Drew Ferrara
Cinderella Man Essay
5/1/2014
The
1930s was a time filled with great poverty and struggle. A large sum of people
in the United States lost a huge portion, if not all, of their money and assets
during this time, allowing it to become known as the Great Depression. The
number of citizens who were without a job and money to buy the basic necessities
was unimaginable. The majority of the families characterized as the
working-class had to apply for government relief in order to not starve to
death. One can obtain a sense of understanding of the struggles experienced in
the Great Depression by watching Cinderella Man, where James J. Braddock shows
extreme perseverance in order to support his family.
In
the beginning, it shows Braddock’s life before the depression, which seems
luxurious and worry-free. Then as the time passes, Braddock’s life transforms
from being satisfying into a life filled with constant worrying and adversity.
This aspect of the movie shows the extreme change felt by families who were
doing well before the depression and barely getting by only a few years later.
This shows how the depression hit America at such a quick rate. As the story
continues, Braddock is seen standing behind the locked gates of the docks,
where he is trying to get a job. This exemplifies the 15 million Americans who
were unemployed in the early 1930s, who often had to get up early every morning
to try and obtain a one-day job, such as Braddock did at the docks. Large
groups of men would often crowd the gates, waiting to be chosen, however, only
five or six would ever be chosen. Therefore, the movie accurately portrays the
struggles people encountered when trying to get a job. The dozens or even a hundred
men who were not chosen causes the viewer to question how they survive with no
money. As shown in the movie, such as when Braddock cannot get a job, many
people had to apply to get government relief, a program which was set up by
Franklin Roosevelt to help people survive the difficult times of the Great
Depression.
Another
major struggle for people alive during the Great Depression was that they often
had to send off their kids to relatives because they could not afford to take
care of them. This is accurately seen in the movie when Braddock comes home to
find that his children’s beds are empty because his wife sent them away. As
seen in the movie, this was extremely difficult for parents because, first,
they were without their kids and, second, it showed that they had failed their
family and not been able to support and take care of them. This often made
people very depressed to the extent that they often gave up on trying. This can
be seen in the movie in the character known as Mike, not because he lost his
kids but due to the stress of the depression in general. Due to the depression,
Mike begins to drink and gamble to such an extent that he almost hits his wife
in front of a bunch of kids and parents. This shows that Mike, like a lot of
people, was trying to get over the depression by drinking away his sorrows and
not pushing to get a job or make money any way he could.
In
general, the average person can see the common difficulties felt by families in
the 1930s by watching Cinderella Man. For instance, when the Braddock’s family
is low on milk, the mother fills the remainder of the jar up with water to try
and make the milk last longer. This shows that things we take for granted
today, such as a small gallon of milk, were a uncommon luxury in the 1930s
which a large amount of families could not afford. Also, like Braddock’s family
in the movie, a lot of families were not able to pay the electric bill and thus
had to have a fire in their house in order to stay warm and cook the little
food they had. Because most families had little to no food, they would often
steal food from their neighbors or stores, which Braddock scolds his son for
doing because he does not want his son to cheat his way through life. Due to
the striking similarities of the lifestyle seen in the movie and the lives of
the actual people who suffered during the 1930s, I believe that Cinderella Man
is an excellent movie to watch if you seek to learn about the Great Depression.
Sources:
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