American Dream
Chasing After the American Dream
Throughout the course of American history, in the collective mind of the American people it holds the same goal. Promised by the nation’s forefathers, that no matter what you are or where you are from, the effort one distributed will always be repaid. However, as time evolves, America faces the cruelness of capitalism and the statement that “all men are made equal” does not necessarily imply the equal opportunity of life. In the Modern Times, Charlie Chaplin, with his ingenious idea expressing the sarcasm behind entertainment, revealed the sad truth in the modern capitalist society that changed the admiration toward pure capitalism into disappointment. That is: the American Dream of the capitalists are built upon the oppression and exploiting of their workers, that it has become the American Nightmare for most of the decent hard-working labor class Americans.
Chaplin used the scenes of a crew of sheep moving into the barn, and then gradually changes into a bunch of workers walking out of the subway station, as a metaphor indicating the workers as mindless animals, that under the control of the capitalists, they are only to be used and exploited. And as the workers enter into the factory, the giant machines in the factory are ten times bigger than the real men, implying that these little workers are being oppressed by the huge machines.
The impression of the difference between the “haves” and the “have-nots” has already been planted in our head by Chaplin in the very first scenes in the factory. The president of the steel factory sits in his office, drinking the coffee that his secretary brought him, and occasionally watches his workers working from the surveillance camera. On the other hand, the workers have to work restlessly to an extent that they do not have the right to take a five-minute break smoking in the bathroom, and repeating the same motion as if they were automatons. Essentially...
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