The American Dream, not the American Life.
The movie Cinderella Man
was not a good representation of the American life. Through out the movie, a
middle age man was living through the Great Depression with his children and
wife. He had lost everything like many other people. He was poor and could barely
afford to pay for his milk like many other people, but Braddock got everything
that he had lost, back. It also made Baer, Braddock's opponent, seem like a bad
guy and Braddock seem like he could do no wrong. In real life Baer was not a
bad guy. He was fighting for the Jewish people in concentration camps. What
happened to Braddock was one in a million. Actually it was more like one in two
million if you were to count the two million homeless people during the Great
Depression who never caught a break like Braddock.
During the Great
Depression there were approximately two million homeless people, thirteen
million lost their jobs, and one million families lost their farms. The stock
market went down a huge eighty-nine percent compared to its all time high. In
the movie Cinderella man, Braddock gains everything back. It would be incorrect
to say that this movie was not an American life because it was a true
story. But it would be correct to say that this movie was not the American life because it only happened
to one man.
Braddock's friend Jim worked with him on the docks sometimes. Jim's and Braddock's situations were similar at the beginning of the movie. They both had families to support, and both of them had lost everything. Jim did not handle it like Braddock and ended up did in a hooverville. In this part of the movie I think it did a very good job of showing how bad off some people were and it showed how different people handled situations differently. Most people during the Great Depression did not get a steady job with a good pay check until 1939 when World War two began. James J. Braddock did not live the American life, he lived the American dream.
Braddock's friend Jim worked with him on the docks sometimes. Jim's and Braddock's situations were similar at the beginning of the movie. They both had families to support, and both of them had lost everything. Jim did not handle it like Braddock and ended up did in a hooverville. In this part of the movie I think it did a very good job of showing how bad off some people were and it showed how different people handled situations differently. Most people during the Great Depression did not get a steady job with a good pay check until 1939 when World War two began. James J. Braddock did not live the American life, he lived the American dream.
James J. Braddock lived
an American life in the beginning of the movie. He wanted what the rest of the
Americans wanted, to be able to buy some milk for his family and himself, as
well as to be able to control something in his life. In the movie, when he was
going to fight Baer, a man who had killed two people in the ring, his wife
begged him not to go. As she was pleading with him he said "Let me take
them in the ring, at least I know who's hitting me" . Everyone during the
great depression was suffering, even the people who seemed to be doing okay.
When May, Braddock's wife when to see Joe, Braddock's boss she went into his
nice apartment to find that were was nothing in there but a foldaway table and
some chairs. When she looked at him he said "don't let folks see you
down". Everyone suffered during the Great Depression.
In the first few scenes
of the movie, you see Braddock standing in a big crowd outside of a port. He
and thirty other men with families and wives are all trying to get jobs. The
man in charge comes out and picks six guys to work for the day. There are no
jobs available during this time period. And the few jobs people were lucky
enough to get had very low pay. This scene in the movie showed just how
desperate people were during this time. It showed how nothing was available. In
another scene during this movie Braddock's seen steels a salami from a butcher.
He gets caught and when he father asked why he did it he said it was because he
was scared that he would get sent away like his friend because there was not
enough to eat. This was a very good representation of life during the great
depression because it shows the emotional trials people faced when there was
nothing.
The movie Cinderella man
is a good example of how different people were effected in different ways by
the Great Depression. Some hid the fact that they were suffering, some went to
seek help. Some lost everything and died in a hooverville. Most did not find a
way out like Braddock. Braddock was only one American life. A remarkable one
that he worked hard for and deserved, but many people deserved to catch a break
and never got one during the Great Depression, and that is why Braddock lived
the American dream, not the American life.
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