spencer Chaplin). The character

of Charlot was and is still considered the symbol of the wounded humanity for entire

generations. In 1921, he made the movie “The Kid”, pathetic story about the

relationship between Charlot and a kid, in 1923, he produced the movie “A Woman in

Paris”, which demonstrated the great directorial mastery of Chaplin. In 1925, he

created “The Gold Rush”, in 1928, “The Circus”, in 1931, “City Lights”, in 1947,

“Monsieur Verdoux”, in 1952, “Limelight” and in 1957, “A King in New York”. But the

most important are “Modern Times” (1936) and “The Great Dictator” (1940). While in

the 1st movie, in between funny and touching scenes, he talks about when the first

machines were invented, in the 2nd movie he talks about two of the greatest

dictatorships: German Nazism and Italian Fascism. In the movie “Modern Times”,

Chaplin refers to the vicissitudes of an unlucky ex-worker to touch the argument of

the Industrial Revolution, which brought the man to become a simple appendix of the

machine: no particular skills were required from him, and for this reason were

employed in the factories even kids, women and the outcasts, who had very heavy

shifts for very low salaries. The factories were moved from near the rivers to near

the mines, and all the workers had to move near the factories, giving birth to cities

out of nowhere or changing the old cities: first, palaces were constructed, then

houses and palaces in all possible spaces (gardens, yards, parks and plazas). The

Industrial Revolution brought to the birth of the Capitalists, entrepreneurs who

invested their capitals in productive activities, especially in the United States of

America, which had an enormous technological progress thanks to the great riches of

their immense territory. In the movie “The Great Dictator”, Chaplin makes fun of the

Italian Fascism and the German Nazism, both totalitarian regimes that thought of

realizing a new political and social order by centralizing the power in the hands of a

leader and to effectuate an inflexible control both on the population and on the

means of communication through a hierarchic structure. The National Socialist Party

lead by Adolf Hitler was a repressive and violent party, with the teams of protection

called SS at its service. The Nazist regime was called Third Reich (Empire) and from

its beginnings it increased the hostility of the German popular classes, which were in

very difficult economic conditions, against the Jews, who were instead dealers,

freelancers, bankers and working people persecuted on the basis of false inconsistent

accusations. In 1936, Hitler made a deal with Mussolini, the so-called Rome-Berlin

Axis, to which adhered Japan too (the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis). Subsequently, on

May 22nd 1939, Hitler made the “Pact of Steel” with Mussolini, which said that in the

case in which Germany entered a war, Italy had to intervene on its side. At this point,

with the alliance of Italy and Japan, Hitler was convinced that he wouldn’t have met

any obstacles, and, in 1938, he invaded Austria, the Sudeten and, in 1939,

Czechoslovakia, which were annexed to Germany. Subsequently, Hitler, on September

1st 1939, invaded Poland, claiming the Gdansk Corridor. At the same time, the URSS,

which was bounded to Germany by a Non-Aggression Pact, stipulated in 1939, was

attacking Poland on its own and it already conquered Finland and the Baltic Republics.

World War II had started!! Hitler and Mussolini rapidly conquered the States and

even defeated the British, until the United States of America intervened on the

British side, who made the “Atlantic Pact” with the Americans: so it started the fall

of Nazi-Fascism. The United States are situated in Northern America, they confine

with Mexico to the south, with Canada to the north, with the Atlantic Ocean to the

east and with the Pacific Ocean to the west. It’s part of the United States even the

peninsula of Alaska, which confines with the Pacific Ocean to the west and south,

with Canada to the east and with the glacial Arctic Sea to the north. The United

States are a federal state, composed by 50 States member, included Hawaii, which

are situated in the Pacific Ocean. The capital of the Union is Washington. The

president is elected directly by the population and he/she exercises the executive

power. Each State has its own Constitution which completes the Federal Constitution.

In each State, the president’s corresponding figure is the governor. The American

culture is born from the “melting pot”, that is, from the mix of all European, African

and Asian races: there are Afro-Americans (11% of the population), the Hispanics

(9%), the Asians, the Jews and the European descendants, who were, and still are

today, the dominant group of the American population, and the major political charges

were always assigned and still are assigned to them. There are actually two

exceptions: Colin Powell and Condoliza Rice (States secretaries former and actual). In

fact, many of the so-called “whites” consider Africans and even the other races of

“color” inferiors: this is racism! In the ‘500s, right after America’s discovery, the

Africans were slaves in the cotton fields and, seeing that their “masters” were afraid

that talking to each other they could conspire or organize a riot, they removed to the

African slaves the right to speak, but they granted the right to sing. Their masters

shamelessly declared that slavery was a mean to get them closer to religion, and they

made them believe that if they wanted to earn Paradise, they had to live a life in the

name of suffering. Then, they granted them to practice the white’s religion, that is

Christianity. After the first vicissitude, they gave birth to the “Work Songs”. They

then united the “Work Songs” to religion, originating the “Spirituals”, the religious

songs. And so Jazz was born! The first cultural form of a population which had to

fight to conquer the most basic of rights: the dignity of human beings. Jazz is the

fusion of four main sources: work songs; religious songs; blues; ragtime. Regarding the

mix of races, the American population is actually a set of genetic kits derived from

the union of individuals of mixed populations which colonized America and so with all

the hereditary traits which were transmitted, united, selected and showed following

the genetic laws which regulate the hereditary traits.