Disney in the Classroom - Aug 12, 2002

Disney in the Classroom
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Everyone wants to help at Christmas time
(c) Disney
 
1932 was the worst year of the Depression. Unemployment was at its highest point, thousands of Mid-Westerners were fleeing the Dust Bowl, and even those with jobs had no money to spare.  1932 was also the year that the most Mickey Mouse shorts were released.  Mickey made people laugh in cartoons like Touchdown Mickey and The Klondike Kid.  However, the year's last Mickey short was more than an amusing diversion. 
 
Mickey's Good Deed opens with the mouse destitute and homeless on Christmas Eve. His only possessions are his dog and his cello. His attempts to earn money end in a handful of nuts and bolts and finally in the destruction of his cello. Mickey seems beaten and hopeless. Yet, his attention is suddenly drawn to someone who is even less fortunate.  A mother cat weeps because she cannot provide her huge litter of kittens with gifts or even food for Christmas Day.  Mickey is so saddened by the family's plight that he sells his only remaining possession, and uses the money to provide the cats with food and gifts.  The short ends with Mickey happy that he helped someone, but sad because he's lost his only friend.  Fortunately Pluto's escapes his new owner and he and Mickey are reunited.   
 
So how did Mickey's Good Deed help people?  Remember that the Christmas of 1932 was a dark time.  Franklin Roosevelt had been elected in November, but he had not yet taken office.  Herbert Hoover was still President and he hadn't done anything to spread Christmas Joy.  Most families could not buy Christmas gifts for their children, and many families could not afford a Christmas dinner.  Americans must have felt pretty hopeless, and it must have seemed like things were never going to get better. Enter Mickey portrayed as one of them, in a situation similar to their own lives. By being selfless he is able to overcome his own hopeless situation and make a difference in someone else's life. 
 
This was an important message to people at that time. All was not lost, even the most destitute person could help someone else. Mickey's situation at the end of the short has not improved.  Life, for most people watching Mickey's Good Deed, wasn't going to improve anytime soon. However, this short offered the hope that if people stuck together and helped each other, things could get better. You didn't have to be helpless. You could still make a difference if you tried hard enough.

I use Mickey's Good Deed  to give students an understanding of why the Depression made people feel hopeless.  We discuss how important it is, in our society, for children to have gifts at Christmas.  Many students have participated in toy drives that attempt to give every child a Christmas gift.  Mickey's Good Deed's reflection of a real situation allows students to see what life was like in 1932.  It also teaches them how important it is to provide hope in dark times.

 
 A student imagines  an audience watching Building a Building
(c) Disney

In January of 1933 so many people were unemployed that you were blessed if you had a job.  However, the blessing did not extend to getting paid well or to being treated well.  There was nothing you could do if you didn't like your job situation.  Hundreds of people were willing to replace you, and there was probably no where else you could go.  There was also no way to protest poor treatment by an employer.  Workers weren't likely to get help from a government that was still strongly pro-business.  Unions didn't legally exist until 1935.  So if a worker wanted to feed his family he took whatever job he could get, was paid whatever the employer choose to pay him, and tolerated how he was treated on the job.  So while you were fortunate to have a job, having a job could be a very frustrating and unpleasant experience.  

Building a Building opens with Mickey running a steam shovel on a construction site.  A stunning young lady arrives to sell box lunches to the workers.  Mickey is so impressed with this young lady that he accidentally drops dirt, then bricks, and finally a wheelbarrow on Peg Leg Pete.  This is a bit of a problem since Pete is his boss.  Fortunately the lunch whistle sounds before Pete can kill Mickey.  Unfortunately Pete decides to steal Mickey's lunch and his new girlfriend.  Mickey doesn't do anything about his lunch, but he sure does something about Minnie.  After a series of narrow escapes, (and the most severe beating Mickey ever received)  Mickey rides off into the sunset with Minnie.  

I use this short to help students understand the situation for workers in the early 1930's.  We talk about why the poor treatment of workers was allowed.   We also discuss how the situation for workers had to improve and how it eventually did improve.  Students also see an example of how laughter and fantasy helped people during the Depression.  Since if you had a job you had to keep it despite how you were treated, most people couldn't do what Mickey does in Building a Building.  However, I'm sure it was fun and uplifting to think about it.  ºoº