Blog 14

Hannah Cho

English 103

Professor Luke

Major Research Paper

November 13, 2010

The Lifestyle during 1940s in New York City

            During the 1940’s United States of America seems to be blooming with new technology and beginning and the end of a war.  During this time, World War II already started where we went to war with Japan, the rise of the women working labor, the end of depression, the start of new types of automobiles, African American weren’t being discriminated anymore and had the right to vote, and lastly the beginning of Cold War.  New York City seemed to be the center of the business of entertainment which seems like it didn’t affect the economy or the financial status during the years of war.  The Movie Miracle on 34^th Street which I will be comparing with showed how during the 1940’s, the people that was portraying in the movie depicts on shopping for the holiday and advertising Macys market.   This movie portrayed life in the New York City realistically to the economic and financial existence at that time.

            In the years of the 1940s, America altered in various ways in the economy and from the financial market.   During December of 1945, Franklin D. Roosevelt was the current president at this time which he led our country go to war with Japan.   When the Japanese bombed us in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; it killed hundreds of civilians, soldiers and medical workers.  Women weren’t allowed to work before, because they were titled to stay home and take care of their man and kids.   Because of the amount of estimated population during that time in the U.S.A, there was an estimate of one hundred and thirty two million people at this time.   While men were being drafted to go to war, there weren’t enough men to stay to work so they hired women.    According to the statistics, there seem to be fewer men and more women.  The populations of men were six million people, and women were about seven million people.    After they’ve came back from the war, women were to go back to their men and take care of them.  During World War II, this was the start of the working women labor.   Also, racism started to disappear because white people had a huge animosity towards African Americans for a while, but during the WWII people got over that phase because African American were being patriotic and worked with the soldiers during the Japanese war.   Therefore, it seemed like the African Americans got out of the box where people stopped discriminating and had the privilege to vote.  Prior to WWII, there was this Great Depression, where people lost jobs, prices decreased because there weren’t any income in any business and people suffering from the crash of the stock market.   There was unemployment of eight million people, which our nation went through a governmental debt of forty three billion dollars.   People with jobs had a minimum wage of forty three cents per hour, which to us might seem a little but during that time it was a decent amount for a living, to buy foods, clothing and other miscellaneous items.   But nowadays, everything seems like its twenty dollars or above, due to our economic situation and the outrage of our debt in our country.   During the war, market started to bloom when people started to buy weapons and other utilities to fight in war.  While we were going through debts and the Great Depression and Wars, New York City seemed to be relaxed about these traumatic events. 

New York City was another city of Hollywood, where there’s entertainment everywhere you go, and celebrities starring in a movie or opening up a Broadway shows.   There is a movie called Miracle on 34^th Street which took place in the heart of midtown Manhattan, which depicted the lifestyle during 1947.    The New York Times wrote an article called “Miracle on 34th Street, With Edmund Gwenn in the Role of Santa Claus, at Roxy -- 'Web' at Loew's Criterion” written by a journalist name Bosley Crowther; which his commentary about the movie was that Kris Kringle was this old guy who needed help.   Crowther didn’t understood why Walker still let Kringle work when he kept telling everyone that he was Santa Claus.    Crowther also stated about the movie as being “commercialism” because everything in this movie was business.   I felt like this movie advertised more on Macys, Bellevue Hospital and the U.S. post office.   I pinpointed Bellevue Hospital because, when Kringle had an argument with Sawyer who gave the psychological test when Kringle first started; Kringle got frustrated and hit Sawyer in the head with his cane which forced Kringle to go this hospital.   Even though, Sawyer could have said he could take him to a “Hospital” he implies and says Bellevue Hospital.    Personally, I feel like this movie is being like “commercialism” because the fact that this movie advertised a lot with Macys.  This movie made viewers feel like since it was the Christmas month and Macys had this traditional Thanksgiving parade; us people were suppose to go buy Christmas gifts in Macys.   I also agreed with Crowther opinion stating that this movie was like a business movie, because almost everything was being advertised in this movie.   There was this one shot where this lady brought her daughter to see Santa Claus and there was this one item she wanted but didn’t sell in Macys, so Kringle tells the daughter’s mother to go buy it down the street by another toy store.   The lady made a complaint to Mr. Macy, the owner of Macys, that she didn’t like the fact that Kringle told her and her daughter where to buy this certain toy, and she specifically came to Macys to shop here for her daughter. 

Kris Kringle who plays as Santa Claus plays a leading role in this movie, which gets caught up in thinking that he is the real Santa.   This situation made Doris Walker, who hired Kringle, thought that he might be suffering from some mental issue, but later in the movie, he and other witnesses proved that he really was Santa Claus.  Throughout the movie, it drew some aspects that were interesting about how the movie portrayed their financial status.    For the duration of this movie, even after the Depression and during the wars; people in this movie didn’t show that they were suffering from all these events.   At the beginning of the movie when all the people were getting ready to walk the Thanksgiving parade, Kringle finds a drunk Santa and complaints it to Walker, Walker fired the drunk Santa and hires Kringle which made it seem like hiring people wasn’t a problem at that time.   Also, there was a scene where Kringle makes an investment on a house for Walker and her daughter at the end of the movie.   This scene didn’t really make sense to me because of the fact that he was working in Macy’s to be a part time Santa Claus for the holiday, and working for a minimum wage salary which was about forty three cents an hour; couldn’t understand how he was able to have enough money to buy a house and buy other children’s toys for Christmas.    Also had a lot of scenes where he had made other purchases for other kids.   And since it was the month of Christmas; you see crowds of people shopping for Christmas gifts in Macys.   This movie portrayed how the life of New Yorkers went on their daily lives; celebrating Thanksgiving, attending the Thanksgiving parade by Macy, shopping for Christmas and cooking meals for the holiday.   Even though based on the statistics during the 1940s, the population of people that didn’t work was about eight hundred and twenty thousand people; which didn’t show in the movie that some of the people were suffering without money and food during the holiday.

            In reality in New York City, going back to the 1940’s, there seem to be a lot of openings for entertainment.   For example:  Walt Disney Pinocchio opened, sports for the first time started to televise such as hockey, boxing and college basketball.   Opera was televised as well as; Charlie Chaplin who invested and opened two theaters in NYC making it accessible to people to watch some of his comedies; even Citizen Kane opened and got a hit from his audience.    Although, people population was about one hundred and thirty two million in the United States; in NYC approximately there were thirteen million people with an employed people of five million people.   The MTA was still NYC’s way of transportation; during December of 1946, there was a report of 8.8 million people riding the subway, but within those two years, NYC subway doubled their amount from five cents to ten cents a ride.  This increase in prices with the MTA shows how the financial status and the economy were starting to flourish and get passed the Great Depression.   Other accessories such as a Polaroid camera valued around ninety dollars, floor lamp was around ten dollars, and shoes went from five to six cents a pair.  

Miracle on 34^th Street showed some aspects on the style of living during the time of the movie.  During the time of this movie, Miracle on 34^th street made a gross income of three million dollars.  From my uncle’s resource, movie theatre tickets use to cost forty cents a ticket during 1946, so in order for the movie to make three million dollar gross income with a forty cents a ticket, there should be seven million five hundred thousand audiences attending this movie.   From thousands of unemployed people and millions of employed people in NYC, the movie didn’t seem to portray the non working class.  In this movie, there was a young boy where he is seen cleaning the locker room and explaining to Kringle how he loves to clean floors for work.  This illustrates that even low class workers had jobs.  

Miracle on 34^th street represented and illustrated the original life in New York City in 1947.    While America closed their curtain from these disturbing events such as the World War 2 and the Great Depression, people seemed to go on their daily lives and work and enjoy the NYC entertainment life.   Living in New York City from past to present seems not much of a change because of the business industry.    Every scene in this movie was like an advertisement for viewers to go shop at.   This movie portrays life in the NYC to be realistic because the movie showed how everyone in the movie who came out to the parade would do things that everyday people would do and enjoy themselves, and also shop at shopping malls.   In most part the movie, it depicted some unrealistic part but wasn’t too sure if Kringle purchased these items.   At the end when he purchased the house for Walker, they went in and saw Kringle’s exact cane that he left right by the fire place, which the metaphor seemed like he bought the house that Walker’s daughter wanted.   Although, people suffered from terrible anguishes during the 1940s; the statistics showed the unemployment in America of eight million people in 1940, five million people were employed in NYC during the same year.   This movie showed that people came out to watch this movie and went on their daily lives just like how the movie portrayed with the actors.

Bibliography

Sixteenth census of the United States: 1940. Washington D.C: , 1943. Web. 17 Nov 2010. <http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/33973538v2p5.pdf>.

Goodwin, Sue. "American Cultural History." (1999): n. pag. Web. 17 Nov 2010. <http://kclibrary.lonestar.edu/decade40.html>.

Crowther, Bosley. "New York Times." Miracle on 34th Street (1947): n. pag. Web. 17 Nov 2010. <http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?_r=2&res=9401E7DB103EE13BBC4D53DFB066838C659EDE&scp=3&sq=miracle%20on%2034%20street&st=cse>.

About the White House. Washington D.C: , Web. 17 Nov 2010. <http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/harrystruman>.

"The 1940's Introduction." 20th Century American Sources (2010): n. pag. Web. 17 Nov 2010. <http://decades.sirs.com/decadesweb/decades/do/decade?urn=urn%3Asirs%3AUS%3BTOPIC%3B0000017813>.

"1940's shoe." Web. 17 Nov 2010. <http://www.costumes.org/classes/uafcostumeshop/pages/costumehistcollect/1940sshoes.htm>.

Chart 1

"Logarithm of US Consumer Price Index (average 1982-1984 = 100 percent)." Measuring Worth. Web. 17 Nov 2010. <http://www.measuringworth.com/graphs/graph.php?year_from=1940&year_to=1949&table=US&field=DOLLAR&log=LOG>.

Chart 2

"US Population (in millions)." Measuring Worth. Web. 17 Nov 2010. <http://www.measuringworth.com/graphs/graph.php?year_from=1940&year_to=1949&table=US&field=POPULATION&log=>.

Blog 13

Living in a world where there’s no privacy and law enforcement always intruding your personal space can be disturbing.  A world where police are considered of doing “Gods” work, where you can stop crimes before it happens and put them in a mental prison, which is called Precrime; is what it’s about from the movie Minority Report.   Precrime fights criminals which are taken care of by advanced securities that are doing God’s work.

            Waking up in an environment where crime doesn’t exist and which law enforcements are constantly budding into your house, can feel like living in an illusion.   John Anderton, a character from Minority Report was a victim from the Precrime society where the law tried to cease him from committing a crime.  Stopping criminals with a Precrime technology seem too good to be true, and I think our law should invest in this.  Most people die almost every day because of murder.  It upsets me to see when kids get caught in this violence and die from rape, gun shots, stabbing and strangling.  Acknowledging that crime don’t exist in this world can be comforting, which can be a safe environment for kids to grow up in.  I think Precrime shouldn’t be all about murders, it should prevent prostitution, drug lords, suicides and homicides.  Precrime can change criminals act before they take their actions; just like what Anderton did.  When he found out that he was a victim of this Precime, it showed that his action was to kill Leo Crow who murdered his son Sean.   It almost seemed like he was afraid to get in those mental prison; and to avoid this he changed his action and didn’t murder Leo.  Precrime can be a way where it can scare criminals and chose not to do it.  An article “Free will and determinism in the world of Minority Report” by Michael Huemer gives a great example of how Precrime can help determinism stop your actions, which Anderton did. 

            Interpreting and analyzing multiple reactions to this movie, people thought that the Precrime society were doing God’s work and by stopping criminals in advanced was like living in hell on earth because us humans were taking over and as if God didn’t exist anymore.  Huemer explained that If God sees that we were going to take this certain action, which we know for a fact that this action is going to happen; but there’s another theory which explains that determinism can change people’s (criminals) choices.  Huemer states “determinism requires that all one’s actions be causally determined, but not that the causes be entirely external and not internal.” Personally I feel that this statement is saying that actions are taken by your choice; and because this Precrime technology showed your actions of murdering someone, Anderton’s consciences took over and made his decisions and not murder Crow.  Precrime can benefit our society which can make criminals use the knowledge of determinism; which can block them from taking any vitality. 

            Our country might have the largest security force but why is that people are dying from left to right.  Almost every story on the news is about criminals escaping from a hit and run and from a shooting.  Precrime should exist even if our privacy is no longer available, I would rather give up my privacy just so that people won’t have to worry about their lives whenever they go out.

Special Project: MOMI activity

          The visit to the Museum of Moving Image, I’ve noticed that the first image we saw was a metal spinning image where whenever you spin the wheel it animated.  Throughout the tour, we went from a piece of art where it animated and finished it off with types of machine that started to show colors and image in.  My reaction with all of the arts that we saw was amazing.  The Feral Fount was the most interesting art because of how it came to life when it spun real fast.  Another interesting art was an antique penny arcade, illustrated and written by Charlie Chaplin.  I’ve learned that back in the day, people were being entertained by going to a penny arcade to watch a movie. 

          I’ve liked how the museum introduced the first creation of a camera and television.  It was interesting how the first television screen was like two inches and then throughout the years, the screen looked bigger and wider.  It also included a radio and a recorder, so that people can record music from the radio. 

outline for major research paper

Thesis:   This movie portrayed life in the New York City realistically to the economic and financial existence at that time.

• how life was like during the 1940s such as WWII, racism, economy and shopping centers.
• macys status during the great depression.
• movie portraying realistically to the movie.
• women started to work while we went to war with Japan.

 ixteenth census of the United States: 1940. Washington D.C: , 1943. Web. 17 Nov 2010. <http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/33973538v2p5.pdf>.

Goodwin, Sue. "American Cultural History." (1999): n. pag. Web. 17 Nov 2010. <http://kclibrary.lonestar.edu/decade40.html>.

Crowther, Bosley. "New York Times." Miracle on 34th Street (1947): n. pag. Web. 17 Nov 2010. <http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?_r=2&res=9401E7DB103EE13BBC4D53DFB066838C659EDE&scp=3&sq=miracle%20on%2034%20street&st=cse>. 

 

"Macy's, Inc. History." Macy's. Sangby & Eby, n.d. Web. 2 Dec 2010. <http://www.macysinc.com/AboutUs/History/default3.aspx>.

Revision to Essay #2

Illusions, a force depicted in our minds which make us visualize and think that everything around us is perfect. It can be something we seek or desire. An example of a type of an illusion is a hallucination. This is where people can foresee the future we appetite for as seen in the movie, “The Matrix”. The illusion is an excellent idea because not everyone can be fortunate enough to live in high quality standard, so for those that are not able to; they will get a taste of the superior life style.         

 The desire for an illusion can help us create an imaginary world to comfort us. Illusion gives people hope for a better tomorrow and can imprint a pleasant feeling in our soul while living in a luxurious environment. In the human anatomy, when we are feeling satisfied, our brain sends out neurotransmitters called dopamine. This gives us the good and joyous feeling. Living in an illusion can benefit people from their everyday stressful life by making a person imagine a place where a colorful, peaceful world is all we see. From the movie “The Matrix”, living in reality was an illusion, where everything around us wasn’t real. But after a machine is taken off these peoples brain, they come back to reality where all you eat is soup and wear the same clothes. A character from the movie, Cypher, shows how the reality world wasn’t satisfying him because his eyes were craving for the illusion; where he can be pleased with anything that he wanted.  His desire was to live the high class life where he gets to eat steak all day. From the movies perspective of an illusion, the matrix is something we can portray with our senses. Just like Cypher, where his craving for money and food in the illusion world was known to him as reality.  This idea is seen in the “Allegory of The Cave” by Plato, where Socrates describes how the slaves in the cave chose to live in an illusion.

 In the “Allegory of The Cave”, Plato described how slaves were stranded in the cave from childhood. Thus, it led them to be able to never fully comprehend what reality was. They thought that reality and the world only revolved around and in that cave. For instance Socrates states: “the prison-house is the world of sight, the light of the fire is the sun and you will not misapprehend me if you interpret the journey upwards to be.”  But from Socrates perspective, the prisoners were to decide if they wanted to be scorned by others and live with the truth or to live in a lie and be ignorant. As well as to live in an illusion in which the prisoners had already decided to live with. This statement can be compared to the Matrix where Neo first introduces the decision where he needs to decide if he wants to drink the blue pill or the red pill. The blue pill will allow him to go back to the reality world in the illusion, where it can be compared to living with a lie and being ignorant in the illusion. The red pill would consent to finding out the facts about the Matrix, and this can be compared to living by telling the truth and being scorned by others. Socrates also stated: “and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows; and then conceive someone saying to him, that what he saw before was an illusion,” Personally, this statement is that the reality is an illusion. The feeling of being in an illusion can be overwhelming but some people may want to go back to their original way of living. For example, many of us want to live in the shoes of wealthy actors or actresses. Their way of life may be great at first but then other flaws like never being able to go out in public without paparazzi and journalists seeking to catch a glimpse that can destroy your future or even their families that can make us want to be ordinary again. The overall feeling of living rich and being famous can complete our life temporarily which is a good quality to make us feel happy.

Hallucination is what we define as an illusion and what we portray in our brain.  Cypher sees that the reality world was the illusion which pleased him and from “allegory of the cave” Socrates also perceives that reality is an illusion as well. Illusion can also be a fantasy to allow us to see whatever we want to see, but in Cypher’s case anything you plug into your brain resulted with a pleasing sensation. The Matrix best explains the theory because it describes that an illusion is something we see, touch, hear, smell and taste.