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How to Find Happiness Within Unhappiness
Introduction
This research paper discusses how to find happiness within unhappiness and will be analyzing different sources including films, song lyrics, and literary works to create a better understanding of the topic.
Three films
There are three film characters, Charlie Chaplin, George Bailey, and Steven Conrad, and the films are Modern Times, It’s a Wonderful Life and Pursuit of Happiness. This paper will start with the discussion of “Modern times” in which the leading role is played by Charlie Chaplin. This movie portrays the situation during the period of industrialization, which was the time when people had no opportunities and lacked economic resources. People who were provided with maximum economic resources and opportunities of earning were not being provided with a safe working environment. There were also several social problems. One example from the movie 'Modern Time' is the social class system. People from the lower class were exposed to an unhealthy working environment with lower wages.
The second movie, ‘It's a wonderful life’, depicts how an individual learns to survive when he has nothing. In this film, James Stewart commits suicide following which, the Guardian Angel was initiated to protect homeless people. During the great depression, people were not able to find a job. Those who had a job, could not survive in the organizations because of poor economic growth. By that time, there were no business opportunities. People had no sources of earning and were not happy with their standards of living. In this movie, the leading role takes an initiative for providing the banking services by compromising his dreams. He decided to facilitate others in finding sources of earnings and transforming their lives by helping them to improve their living standards. Hence, this shows how an individual makes an impact on others positively, and how few people make others and themselves happy in unhappy situations.
The Pursuit of Happiness also depicts the period of the Great Depression. During this time, people had to suffer from an economic crisis, hunger and unemployment. Only a few people were able to fulfill their needs and get resources that would make them happy. People who did not have enough resources, struggled to find sources and make themselves happy by fulfilling their desires. This film depicts that people may live a happy life even when the situation maybe not supportive.
Man’s Abilities
Over time, human beings learned to cope with the situations either by making compromises or acquiring resources. A man may be facing hardship, he may lose a dear one or may struggle for food, and shelter at times. In these three movies, there is a lesson for all people who were not able to deal with difficult times, were not able to find peace in difficult times, and transform their unhappy moments into happiness. To deal with unhappiness, a man initially tries to search for those resources through which he may find happiness. For example, Charlie Chaplin was not able to find a job, therefore he preferred to stay in jail because jail provided him food. The three characters went through hardships in their life and emotional instabilities, but they tried to cope with the situations and enjoy their life. One character lost his father at an early age, was left alone and had to go through poverty, but later on, he tried to transform his sorrows into happiness. He transformed his sorrows by making compromises and starting a bank. This initiative of the bank provided job opportunities, and generated earning sources for people who were not able to kill their hunger.
What Gets People Through Difficult Times?
The great depression is also known as the "dishonest decade" because many people lost their loved ones due to hunger, poverty, and socio-economic crisis. During the decade of depression, people were at least able to make themselves happy in various ways. Music was one of these ways which made people forget about their sorrows. The great musicians of that time gave people touching music, which had a positive influence, however they were able to think optimistically, while they would get motivation to be happy in the situations of sorrow. People would also dance to transform their unhappy situations into happy situations. When it comes to difficult time and what people get from these difficult times, then it means that a person is umcertain and that person struggles to search for those sources, which may help him/her to be happy. In a difficult time, human behaviors change, their sad voices may be heard, and people who are not happy may not feel comfortable (Gibsone). While there a people may go through psychological issues, and it depends on the situations, however happy people sound with high energy, and they may be healthy psychologically. During difficult times people search for sources to make themselves happy, find peace by listening to music, and they also find dance as a source to find happiness. During the Great Depression, people were not able to get maximum resources for their survival, and to transform their unhappy moments into happy moments. There were some major roles in the literary work who were able to feel the pain of people, they, therefore, tried to make people happy with their happy and motivational songs, poems, and films (Lehman).
Gender Issues: Happiness of Men and Women
During the era of the 1930s, women were able to get jobs and get employed, but their wages were not good enough. Since, most of the women used to work in factories, and they were also expected to work at their homes, all of the activities at their homes were supposed to be done by women. Women, during the 1930s, were not treated as equal to men in both workplaces and their homes. The Great Depression made a huge impact on women, they had to go through psychological changes, and their behaviors were completely changed because of unequal treatment and burden in roles (Gender Roles of the 1930s). In contrast, men enjoyed all of the societal and economic privileges as compared to women. Wages for men were higher and they also did not work double in house chores as women had to.
During the period of the 1940s, women were involved in struggles, such as searching for jobs, work in the factories, unequal treatment at their workplaces, and double gendered roles (Changing Gender Roles - 1940's). In the United States, 25 percent of women made a place in the jobs, however, their jobs were not stable. There was a concept, which emerged during this era that, "women did not work", and women who were working considered themselves as "homemakers" (Chandler). No one was ready to recognize contributions by women in the workforce, there were more biases towards women during the Great Depression. With the time passage, gender roles changed, women became leading roles in their homes, jobs were replaced by women, entered to nursing sector, the ration of food, and other domestic supplies were increased. New Acts were made to ensure the child's safety, and working mothers. The Acts were Lack of child care facilities, and the mother's movement (Changing Gender Roles - 1940's). However, new issues emerged, women were teased by men, sexual harassment cases were reported, and men did not help their wives in their household work.
Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple was a popular personality who was photographed the most, and she also had several admirers. Her admirers included black laborers and people from all over the United States. She contributed to the rights of women in that era, and she was popular as a diplomat at that time. Shirley was a women representative, who spent her life for the development and recognition of women (Friedwald). Shirley was the only girl who influenced a larger population, and she cannot be replaced by any other personality because she tried to have a debate on sensitive topics like women servants who were not recognized in different societies (Kasson). She was able to help several people not only women but also other genders through her work.
Three Films And Man’s Ability To Achieve Happiness
In these three movies (Modern times-1936, it's a wonderful life-1946 and the pursuit of happiness-2006), different roles portrayed different methods including movies and songs through which they transformed their sorrows into happiness. They also helped other people to become happy with their characters and their roles, they played their part as a responsible part of their societies. They created job opportunities for those who were not able to find economic and financial resources. These allowed people living under the poverty line to improve their living standards and fulfill their basic needs.
Conclusion
Man can transform unhappiness into happiness by fighting back with the hardships or giving up. During the Great Depression, people were not able to get jobs, resources to improve their living standards, and improve their quality of life. Several populations lived under poverty and their standards of life were very bad. During this era, some people gave up on their dreams, so that, they may transform unhappy moments of others to happy moments. The films, songs, and literary work by a few people helped people survive and transform their all sorrows to happiness. They helped people by motivating and encouraging them, and they also helped them by creating opportunities for earnings.
References
ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Chandler. “Choice ReadingCMT: Women 1930s Through 1940s.” Choice ReadingCMT, 5 May 2013, http://choicereading-cmt.blogspot.com/2013/05/women-1930s-through-1940s.html.
Changing Gender Roles - 1940’s. https://bgrip.weebly.com/1940s.html. Accessed 14 Dec. 2019.
David, Lehman. "A Depression-Era Playlist." Smithsonian, 2009, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/a-depression-era-playlist-143922723/.
Friedwald, Will. “Shirley Temple: A Child and Beacon of the Great Depression.” Wall Street Journal, 12 Feb. 2014. www.wsj.com, https://www.wsj.com/articles/shirley-temple-a-child-and-beacon-of-the-great-depression-1392243486.
Gender Roles of the 1930’s. https://sites.google.com/site/genderrolesofthe1930s/. Accessed 14 Dec. 2019.
Gibsone, Harriet. “How Pharrell Williams Captured the Essence of Happiness.” The Guardian, 8 Apr. 2014. www.theguardian.com, https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2014/apr/08/pharrell-williams-happy-single.
Kasson, John F. The Little Girl Who Fought the Great Depression. https://wwnorton.com/books/The-Little-Girl-Who-Fought-the-Great-Depression/. Accessed 14 Dec. 2019.
What Happened in the 1930s Featuring News, Popular Culture, Prices and Technology. http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/1930s.html. Accessed 14 Dec. 2019.
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