Solvay, a small
village on the western edge of Syracuse, is a working class neighborhood with a
disturbing urban legend. Austrian immigrants after WWI were rumored to utilize
stray animals as a protein source, and “Children in the area were told not to
eat a meal containing rabbit at an Austrian, Tyrolese or Piedmontese home,
because the meat was really cat."[1] My
husband’s late grandfather was a lifelong Solvay resident. He expounded on the
urban legend by informing the family that immigrants may have started the
practice after The Great War, but there were residents of all nationalities
that ate whatever was available to survive during the depression; details were
intentionally omitted with a wink. Between 1923 and 1939 (according to urban
legend) there were no cats in Solvay. As a result of the October 1929 stock
market crash, subsequent bank failures, and the affects of reduced consumer
spending on manufactured goods, the “unemployment
rate rose above 25%.” Drought conditions
impacted American farmers, and though prices were reduced, affordable food was difficult
to obtain.[2] Charles Chaplin’s Modern Times, released in
1936, targeted the painful and widespread socioeconomic issues of the age with
humor and compassion, thereby easing the content’s delivery for audiences of
the day. However, like a 1930’s Nostradamus, Chaplin’s vision (though
exaggerated for comedic effect) of unrealistic employer expectations, unemployment,
and hunger during the modern industrialized times of The Great Depression is eerily
accurate in the post-millennial age. Both then and now, unofficial employer
requirements on employees can be unrealistic and dehumanizing, unemployment is difficult
to remedy and even more problematic to measure, and consistently empty bellies create
a lifetime hunger difficult to sate.
Chaplin’s Modern
Times opens with the metaphorical comparison between sheep being herded to
probable slaughter and factory workers arriving for their shift. For food and perceived
security, both animals and men blindly follow the being in front of them, unaware
of (or disregarding) the possibility of exploitation or death at the hands of an
authoritative power. Charley Chaplin, The Little Tramp, is the black sheep; he
is different and cannot follow blindly indefinitely. Once inside the steel
mill, the master switch is activated, the factory comes to life, and viewers
see how little the steel company president actually does. However, his demands
for increased productivity at employee expense become clear. After repetitive
increases in production speed, Charley is finally able to take a break, but he
is unable to cease the physically repetitive wrench cranking motion after clocking
out. His bathroom break is interrupted when the back wall illuminates into a
technologically advanced telepresence screen. Instead of enjoying a cigarette,
Charley is ordered back to the manufacturing line. His disengaged attitude is
evident as the comedian files his nails, makes fun of his co-worker, and comically
procrastinates before returning to his post. He is then forced, like a guinea
pig, to demonstrate a new automated feeding machine, which was designed to
improve productivity by removing the need for employee lunch breaks. Mechanical
failure causes the machine to feed Charley its own bolts, and it’s no surprise
when the black sheep can take no more. When manufacturing speed
is increased yet again, Charley cannot keep up and rides the conveyor belt to
be sucked into the machine in what appears to be a deliberately submissive act
of “if you can’t beat them, join them.” His sanity is fully lost by the time he
is ejected from the gears; dancing and humor cannot repair the loss of
productivity caused by the incident, nor can it save Charley’s job as he
displays childlike and mentally unstable behavior. Charley has become a liability
and has to go.
Employer
expectations since Charley turned wrenches on the manufacturing line during the
depression have changed, but the message remains the same; I pay you, therefore
I own you. While employees within unions are afforded some protection, those
under an exempt or salary status (that do not qualify for overtime) have become
the new work horses of the post-millennial age. Gone are the days of 9-5. Instead,
salaried workers begin before the office opens and don’t quit when the office
closes; holidays, weekends, vacations, after-hours, and overnights are no
longer considered going above and beyond – it is expected that
work is done whenever it arrives. “Deciding when, where, and how to be
accessible for work is an ongoing challenge, particularly for executives with
families… The pressures and demands on executives are intense,
multidirectional, and unceasing.”[3] Metrics
define success, bathroom
breaks are interrupted with requests from the next stall, and the explanation
of “bio break” is a standard response should a salaried employee inadvertently
miss an unplanned call or office visit. Lunch may not be provided by a machine
yet, but dedicated team players remain at their desks to catch up on emails during
meal times. Disengagement, resentment, and animosity are battled but inevitable
as employees are expected to sacrifice constantly. Even when behavior and
performance surpass expectations, and employee awards are presented, there is
always room for improvement; annual performance coaching is required in the
corporate culture. Furthermore, extreme dedication still does not guarantee job
security. Exempt employees in the post-millennial age have followed Charley
into the machine.
While the post-millennial
work force is affected by mergers, acquisitions, downsizing, and the export of
jobs to other countries, Charley loses his employment with his sanity in the
machine; FMLA was not signed into law until 1993, and the Tramp’s admission
into a mental institution would have cost him his job.[4] Viewers
of Modern Times are not provided with Charley’s back-story, and we can
only assume that he has no family when he is unceremoniously dumped onto the
street after being released from the asylum. Through sheer coincidence, he is
sent to jail; unemployment, potential homelessness, and the widespread hunger
that others experienced during The Great Depression were delayed while his
sentence was served. After his reluctantly received release, Charley’s ever-present
version of Murphy’s Law causes him to be fired from the shipyard. He then meets
Gamin (the film’s leading lady) and joyfully accepts a return ticket to jail for
her crime of stealing bread. Instead of another stay as a guest of the state,
an accident occurs, and our duo makes their escape. Charley decides (after a
pleasant suburban daydream with Gamin) that he will work to ensure they are
able to afford the life and security they have seen in their imaginations. The
job search begins, and the Tramp is briefly exposed to the awkward nature of
working midnight shift; any
job is better than no job when options are limited and the government is no
longer footing the bill. Charley was lucky – until his unemployed former steel
mill colleagues break in to the department store where he is working as night
watchman. “By 1933 … some 13 to 15 million
Americans were unemployed and nearly half of the country’s banks had failed.”[5] Comparatively, according to the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics’ October 2016 report, unemployment rates
fell 0.1 percent month over month to 4.9 percent.[6]U.S.Current
Population Survey” was initiated because the government felt that counting each
unemployed person monthly was “impractical.”[7]
However, Americans have become
notoriously finicky about answering inbound phone calls from numbers with
unknown or unrecognizable caller IDs. In fact, experts blame caller ID on
recent electoral polling failure.[8] Furthermore, land line phones are nearly
extinct, and cell phone numbers are unlisted in most cases. Per The New York
Times, of the survey participants actually reached, only those “actively looking for work”
are tallied; contacted individuals who gave up hope of finding employment are
not included in unemployment statistics. This means that the labor market could
actually be worsening while unemployment numbers remain flat or even decrease. [9] Consequently,
the vital unemployment number (on which America judges our economic health)
is obtained by an archaic method, is likely tinted in rose colored glass, and is
almost certainly inaccurate. Economists therefore recommend that the monthly
numbers be taken “with a grain of salt…”[10]
Chaplin’s
portrayal of food and feast throughout Modern Times seems metaphorical; tasty
tidbits peppering the film seem to fill an unspecified but implied void within
the characters. However, anyone who has known hunger for a prolonged period of
time and filled an agonizingly empty belly with water, coffee, or whatever was
available recognizes the imagery as literal. A 40 year old Charles Chaplin knew
first hand what the poor and food insecure population faced when the stock
market crashed in 1929. Born in 1889, the comedian and his brother were forced
to fend for themselves after the illness and death of their parents.[11] Undoubtedly,
his early years were imprinted with the precious nature of food that only
deficiency can teach. Between 1923 and 1939, Americans were hungry; some joined
convents, those like the Tramp willingly went to jail for a cot and a hot meal,
and residents in Solvay allegedly ate cats. “Many
families sought to cope by planting gardens, canning food, buying used bread…Despite
a steep decline in food prices, many families did without milk or meat.”[12]
When financial constraints occur, the quality and quantity of food
purchased and consumed is often the first sacrifice. For the post-millennial
population, steak and pizza are replaced with Ramen Noodles and canned tuna,
but during the depression, the perception of food in America changed. The plethora of
The Jazz Age morphed into every mother since yelling “Clean your plate! There
are starving children in Africa !” Though American
deaths from actual starvation during the depression were surprisingly low, malnutrition
was common.[13] Chaplin’s idealistic daydream
of a suburban home with fruit trees outside and a cow ready for milking says it
all without a word of dialog; a surplus of healthy food within arms reach is
nirvana. Charley and Gamin’s day dream is not metaphorical; it is the actual
longing and desire of individuals who have been truly hungry beyond just
skipping a meal or dieting. The frame of mind for those who have been truly
hungry is forever altered; dreams are no longer of fortune and fame but of the
food they can buy. Prolonged hunger is an experience that no one should endure
but all should be aware of. Chaplin’s vision of a sustenance producing home
indicates that he understood first hand the hunger experienced by audiences during
the depression.
The American
economy lost consciousness after 1929, and it remained comatose until the
engines supporting World War II activated the economical defibrillator.
Similarly, the post-millennial recession and housing crisis of the mid-2000s prompt today’s workers to tolerate
unreasonable employer demands in order to prevent unemployment and subsequent
poverty induced hunger. Since Charles
Chaplin’s Modern Times was released, technological advances, social
programs, and cultural changes have eased the affects of widespread
socioeconomic issues. Nevertheless, Chaplin’s vision of an industrialized America
[1] Jesse. “There are not cats in Solvay but there are
urban legends.” York 7 Nov. 2016 .
[2] Kelly, Martin. “Top Five Causes of the Great Depression.”
About Education. Aug. 2016. americanhistory.about.com/od/greatdepression/tp/greatdepression.htm.
Accessed 7 Nov. 2016 .
[4] “History of FMLA” Labor Law
Center 11 Nov. 2016 .
[5] “The Great Depression.” History.com.
www.history.com/topics/great-depression. Accessed 11 Nov. 2016 .
[6] “United
States 11 Nov. 2016 .
[7] “Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population
Survey.” United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 8 Oct. 2015 . www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm. Accessed 11 Nov. 2016 .
[8] Cassino, Dan. “Why Pollsters Were Completely and
Utterly Wrong.” Harvard Business Review. Nov. 2016.
hbr.org/2016/11/why-pollsters-were-completely-and-utterly-wrong. Accessed 9 Nov. 2016 .
[9] Leonhardt, David. “Unemployed, and Skewing the
Picture.” The New York Times. Mar. 2008.
www.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/business/05leonhardt.html. Accessed 7
Nov. 2016 .
[10] Fox, Justin. “What’s
Really Wrong With the Unemployment Rate.” Bloomberg View. Aug. 2016.
www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-08-10/what-s-really-wrong-with-the-unemployment-rate.
Accessed 7 Nov. 2016 .
[11] “Overview of His Life, Childhood.” Charlie Chaplin
– Offiicial Website.
www.charliechaplin.com/en/biography/articles/21-Overview-of-His-Life. Accessed
8, Nov. 2016.
[12] “The Human Toll.” Digital History.
www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=2&psid=3434. Accessed 12,
Nov. 2016.
[13] “Americans React to the Great Depression.” Teacher
Resources, Library of Congress. www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/depwwii/depress/depress.html.
Accessed 12 Nov. 2016 .
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