Charlie Chaplin Research Paper

Sir Tramp
(YO REMEMBER TO PUT IN A HEADER THING)Films are the most widely enjoyed artform in the modern era; they give beautiful scenery, gripping stories, enthralling characters and, above all, they teach to feeling. Though mMuch of what is felt may not be around were it not for a specific pioneer in this artistic industry. His name was Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin, but his more recognizable stage name was Charlie Chaplin. At a glance he may seem to be just a funny performer, but his material would change the world forever. Charlie chaplin is the most significant filmmaker in history. (Add why by stating what you talk about in your body paragraphs)
Chaplin was born to be in front of an audience, literally. His parents were the highly

acclaimed musical stage performers, Hannah Chaplin and Charles Chaplin Sr. His father felt strain of performing day after day along with having to support a child, and he fell into alcoholism. Chaplin’s His mother tried to keep him Charlie and his half brother taken care of after the father left never to be seen again. One an unlucky night, of performing her solo, her voice broke on stage.; Sshe was so mortified by the fact that she just stood there, frozen. In a moment of desperation Charlie was sent out to entertain the crowd, when he was five years old. He unexpectedly did quite well to get the people laughing by telling jokes, doing pantomime and mimicking his mother's panic, whom was still on stage at the time. Charlie was a hit on stage and performed more and more, but his success was short lived. His mother's voice had never come back and she became deeply depressed at the loss of her independence and career. She soon was deemed too mentally unstable to care for children and was forced into an asylum. Charlie and his brother then became street urchins, working at poorhouses and dancing on the streets for coins (Pendergast 179, 222).
Having grown up in poverty, he well understood what it was like and how difficult it is to escape. He used this knowledge of the horrid conditions of the world to create his most famous character, a poor little Tramp. Tramp is the most often used character by Chaplin specifically because he so well symbolizes the struggles of the working class and homeless. There iswas a certain level of humanity that strikes audiences when they see this character strive to live the American dream of having a wife, a house and just feeling generally secure in his life. In rReaching for these goals, he provides the motivation of every single joke he goes through. He often portrays the poor social class as the heroes of his stories:, his character, the tramp, being homeless yet always saving the day, and the poor barber standing up to the brutalizing of the elderly in Tthe Ggreat Ddictator. Even in his film, Modern Times, the primary struggle of all the side characters is that of harsh poverty, having both the antagonist bully and the protagonist love-interest stealing food just to survive. Even the father of the love interest serves as example for the horrors of impoverishment, “protesting the against the injustices brought by the Great Depression, only to be shot dead by the Police” (Errington).
Living in London, the epicenter of the industrial age, during the rise of the industrial factory, Charlie knew all too well how the common man was being treated as less than human by the employers and owners of these factories.

He made entire movies and wrote speeches specifically focussed on the troubles brought out by these environments. Modern Times was a film focusing on the struggles of the common man trying to keep up with the demands of living in an industrialized city. His character starts out with a job on an assembly line but hasafter only minutes to rest between shifts. He is at his limit, working so hard he can’t stop his assembly line motion, when the employer cancels lunch breaks and starts feeding his workers with a robot while they work. Fed up by the constant need to keep up with the inhuman pace of his job and the theft of his dignity, of which there was originally very little, he storms out of the factory. Chaplin even stated in the forward to the picture that it "is a story of industry, of individual enterprise—humanity crusading in the pursuit of happiness” (Nugent 1). This theme of the common workers being dehumanized and treated as nothing more than the machines they assemble is the driving narrative offor thise entire movie. This way of modeling the struggles caused by the industrial revolution has shaped Chaplin's entire

career.
During the rise of Communism and the start of World War II, his films became increasingly political and controversial. Not only did he include political ideals in his work but he actively responded to world events that directly addressed him and his ideas. In Germany, Hitler banned all of his work because he thought Charlie was a Jew and in his propaganda book, The Jews Are Watching You, Chaplin was labelled a ‘disgusting Jew acrobat’” (Jacobs). He responded to Hitler by making a film with the intent of lampooning Hitler's government, systems, and goal, while still undermining the beliefs of racial purity that swept the nation of Germany. In this movie, Chaplin's satire of Hitler, Hynkel, made foolish decision after foolish decision and only cared for the initiative of increasing his own power to that of a global emperor. He also made a direct attack on the threats of being accused of Communism in America, resulting in him being barred off from the country until the 70s. In 1952, when Chaplin was on vacation with his wife Oona, he received a letter from immigration authorities stating they “had orders from the attorney general to deny Chaplin a re-entry visa unless he came in for questioning regarding his alleged Communist ties”(Chaplin 263). This attack came in the form of a scene where he showed that there was a large Communist demographic in America and that they consist of hard working laborers. This scene lasted for all but a minute, but at the time when the red scare had started to infect the societal mentality, even acknowledging the existence of Communism could result in the loss of any future career. Making his film satirizing both oppressive governments and the taboo of Communism resulted in Chaplin being exiled from country for decades until he returned in 1972 to accept a special academy award.