Clayton Cark
Professor Hammett
English Composition 2
Essay 2 Rhetorical Analysis essay
October 22, 2023
Alfred Hitchcock and Homelessness
Alfred Hitchcock was born near London, England, in 1899 to humble beginnings with little to no hopes of achieving greatness in anything. As he grew older, he started to become a big name in film in a genre known as absurdism. After many years of trying to bring his films to life, he became known as the undisputed “master of suspense” with such films as Blackmail and Psycho (Sehgal, 2014). During one of his interviews, he talks about his art and states, “It must look real, but it must never be real, because reality is something none of us can stand, at any time” (Hitchcock, 2023). When you take into account how he grew up and how grim his outlook on life is, Alfred may not be one who finds the epidemic of homelessness an issue that can be solved by anyone other than the person experiencing it.
Alfred Hitchcock has always been a household name when it comes to conversations about which suspense movie should be watched, but what would his opinion be when it comes to the topic of homelessness? In England, he was very limited in his choices of what he would be able to do growing up. He was very distrusting of law enforcement due to being locked in a jail cell when he was young after he took a letter given to him by his father to the local police station (Sehgal, 2014). With this being said, it could be assumed that he may be understanding of how people who suffer from being homeless can be wary of going to law enforcement for any kind of help, or even be enticed to break the law in order to help themselves. Hitchcock had no such feelings that caused him to lean towards this opinion. He had a very bad case of anxiety when it came to certain things such as breaking the law, as outlined in the book “Hitch” which states Alfred had a bad case of anxiety associated to such things as “Terror of getting into trouble with the police so intense that he has scarcely driven a car since his arrival to America and on one occasion had a prolonged anxiety spasm as a result of merely throwing a cigar butt that might not have been totally extinguished out of a car during a drive to northern California” (Taylor, 2013). With him having to cope with these types of maladies, one could say that he would not understand why someone would want to be on the bad side of the law, but what about the other issues that can come from or cause homelessness, such as mental health issues?
With a great number of people coping with not having homes and not having resources to be able to help with any issues that come along with it, what is one of the main concerns attributed to the cause of this pandemic? Mental health issues. If someone has watched any of Hitchcock’s filmwork, you can see that he seems to be infatuated with the subject of psychology and psychiatry with his making of such films as Psycho; this being said one would think he would be understanding of these types of illnesses and even be willing to lend a helping hand. Again, this may not be the case though when looking back at what was said between Alfred and one of his friends who was making a biography over the life of Hitchcock. During this interaction, Alfred was asked if he would ever be willing to be psychoanalyzed just to have it done to which he stated “No. After all, the very existence of the subconscious is only a hypothesis. And as for its analysis, I think I have enough silly hypotheses of my own about myself, without listening to the silly hypothesis of other people… I have always thought that his insistence that in life all we can reasonably take into account is the conscious mind, and all the rest is merely supposition” (Taylor, 2013). After Hitchcock made this statement it could be assumed that he may not be a very empathetic person towards someone who had a psychological diagnosis, since he was not very open to the idea of there being anything having an influence on the way people go about their lives other than the conscious mind. After all of this being said, what about the ones who have started out in this life with nothing, such as being raised in poverty?
Earlier in Alfred’s life, he started out with little to no advantages that some people in the world had the pleasure of having. He was born to a middle class family that owned and operated a grocery and poultry shop in the town of Leytonstone (Haeffner, 2023). While he was growing up and being raised a devout Catholic, he was supposed to take over when his father passed away and run their family business, but this is not what he wanted for himself (Taylor, 2013). After the loss of his father, he taught himself the art of filmmaking and the artwork that came along with it. At the height of his career, he became one of the most famous movie directors of all time and had made an empire for his family. Taking this into account, you could say the argument that someone who has been homeless has just been “dealt a bad hand in life” would not hold up if someone had this conversation with Hitchcock. Back when he was young, it was a lot harder to come across the information needed to be able to make a big difference in a person’s life. Information today is readily accessible and makes it easy for someone to change, whether it be learning how to be able to make a movie or become an entrepreneur in order to start a business. Now that the issues which can come up over homelessness have been covered, would Alfred have done anything with his influence to be able to help this pandemic?
Looking back on Hitchcock’s career, you can see that he has had some very influential friends, and since he was a big name in almost every household he could use this influence to attempt to do some good in the world even from a political standpoint. When Alfred would be interviewed, it was said that “He would adopt a bemused attitude at many points and tell his interviewers exactly what they wanted to hear, especially when confronted by serious questions.” (Haeffner, 2023). It has also been said that he was prone to manipulation and lying to the point of it being irresponsible (Haeffner, 2023). With all of this being said, it seems that Alfred would have made a very good politician or, more accurately, a bad one in modern times. With laws being made where they can help with homelessness or can make the things people have to do to be able to better cope with it illegal, what would Hitchcock’s stance be on these laws? If looking back on how he was raised and what his views were on certain topics, then it can be safely assumed that he would have leaned more towards trying to fix this issue by making certain habits illegal. He might have addressed topics and worded them in such ways that people would want to hear instead of telling them what he really believes.
When addressing the issue of homelessness, Alfred Hitchcock may not be the person to come to for any type of selfless improvement. Looking back at how he was raised and how he had become a self made success, the argument that people have just had “bad luck” in life would not hold up considering how he himself came from almost nothing and brought about a theatrical empire. Also, the issue of a mental health diagnosis would not be a plausible excuse in his point of view, seeing that he was not very keen on there being anything that can cause an issue other than the conscious mind. Then, when we take into account how he was with interviewers and how people recalled his personality, there may not have come any kind of positive reconciliation to this issue. With all of this being said, in the end, it can safely be interpreted that Alfred Hitchcock would not have thought anything positive of the homeless pandemic, which is an ongoing issue in the world, and would no have been someone people would have wanted to turn to for a positive solution to help bring it to an end.
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