Watch the following video and then answer the questions that follow in detail:
Consider:
--There are many examples in this film a modern day audience might find naive or amusing. What are they?
--WHY do we consider these things funny and/or awkward?
--Underneath this film is a very real fear of the atom bomb and annihilation. Where do we see evidence of this fear throughout the film?
--How does the fear evident in this film link to the fear of Communism in the 1950's?
--How is the hysterical fear this film addresses analogous to the fear in 1692 Salem? In what ways is it different?
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The fact that in this time people truly believed that ducking and covering would actually make any difference at all. And how crazy the people looked when they would just being doing everyday things , like riding a bike, and fling off, onto the ground, to duck and cover. We think they are funny because for one that danger is really strange to this generation, and two we also know that ducking and covering wouldnt really stop an atomic bomb for doing damage to the body. We see how afraid they were of the bomb, by how prepared they were for just in case it would go off. This has a link to the fear of communism because it was the communist nations (i.e. Russia)that were an atomic bomb threat to the U.S. This relates to the Salem Witch Trials because the American public was made to believe that "Duck and Covering" was going to save them, and they did ludacris things in order to protect themselves, just as the people of salem blamed and accused each other to save themselves.
ReplyDeleteA lot of the examples that we found funny were just people running away from their everyday lives into a wall. This was all funny because I suppose in today's society, where it’s rare to expect an atomic bomb, we would never have to worry about this kind of threat. Also I don't see this being very helpful. I’m not sure that it's realistic to think that running into a wall will save me in a deadly atomic bomb. The evidence that there is fear is the idea that all these adults and people are literally jumping to the ground and coming out of their professional character. The fear of the atomic bomb sent over by the communists could very easily make me scared if there were talk of communism in my home country. If they were trying to blow us up once I would probably be scared to have them in my country. The fear in both stories both deal with worries of fighting for you life. The difference in the two is the atomic bomb is a much more realistic fear.
ReplyDeleteA few of the things that were amusing to a modern day audience. One of them was how the two children threw themselves onto the sidewalk next to a building. Another was while the family was at a picnic and they believed that a blanket was going to protect them from radiation. These things are funny because we know that nothing can really protect you from an atomic bomb, and it is something that we really do not think about today as happening. It is evident that they were truly afraid of an atomic bomb because they stated a few times that there may or may not be a warning. The fear in this film shows how people can blow things out of proportion, similar to how the fear spread of witches through Salem in 1692.
ReplyDeleteI think that the reason our our modern day society thinks that this film is funny is due to the fact that we now have more nowledge of the affects of that Atomic Bomb. Its obviuosly false, and plain out ridiculous that a picnic table cover or newspaper will save you from a nuclear blast. I mean, if the radiation of the atomic blast can melt threw your skin why can't it desinigrate a peice of clothe or
ReplyDeletepaper?
I thought that this video was very funny. Since we are more advanced and know more about the bomb and its effects we understand how stupid these ideas were and how useless these strategies really were. This was much like the fear that people had during the Salem Which Trials because people were scared of something they did not know about and were unfamiliar with. People were fearful of something they could not see and as a result they made useless attempts to take precuations to save themselves. The difference between these two fears is that one group fears something real and death while the other fears hell and death.
ReplyDeleteSome of the things we now find amusing and naive from this film, is that these people actually believed that a piece of newspaper, or a blanket or a table could protect them from an atomic bomb. A bomb would just completey destroy everything in close distance, i'm pretty sure that was the whole point of it, so it doesn't really make sense to just "duck and cover" under a table. this fear they had, which was silly and ridiculous and made no sense is like the salem witch trials for the fact that they were silly and ridiculous and make absolutely no sense at all. It is different in a way that they are trying to protect others with this video, but in the salem witch trials they were trying kill people for no reason.
ReplyDeleteThe reason that we find this film so awkward is because the people and situations are so fake, and the ways the film gives people to protect themselves are pointless. Every time the actors see a flash, they immediately duck and cover. The odds that they would interpret the information that they were receiving as quickly as they were are very slim. There's no way that they would realize that an atom bomb had dropped just from a flash as quickly as they did. Also, there is NO WAY that a news paper, a jacket, a desk, or anything else would protect someone from an atomic bomb. They show cartoons of buildings getting blown to the ground and trees getting ripped form the ground, and then say that if you cover your head with a blanket, you'll be fine. That's one of the dumbest thing's I think I've ever seen. My favorite one was the guy that covers his head with a newspaper, cause you know, that's really gonna help. Despite the ridiculousness of the film, it is evident how afraid the public was of communism and the atom bomb. The fear was almost as great as the Salem witches, though the dropping of the bomb was an actual threat, and the witches weren't.
ReplyDeleteMany things found in this film that may seem amusing to a modern audience today would be that just by "covering yourself" with your own hands will protect you from the intolerable radiation of an atomic bomb. We consider this funny or awkward because mostly everyone knows today that an atomic bomb is extremely life threatening even from a far distance of the atomic bomb; the atomic bomb is very strong and would give many people 3rd degree burns or even cause death instantly. There is much fear of the atomic bomb in this video because every citizen that "ducked and covered" had a real fear of this bomb and you could see it on their faces and how they reacted. This fear relates to the fear of communism in the 1950's because if people were scared of an atomic bomb hitting their town or city, they were more afraid of the people who would have caused this to happen (a communist country). This fear relates to the fear in the Salem witch trials because both parties were scared of being ruined or physically hurt by other people and in ways that these to events were different was because in the Salem Witch trials, people believed eachother in what was going on and the hysteria was somewhat rediculous and wasn't positively true. During the 1950's, communism and the atomic bomb was very true and could possibly happen because threats were made and people were warned.
ReplyDeleteI think that our generation finds this video amusing because it is absurd to us that ducking and covering will save our lives when a nuclear blast comes over the town. In todays society, its really hilarious to see people protecting themselves with desks and cloths when we have nuclear bomb shelters and high quality protection from these nuclear blasts.
ReplyDeletethe reason this is akward is that we know that in todays world that if you do as this video says your going to die no matter what. the way we see fear in this film is that they even use a newspaper as cover and a cloth as cover or even running them selves up against walls to hide from the flash of the bomb. it relates to the fear of comunist because we did the same thing but in more of a action rather than hideing our seleves.
ReplyDeleteSome things we might find naive or amusing was the way the people went under a picnic blanket to escape from an atomic bomb. Also the children running off bikes and out of streets to run against a wall to take cover from an atomic bomb. We would think its weird because its not normal to go under a BLANKET for a cover from a bomb. Its common sense that its not going to protect you. The constant repeating on duck and cover would be and underlying sign of fear.
ReplyDeleteThe video was hilarious. Back then, the public wasn't accurately educated about what would happened if the atomic bomb detonated near them. You'd be gone. However the video shows the real fear that the bomb presented in the 1950s, just as the Witch Trials presented a fear in Salem.
ReplyDelete-MRobinson
it was funny, because now we know that the effects of the atomic bomb could not be stopped by simply "ducking and covering." This film proves that people were really afraid of an nuclear attack. They created these vidoes in order to have a kind of safety net feeling. It also shows how people can really fear something that much. In salem people feared witches like these people feared the atomic bomb.
ReplyDeleteI think that our generation finds this video amusing because it is absurd to us that ducking and covering will save our lives when a nuclear blast comes over the town. In todays society, its really hilarious to see people protecting themselves with desks and cloths when we have nuclear bomb shelters and high quality protection from these nuclear blasts.
ReplyDelete-Elizabeth Garifo
The fact of this video telling a person to duck under a desk, newspaper, or a table-cloth seems absurd when we now know the affects of an atomic bomb. First of all it is in the 1950s so things seem awkward compared to life nowadays. Where the people in the video keep saying to duck and cover no matter what when you see a bright light. Also when they talk of with or without warning of an attack. The people the US thought was most likely to send a nuclear attack was the Soviet Union, or the major communist country in the world. In both of the situations, in 1692 and in the 1950s the people were fighting for their lives or trying to protect from the thing that might end their lives.
ReplyDeleteI found this movie clip very amusing because they're trying to persuade you to "duck and cover" when the atom bomb would completely destroy everything. I mean i really dont think that a wooden table or even a school wall would protect you from the impact of an atomic bomb. This movie clip relates to the fear of Communsim because the united states was so terrified of the soviet union due to the fact that they had a huge amount of atomic bombs just pointed at the united states.
ReplyDelete-Andrew R :)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
We all know that a blanket will not protect you from being burned by a nuclear bomb. It will keep you from facing the inevitable, but you will still die. It's "funny" that people back then actually believed that hiding under a desk would save them. It's more sad than anything.
ReplyDeleteI see evidence of the fear by the urgency the "duck and cover" theme is repeated. Also the way the situation is made light of to keep people calm, not freaked out.
It relates to Communism because the fear of the Cuban Missle Crisis was very prominent when this video was made. The USA was in fear that the communist Soviet Union had atomic bombs aimed at the US in Cuba ready to fire.
It relates to the very real fear that ran through the country with both the Red Scare and the Salem Witch Trials.
Chelsea
Many things might be found amusing in this video. Ducking and covering would not exactly save somebody from an atomic bomb explosion. This is funny because in real life, the bomb would essentially blow you to pieces. We can see the real fear in this video when the narrator is constantly bringing up the point to stop whatever you are doing and duck and cover, no matter what. This film relates to the fear of communism because the communists had the bomb, so we believed that they would drop one on the U.S. This also relates to Salem because people were afraid of something in which they were unfamiliar with. The difference is one side is just fear while the other side actual killed people.
ReplyDeleteAll of the examples in the film which are funny are so funny because the logic behind the ideas don't make any sense to us now. "Ducking and covering" would do nothing to save a person from an atomic bomb, and the examples in the film are so silly. In particular, the little boy who jumped off his bike to "duck and cover" was pretty funny because although he was really quick in his actions, a real bomb just would've killed him on the grass as opposed to on his bicycle. Also, the narrator's statement that "even a thin sheet" could save you from a bomb was pretty funny because we all know that's not true. The fear shown in this film is definitely linked to the fear of communism which was spreading around the same time. In the film people moved quickly and deliberately in their efforts to shield themselves from a bomb, although they were obviously very uneducated on the subject; people's fear of communism also related to a lack of knowledge on the subject. This also ties in with the silly fear that everyone in 1692 Salem was a witch. The biggest difference however is that there is a real reason to be afraid of an atomic bomb, and there was really no reason to be afraid that anyone in Salem was a witch.
ReplyDeleteWhen i watched this movie clip it humered me. Seeing that i know a lot about the atomic bomb, it made it funny to watch this video because the way that they duck and cover is very funny. Our society knows now that just ducking and covering is not going to do anything. People then were very scared that they were going to bombed by the soviet union. Now we arent really scared of it becuase we have things to protect us now.
ReplyDelete-Ryan Wat
hahaha I loved this video. It was very amusing and funny. Now I am sure that in that day and time this was a very serious video that all were suggested to watch. The thing that makes it a comedy to us is that we now know through studies and research that their safety tactics wouldn't work and that they were rather sad guidelines to saving your life. haha like using a cloth to protect you from a burn. HELLO!!!!!!!! cloth is flammable.....you'll burn with it! It goes to show how our race has developed and how our common sense is at a higher level now as compared to back then. I suppose, however, like they say "desparate times cause for desparate measures." To them, jumping off your lawn mower onto the ground was their desparate measure.:) They were simply doing what they believed was the safest thing at the time by "ducking and covering."
ReplyDeleteOk the fact that people actually believed that ducking and covering your neck would actually save you from an atomic bomb is ridiculous! Did no one have a brain back then? Ok if i recall correctly, they even said that a newspaper could save you from a bad burn. Like really? I cannot believe that people were tricked into believing this. The fear in both stories are from the fear of dying. Adults have fears just like all of us,and when you are told that people are going to blow you up and that you have to do this duck and cover thing in order to survive, I guess people felt like they had to do it. It still is a ridiculous thing to believe but you got to do what you got to do in order to survive.
ReplyDelete~LIndsey~
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ReplyDeleteThe situations in the video are amusing because we now know that the "duck and cover" method is ridiculous and ineffective. The cartoon shows a house being torn apart by the blast, yet the man at the picnic believes his flimsy newspaper will shield him from radiation. Fear is embedded throughout the movie, especially noticeable through the visualization of every situation imaginable. That fear, brought on by the threat of Soviet atomic weapons, is similar to the fear of communism in that the masses were afraid of an attack from communist forces. This form of fear parallels the Puritans' fear of an attack by the Devil on their humble towns. These fears are different, however, because atomic threat is realistic and possible but the witching of citizens is not plausible.
ReplyDeleteAlmost every element of this video was humourous or would be to the modern day audience. Of course the people of that generation didn;t quite understnad the affects of an atmoic bomb, but to me, their drills were almost ridiculous. Covering your head is not going to stop a bomb from killing you. Its not possible. It never has been and never will be. "duck and cover" only helps ina tornadoe, kind of. I think we find these things ridiculous because we see how naive they were about the atomic bomb and it ability to harm thousands and thousands of people.
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