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.