“The Gold Rush” a Film by Charlie Chaplin Essay

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The Gold Rush with Charlie Chaplin is a comedy movie which depicts the life of people with different interests, even though the initial purpose is absolutely different. The movie discusses the times when people were possessed with the Klondike Gold Rush. Somebody managed to gain their aim, others remained with nothing, still, the wish to become rich in one minute showed human real faces. This movie is presented in the class devoted to the Roaring Twenties which is not the surprise. Wishing to get everything by means of Gold Rush, people forgot about everything.

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The failure to find gold made many people return home with nothing. The immigration to the USA with the desire to get a better life may also be connected with the movie, even though people did not search for the gold there. The USA was considered as the place where human dreams could come true. Therefore, those people who were on the lower levels of the social stage had an opportunity to leave everything they had (as they owned absolutely nothing) and move to America to search for better life. The society gave many opportunities for this. Therefore, The Gold Rush with Charlie Chaplin may be considered as the argumentative presentation of the social division with the reference to the truth of human choice and preferences. People are those who they are and the desire to change something may lead to nothing if they do not want to change their social position.

Human belief that there is the place where people live better, that he class differentiation may become better for them in another place is one of the main driving forces of human actions. Charlie Chaplin in The Gold Rush went to the Yukon to take part in the Klondike Gold Rush. He was guided by the social rush. Many people went and he believed that if all people make a decision to go there, he had also to go there. The problem of social ideology is revealed. The same situation happened during the immigration from Europe to America before the years of the Great Depression in 19630s. People searched for better life and they believed that there is another country where they will be comforted. Many people immigrated to America either because of the desire to escape from the persecution or seeking for better opportunities in the financial aspect.

However, it is impossible to change immediately when the board is crossed. The society is similar in all the places. The culture may be different, the traditions and customs may create some difficulties, however, the social division still exists and the inability to change something at the place of the occasional residence will change nothing at the new place. Many people who came to America were sent back homes as they did not fit to the positions which could be offered, or their social belonging could not be considered as appropriate (“Immigration in the early 1900s”). The immigration which began in 1880s was the desire of the foreigners to find a better life, like the desire of the prospectors to become rich by means of finding too much gold.

Karl Marx said in one of his written works, “The world was not generic Man, but men; and of men, classes of men. Men differed because of their class position. And truths were class truths. All truths, thus, were masks, or partial truths, but the real truth was the revolutionary truth. And this truth was rational” (Marx 310) and this is one of the most specific quotes which may be related to the movie The Gold Rush with Charlie Chaplin and to the immigration of America of European workers. Karl Marx dwelt upon the society as the gathering of people who live under certain conditions. The economic situation in the country created the society and either the ability or inability of the employees to meet the economical level could be the main reasons for either considering a person a part of the society or not. Those people who managed to understand their place in the society, their part of themselves as the class, those managed to find their place in the world.

The society was always right and only the ability to meet that truth could be considered as the wish of a man to go on the way to better future. The immigration to another country could not save people from despair as they did not look at the fact that having come there they are not going to become the part of the society. The human class remain with them and such people as deemed criminals, strikebreakers, anarchists or carriers of disease could not be considered as others in the light of the new circumstances. There people were to get the class identification and after some particular information was known about them – people had to agree that no matter whether they live the class belonging and social opinion remains the same.

The relation of the Marx’s quote about the social truth and the mask of another truth to The Gold Rush with Charlie Chaplin may be considered through the understanding of the main character about his place in the society. Being encouraged by the Klondike Gold Rush the Tramp goes to the place when hundreds of people dream to become rich. However, having met several complications on his may, being sent to the dangerous circumstances because of gold and the atmosphere of calm and comfort, the Tramp chooses the occupation which is better for him. His inner desire to search for gold was explained by the desire of the society. It was the social opinion that all people are to try themselves, however, the further it came out that the Tramp was not presupposed to this. The movie is presented as a comedy. All the conclusions are also drawn from the comic situations from the movie. The Tramp is too naïve to become a prospector. He is too kind and sensitive to see people and their real desires. Therefore, the words “differed because of their class position. And truths were class truths” (Marx 310) can be related to the main character in the movie.

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Looking at the expression of Marx, the movie and the historic situation which happened in America in 1900s, it may be concluded that society, culture, and art are interconnected notions. Those who try to search for the place in another country met just the same attitude as in their own country as the social class is the position of a human being which cannot be changed. The movie and the literature supported this position.

Works Cited

“Immigration in the early 1900s.” EyeWitness to History 2008. Web.

Marx, Karl. “On Ideology.” Social Theory: The MultiCultural and Classic Readings. Ed. Charles Lemert. Boston: Westview Press, 1993. Print.

The Gold Rush. Dir. Charlie Chaplin. New York: United Artists. DVD.

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IvyPanda. 2020. ""The Gold Rush" a Film by Charlie Chaplin." June 4, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-gold-rush-a-film-by-charlie-chaplin/.

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IvyPanda. ""The Gold Rush" a Film by Charlie Chaplin." June 4, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-gold-rush-a-film-by-charlie-chaplin/.

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