Monday, January 27, 2020
From the Gutter to Gold
In The Gold Rush Charlie Chaplin's character of the Lone Prospector heads to Alaska to find his fortune looking for gold. He never finds any himself but is almost killed several times, chased by a fellow prospector who thinks he's a chicken, and eventually makes it rich when a storm blows his cabin to the site of another prospector's claim. At the end of the film, he comes home in style sporting fine clothes as he travels on a luxury ocean liner. He's the prefect embodiment of the "rags to riches" story -- or is he? What is the movie telling us about this story? What is is saying about how people acquire (or try to acquire) wealth? What is it saying about success and the prestige that comes from it?
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ReplyDeleteIn The Gold Rush, Charlie Chaplin's character, the Lone Prospector, must endure several hardships in order to get what he, and most other people, want most: money and love. The story highlights the fact that a person cannot easily acquire wealth and reciprocated love, but it is the difficulty of acquiring them that makes them so sought after. However, the movie also emphasizes that love is much more valuable than wealth. Towards the end when it shows Jim McKay and the Lone Prospector living lavishly on a boat, the Lone Prospector looks longingly at a picture of Georgia because without her, he is not completely happy. It is not until the end of the movie when he and Georgia are reunited and they finally kiss that he is completely satisfied. Furthermore, the ending points out that true love exists in the absence of wealth because Georgia is glad to see the Lone Prospector on the boat even when he is in his old clothes and mistaken for a stowaway. Lastly, prior to acquiring his riches, the Lone Prospector is motivated to become wealthy by the love he has for Georgia. When Jim McKay promises the Lone Prospector that he will be a millionaire if he takes him to the cabin, the Lone Prospector tells Georgia that he is “going to make good” and it is implied that he is doing it not just for himself but for her as well.
ReplyDeleteCharlie Chaplin's character from the film, The Gold Rush, was obsessed with gaining immense amounts of wealth no matter the risk or consequences; however, as shown throughout the film, the gold seems to just be a way for Chaplin to get a woman to like him. This is an example of how people will do anything for or because of love. Despite going through many situations where he very well could have died, Chaplin is obsessed with Georgia and refuses to give up his goal of becoming rich to impress her. He seems to believe the only way to "get the girl" is to acquire wealth, which becomes the plot of the entire movie. After Jim McKay says he can make Chaplin a millionaire in exchange for passage to the hidden cabin, Chaplin immediately jumps on the opportunity. Additionally, the movie shows how much of a misconception Chaplin's idea of what he needs to do for love is. After he falls off the deck of the ship while he is taking pictures in his miner clothes, Georgia sees him and has no way of knowing he is now a millionaire. Despite this, she is still very excited to see him and tries her hardest to let the crew member let Chaplin stay on the boat. She doesn't find out until a minute later how much money he is now worth, but this scene was still very powerful in showing how his quest to impress her was useless and unnecessary.
ReplyDeleteIn The Gold Rush, the director uses Charlie Chaplin's character and story to make fun of a classic "rags to riches" story. Normally in a story of rags to riches, we see a scrappy young man or woman having nothing, and working hard their whole life to end with what many define as success, lots of hard earned money. There is nothing wrong with money, but often money becomes and idol, especially in rags to riches stories where wealth is the end goal. And when The Gold Rush starts its story, it seems like a similar story. When we are first introduced to Charlie Chaplin's character as a lone prospector, he is somewhat mysterious in the way that for a long time, we do not know anything about him. We never even know his name. He is a person without a name, a literal "nobody", no name, no recognition, just a classic average working man. Yet instead of seeing determination and raw skills put to the test, we see that early in the film, he seems very ditzy and without any care or worries. Whenever he is first shown on screen, the music changes from dramatic to light, fun, and silly. Then, when the lone prospector, after barely avoiding death several times like jumping out of a teetering house just before falling, wrestling a bear, and literally dodging a bullet, his and his friend find enough gold to give them a luxurious rest of their lives. The film makes fun of the rags to riches story by giving the lone clumsy prospector an imaginable about of wealth for almost no physical work. The difference is that Charlie Chaplin's character was not attempting to gain wealth, but just to find love with a girl in town. This shows that if you search for love and happiness, the riches of life that it brings is much more than anyone could make with money.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion this story does not really tell the story of rags to riches because that is not the point that they are trying to make. Quite honestly, often in silent comedy, it can be broken down to observing something sad or painful happen to someone odd or unique. The purpose of this movie was to make the audience laugh at this character who is going through a quite hellish and miserable journey because the music was light and the characters looked funny. If this film had different music and actors, it very well could have been portrayed as a tragedy due to the horrific contents. Although, since it was Charlie Chaplin, and the expectation is comedy, the result is laughter. So since they achieved their goal of laughter, putting a smile on the early 20th century American's faces by gifting their abused character the success of the American dream.
ReplyDeleteThe themes of acquiring wealth and love are both a reoccurring theme throughout The Gold Rush with Charlie Chaplin leading the charge for the ordinary man. As Charlie Chaplin engages with the most unfortunate of sequences forcing him into situations such as cooking his own shoe or sleeping in a cabin with his starving cannibal mind-bent friend. Furthermore, Charlie Chaplin seems to have a misinterpretation of the environment around him and it is through his cheerful and dreamlike nature that he is able to muster the encouragement and support of the audience. A prime example of this is when Charlie is in the whole situation with Georgia where they “take the joke too far” and yet throughout this whole fiasco, Charlie is unaware of the fact that they are making fun of him. Instead, he embarrasses himself publicly by naively declaring his love for Georgia at a party. Situations like these or where there is a clear bully like Jack the ladies man allow for the audience to laugh and also cheer for Charlie’s rare occasions of success. The story is subliminally promoting the carefree and upbeat nature of Charlie Chaplin that allows him to befriend all those around him which leads to success in both his venture for love and wealth. The success that is shown around Georgia and Jack are not portrayed in as good of a light as Charlie’s wholesome ending. Georgia is shown as unhappy on the boat before she reunites with Charlie, an association drawn with her rude actions to Charlie earlier. Jack is also not shown in the happy ending and disregards those around him as nothing more than a joke or a fun time which leads to him losing Georgia and not with the same amount of wealth as Charlie.
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ReplyDeleteIn The Gold Rush, Charlie Chaplin’s character plays a lonely prospector in search of the sole thing that is thought to bring people happiness. Money. Going to hugely dangerous extents such as being chased by a bear, almost falling off a cliff and even his entire cabin teetering on the side of a mountain playing with death. Although the story is a silent comedy mixed with a slight love story I feel there is a deeper meaning that’s not so apparent on the surface. Many times, throughout the film this idea of being so close to death but then just brushing it off is glossed over by the comedy aspect of the film. Gold Rush is making fun of and pointing out this idea that these people were willing to go to such extremes to find gold and get rich that they would risk their life for it. They would risk losing their life, their loved ones, and everything just for money. Throughout the story there is also a love story between The Lone Prospector and Georgia who he finds at the Dance Hall. The Lone Prospector is trying to win her over when he comes back to the Dance Hall after New Year’s and he receives a note that was not intended for him from Georgia saying that she loves him. He rapidly tries to find her and does to give her a hug until Jim McKay finds him and tell Caplin’s character that he had a mountain of gold and he would be a multi-millionaire. Chaplin’s character struggles to leave Georgia at first but is tempted so much by the money that he agrees to leave the absolute love of his life to gain wealth, going right along with the underlying theme of the film.
ReplyDeleteThe Lone Prospector is far from an example of a rags to riches story. Though he did go from poverty to multi-millionaire in a relatively short amount of time, his story does not exemplify that of a true rags to riches arc. Traditionally, rags to riches implies that someone worked immensely hard, whereas Chaplin's character merely stumbled into the immense wealth he ultimately found. I believe that The Gold Rush is mocking the conventional idea of a rags to riches story, by saying "look at this idiot Prospector, he has more money than you and he got it by accident." I believe that it is mocking those who only seek wealth in their lives, it is not against those who are wealthy or seek to be wealthy, but I do believe that it is anti-greed. The filmmakers are not against people striving to make their way in life, but they do seem to think that pursuing capitalistic success at the cost of relationships, family, or other forms of happiness is futile. The Lone Prospector, was not seeking out wealth throughout the story, he was seeking love. His love for Georgia is what drove him to go back out in search of wealth. He only wanted money to impress the women he loved, which seemingly to the film makers is a more noble than to selfishly want the money for yourself. Even before Big Jim McCay went back in search of the cabin he found the prospector and shared the wealth with him. I believe that the filmmakers are encouraging people to go out and make the best for themselves but never do it for yourself.
ReplyDeleteCharlie Chaplin's character in The Gold Rush follows a nontraditional version of the rags to riches story because his character does not strive for money. While he is a lone prospector testing his luck in gold rush era Alaska, his need for money does not drive his character. Chaplin's character is more driven by his love for Georgia and happens to become rich haphazardly through random events. I feel that this demonstrates how gaining wealth is not something that is black and white. There is no true set path that guarantees you wealth. Sometimes you do everything right only to end up penniless, and sometimes money falls into your lap. Chaplin uses his film to show how striving for money is not the best way to achieve success because there is no guarantee that your work will lead to any results.
ReplyDeleteIn the Film Gold Rush by Charlie Chaplin, Charlie's character, the Lone Prospector, tries to find gold but has a hard time throughout the process. I feel like he is a great interpretation of the rags to riches story because he starts out with nothing and people treat him like garbage. Those girls make fun of him and trick him on new years. But when he finds the gold, he sees the girl on the boat and she starts to really like him. I feel like this movie is showing that being rich is very important and you are not important unless you have money. When you are rich you instantly become more important. Before the riches Charlie was a nobody and people didn't want to be with him. But when he is rich and on the boat people treat him like they never did before. When he fell over the stairs and was hidden in the rope, the officers thought that he was an escaped hostage but then people rush over and say no he is the millionaire. If he didn't have the money then he would have just been taken away. I do believe that this movie is a great interpretation of the rags to riches story.
ReplyDeleteI believe that in the Gold Rush, Charlie Chaplin’s character is a fair example of rags to riches. To me, the term rags to riches simply just means going from having nothing to having an abundance of wealth. It seemed as it the Lone Prospector was willing to do whatever it took to acquire riches, whether that meant terrifying near death experiences or pure humiliation. In the time period when this movie was made, men without riches are overlooked and seen as a waste of time. This is why I believe he was willing to do whatever he could to become rich. I also believe that a big part of his willingness was based off of his love for Georgia. Throughout the film it seemed that Georgia was into the Lone Prospector, but because of his status and “rags”, she was too embarrassed to be with him and therefore would reject him and go with the guy who spoiled her with his riches. This film is depicting wealth as the only way to get what you truly want, and to be truly seen. No one gave the Lone Prospector the time of day, but when he took of his rags and became all riches he was suddenly a new man. When he obtained wealth, Georgia was no longer embarrassed by him and people treated him with respect. Love and Respect comes with the success of wealth.
ReplyDeleteCharlie Chaplin's character faces many challenges throughout the film to get gold. What he wants, however, is much deeper. He is getting the gold to impress a woman, detailing that the values of society are materialistic. Chaplin is opposing that theme, by deploying the strategy of impressing the woman in his quest which is actually for happiness, not gold. He eventually adapts the same ideology prioritizing wealth, portraying that no one is immune to social norms. This concept applies to the real world, from small decisions to big overarching topics. This theme is consistent throughout the duration of the film, with many examples denoting the prioritization of wealth. Overall, Chaplin is treated with more respect when he has more money. Although this film was a comedy, it makes an important statement about the function of society.
ReplyDeleteI believe that while Charlie's character did go from being very poor to very rich, it isn't a perfect rags to riches story. He didn't really work his way out of poverty, he came upon some luck which is what got him out of it. Although, I do think he worked really hard to be a good person despite others being unkind to him. I think that his kindness is something that sticks out more to me than his riches at the end because it is easy to let the unkind richer people bring you down but he didn't. Many of the richer people messed with him while he was poor but that never changed his demeanor and I believe that is much more valuable than wealth.
ReplyDeleteIn “The Gold Rush”, Charlie Chapman’s character- the lone prospector- is the opposite of a rags to riches story. In a typical rags-to-riches story, the character will put in the work to get the result they desire – in most cases, this desire is money. In the lone prospector’s story, he doesn’t seem to be working hard to gain something. He just seems out there and a little ditsy. He does find gold and money and wealth but this doesn’t come to him because of how hard he worked. I think Chapman is trying to play with the idea of a rag-to-riches story by doing the complete opposite of what the usual story looks like while still having it work out. I think this shows the irony and the humor of the unfairness of society by the way he gets wealth in the end. He didn’t work hard or sacrifice his life to earn what he did, it was merely an accident.
ReplyDeleteI would say that The Long Prospector is not the perfect example of a rags to riches character. Although the Prospector is poor in the film, we are not given much information as to how much work he actually does. Because of this lack of background knowledge, we can only assume that he only does what we saw in the film. If we go off of this, he only acts silly and only luckily stumbles upon the treasure based on pure luck and through a newfound friend.
ReplyDeleteAlthough The Prospector is not a rags to riches character, his gratitude and not taking his wealth too seriously is a great message. Often times we are said that money is the key to happiness, but we see that even when the Prospector is a millionaire, all he really wants is Georgia. Although wealth is great, The Gold Rush shows that it doesn't need to come in paper currency to make life worthwhile.