Empty Bellies

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Empty Wallets and Empty Bellies The documentary 30 Days shows how the many people in America live in poverty every day. Many families live off of minimum wage, working two jobs, and trying to keep their lives, and families, together. 30 Days was filmed in 2005, so the minimum wage since then has went up, and we can also say that the average price of living has increased considerably as well. The Los Angeles Daily News talks about 30 Days, saying it is a “compelling human drama,” and according to the 2.4 million viewers, so did America. Morgan Spurlock and his wife Alex will be undergoing thirty days living on just minimum wage. They start off their journey by showing the viewers how they froze all their credit cards and locked up all of their…show more content…
Morgan is usually a happy go lucky guy that jokes around when things get hard, but the stress of this challenge shows Morgan become gloomier and gloomier as the days go on and the audience gets to see this transformation. This change allows us to connect with, and in turn, feel more congenial towards Morgan. Ned Martel, author of Walking in Someone Else’s Shoes, Briefly certainly agrees when he states “Mr. Spurlock can also make his smallest behaviors seem telling, like when he pockets free pickles from a deli, hoping to stave off hunger during a day of pavement pounding.” In other words, Morgan can make his small decisions to make his life a little easier seem very meaningful. One thing that happened in the documentary that the general public felt particularly close to Morgan was when he got himself and Alex’s medical bills back, because most people struggle with paying the costly bills. Morgan led and talked the viewers through everything that was happening, and the fact that we can connect with Morgan hooks the audience more. In the article Morgan Spurlock and Minimum Wage, author Rachel focuses on all the deceit that went into the show, including how it is easy to get jobs that pay higher than minimum wage and the fact that Morgan’s wrist injury is covered by workers compensation. Rachel points out “one can only conclude it interfered with the scripts political message so it was omitted, but the simple fact is even in his second, no benefits job, Spurlock’s wrist injury was fully covered by his employer’s workers compensation policy.” By focusing on the fact that Morgan gets workers compensation for this injury Rachel overlooks the deeper problem that most injuries do not happen at work. Morgan may not have said anything about workers compensation in an attempt to make America realize that people cannot afford a 40 dollar

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