Charlie Chaplin Research Paper
Johannes Kieding
Paper 1
American Literature 2
Professor Waggett
Fall 2011
Too Large for a Body-Bag
Born in 1889 in England into a broken family of entertainers, Sir Charles Spencer – later known as Charlie Chaplin – followed in his parent 's footsteps, taking up singing and acting from an early age. After a rocky film debut, Chaplin soon became a success in 1913 while touring in the US. With his role “The Tramp,” Chaplin reached world fame. According to Chaplin himself, the force that propelled him and drove him onto the world stage that he came to inhabit was not primarily artistic inspiration, but a desire for money. Ingeborg Kohn, in Charlie Chaplin, Brightest star of silent film, quotes Chaplin saying that he “ 'went into the …show more content…
By playing a mute commoner triumphing over government officials out to get him, Chaplin represented the powerlessness that the masses felt while also inspiring and empowering those very masses. The combination of being mute – powerless – yet overcoming his foes, proved a most effective combination for getting people 's attention. Chaplin became an icon for the commoners, and with this, a threat to the establishment, especially considering the propaganda power of the developing motion picture. Chaplin 's fame, popularity, as well as the themes of his films, were the reasons that senator McCarthy came to blacklist him as a suspected communist. Add to this sexual deviance (he had an underage wife, and there were to be more), leftist political views, and not being an American citizen, and senator McCarthy had all he needed to target Chaplin. John Sbartellati and Tony Shaw write in Booting a Tramp: Charlie Chaplin, the FBI, and the Construction of the Subversive Image in Red Scare America, these things, “provided ammunition for those who sought to transform Chaplin 's image from popular star to despised subversive” (The Pacific Historial Review,497). It did not take long for US public opinion to sway against
Paper 1
American Literature 2
Professor Waggett
Fall 2011
Too Large for a Body-Bag
Born in 1889 in England into a broken family of entertainers, Sir Charles Spencer – later known as Charlie Chaplin – followed in his parent 's footsteps, taking up singing and acting from an early age. After a rocky film debut, Chaplin soon became a success in 1913 while touring in the US. With his role “The Tramp,” Chaplin reached world fame. According to Chaplin himself, the force that propelled him and drove him onto the world stage that he came to inhabit was not primarily artistic inspiration, but a desire for money. Ingeborg Kohn, in Charlie Chaplin, Brightest star of silent film, quotes Chaplin saying that he “ 'went into the …show more content…
By playing a mute commoner triumphing over government officials out to get him, Chaplin represented the powerlessness that the masses felt while also inspiring and empowering those very masses. The combination of being mute – powerless – yet overcoming his foes, proved a most effective combination for getting people 's attention. Chaplin became an icon for the commoners, and with this, a threat to the establishment, especially considering the propaganda power of the developing motion picture. Chaplin 's fame, popularity, as well as the themes of his films, were the reasons that senator McCarthy came to blacklist him as a suspected communist. Add to this sexual deviance (he had an underage wife, and there were to be more), leftist political views, and not being an American citizen, and senator McCarthy had all he needed to target Chaplin. John Sbartellati and Tony Shaw write in Booting a Tramp: Charlie Chaplin, the FBI, and the Construction of the Subversive Image in Red Scare America, these things, “provided ammunition for those who sought to transform Chaplin 's image from popular star to despised subversive” (The Pacific Historial Review,497). It did not take long for US public opinion to sway against