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These Shining Lives And Greed Essay

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Greed is inherent in humanity; this desire for material wealth has pervaded society despite the negative consequences. This greed and its effects ran rampant in 1920s America, as evidenced by the events portrayed in These Shining Lives by Melanie Marnich and performed at the Barnum Studio Theatre, a true story about four women who suffer because of the greed of a large corporation. This struggle for wealth is also exemplified in the corruption of those hired to enforce Prohibition during this time, letting many illegal and even deadly bottles of alcohol into the lives of the average American. As the play These Shining Lives and American Prohibition shows, America in the 1920s was not just a time for empowerment of women and lavish parties, but a time filled with greed and corruption, and these struggles for wealth were not harmless, for they caused the deaths of many Americans. Women during the 1920s had more rights than ever before; they had the right to vote and many were breaking free from the social expectations that the man of the house works while the woman stays at home and takes care of the children. In These Shining Lives, this was the case for Catherine Donohue, who finds a well-paying job working for Radium Dial, a company that produces watches that glow in the dark because of the radium in the paint used. Tragically Catherine was one of many who died because of this use of radium and the company’s lack of care …show more content…

This greed was largely ignored because this desire for wealth and material possessions pervade American society. Even today the actions of many are controlled by greed, for it is still something that is spread throughout our society, yet there are many over overcome this greed and live

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