For we can still love the world, who find
A famished kitten on the step, and know
Recesses for it from the fury of the street,
Or warm torn elbow coverts.
I feel that the word ‘can’ reflects that America does not typically still “love the world” but states we do have the ability. Crane speaks in metaphors about the same thing that Chaplin pokes fun of in his silent film – America can create the opportunity to care about people but so often we choose to care about making money through our machines and work than we do about people. The famished kitten on the step seems to represent poor or poverty stricken people that people can take in to their homes to help or factories can take in to give jobs to in a rescue from “the fury of the street” –the actual streets to homeless people or the horrible job market for the unemployed. "The game”, referred to in line one of the last stanza in Chaplinesque refers to Charlie Chaplin’s humor of the world around us – it “enforces smirks.” Carter also refers back to the kitten that he spoke of earlier in the poem saying,
And through all sound of gaiety and quest
Have heard a kitten in the wilderness.
Crane seems to be saying that Chaplin’s work (the ‘sound of gaiety and quest’) has forced people to hear ‘the kitten in the wilderness’ – or to recognize the people around them instead of keeping their focus only on money and machinery. The kitten in the wilderness could also be more specifically referring to the girl in the second section of Modern Times that we saw. She becomes an orphan in “the wilderness” of the city. Chaplin’s character represents the part of America that sees past the love of money and machinery and cares for this girl who is “famished… on the step.” Crane and Chaplin read together give a full view of the social issues – the humor that can be found within them and also the severity of them. Chaplin does a great job with getting people’s attention through his jokes and then giving his viewers something to talk about after they have finished watching the movie. So think about it, are you going to be the lover of money and machinery, or the lover of people?
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ReplyDeleteA completely agree with your assessment of "we CAN love people but do we really do it?" in conjunction with the film. At work, no one cares about the people. They just care about doing things faster and more efficiently (the automatic feeding machine). It doesn't matter that the silly machine is beating the stuffing out of his face, but if it is going to make things for efficient then just try to make it work!
ReplyDeleteIt is true that America has a history of forging ahead and making things happen, but "loving people" has always been put behind everything else.