"And a little lookin' out for the other fella, too" : Individualism and the individual's relation to society in Frank Capra's Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Meet John Doe and It's a Wonderful Life

Abstract

I chose to work with four films by director Frank Capra because of his fascinating portrayals of American society and values. The thematic focus of my thesis was his portrayal of the notion of the individual and the individual’s relation to society. Historically, there are four major strains of American individualism: biblical, republican, utilitarian and expressive. Regarding the notion of the individual’s relation to society, the philosophies of the biblical and republican strains are rather similar, and at the same time, they are very different from the philosophies of utilitarian and expressive individualism, which in turn have several important similarities. My intention in this thesis was to show that Capra and his movies argue in favor of biblical and republican individualism. The films’ protagonists have occupied themselves with individualistic themes like self-reliance, autonomy and political and religious individualism. But Capra has not portrayed them as “outside of” society. They have had to express their individuality within a complex and encompassing society. In my opinion, Capra tried to give a complete guide, a profound answer, to the question of how individuals ought to live and interact through his films. His answer lies within the strains of American biblical and republican individualism. I believe that he wanted passionately to make films that argued in favor of these individualistic traditions because it was his belief that the alternatives presented by the utilitarian and expressive individualistic strains would eventually lead to the downfall of America.