Imitation of Life (1934) was directed by John Stahl. The entirety of this film is incredibly complex and profound for its time. Being a melodrama, it is structured around the domestic. The story follows two mothers, Bea and Delilah, and their children, Jessie and Peola, as they progress from struggling to make ends meet to operating the most popular pancake business in Atlantic City. Underneath the surface of this heartstring-pulling story around family and their personal issues lies a broader, more complex and political subplot.
Because of the production code being in full swing at this point, this film is riddled with implicit themes of segregation, the hardships of racism, and a battle with one's identity and culture. Through character developments, personal turmoils within the characters, visual/spatial queues, and the way in which the actors portray the script, they all place social and political tensions into the personal realm, which, in turn, makes them more relatable to an audience - a predominantly white one too.
Take, for example, the positions of both Bea and Delilah in the modern world. Bea is a character of movement; she is constantly running all over the place and is more of a businesswoman than she ever truly was a mother. Delilah, on the other hand, is a static, gentle, nurturing character that belongs in the domestic sphere. Despite Bea treating Delilah more as an equal, despite the colour of their skin, than any other characters mentioned in the mind map, does to people of colour, this division in belonging between the characters demonstrates a sense of segregation. Though less apparent than the typification of Delilah as a “Mammy” character (Aunt Jemima adjacent), details such as these, as well as subtle set choices (see Figure 12), articulate a deeper political message to the audience.
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