Essay Questions

Why is the depression linked with the coming to power of the Hynkel party?

The Hynkel party is used as a way to make reference to the Nazi party which came to power in Germany after the end of the First World War. History attributes the rise to power of the Nazi regime to the economic depression which shook the country after the end of the first war. Because Germany was on the losing side, they were forced to pay reparations to the countries they attacked. This factor, combined with the great loses of men and workforce during the war brought the country to the brick of collapse. Many people blamed the government for the hardships they had to endure so when the Nazi party was founded it promised the common people a new Germany, greater that they had ever seen. This attracted many people from the working class who were looking for a way out of poverty. Thus, as a result, the Nazi party rose to power in a short period of time until one of their members was names Chancellor of Germany and granted undisputed power over the country and the people.

Who were the Aryans and how are they portrayed in the film and how are their counterparts portrayed?

The Aryans are the pure-blood German people with whom Hynkel wanted to populate Germany. The Aryan men and women were described as being fair-skin, blond and with blue eyes. The women were described as being extremely fertile, capable to bear as much children as possible while the men are described as being virile, tall and extremely powerful. Their counterparts are the Jews, called in many cases as being pigs. The Jews are described as dirty and lazy, the ones responsible for everything that went wrong in their country.

Why was the name "Jew’’ painted on the windows of the barbershop?

After Hynkel came to power, he started to attack the Jews, creating in the minds of the rest of the population a threatening image of them. The Jews were generally well educated people, with means to open business and go to universities. Because of this, they were largely hated by the rest of the population that had to suffer because of the great depression. As Hynkel and the party he was a member of began to gain more power, they urged the people to isolate the Jews and to make their lives miserable. The Jews were forced to wear a symbol sewn on their clothes and their business were vandalized and had the word "Jew’’ written on the windows by the soldiers. The fact that it was a Jew-owned business pushed many people who were not Jews to keep their distance. Thus, in many cases, when the word "Jew’’ was painted on a business it meant that the business will most likely have no more customers as everyone would stay away from it.