I would like to answer blog prompt two.
I think what connected the different ethnic groups as well as those living in the ghettos of the past and present in general were the flashbacks. As mentioned in the Hirsch article, the form and content of flashbacks were used in this film to allow the audience to experience the PTSD of the main character, Sol. I specifically want to talk about the form of these flashbacks. As mentioned in the article, the quick cuts and lack of transitions to the flashbacks were meant to surprise the audience, giving them a feeling of anxiety similar to that of the main character. In addition, the timing and brevity of the flashbacks heightened this sense of anxiety and confusion.
The different ethnic groups were connected in the Pawnbroker through their shared suffering, loneliness, and need for support. Representatives of many ethnic groups came to the pawn shop to sell what little they had for much needed cash, or simply to have the opportunity to talk to someone. They were all connected because they needed compassion from the pawnbroker who no longer had a way of expressing it. The structure of the flashbacks clearly emphasized this point. For example, when Sol impaled his hand on the spike at the end of the film, a flashback occurred consisting of rapid cuts between pictures of numerous characters who had come into the shop. Not only was the audience forced to make a connection between the anxiety produced by by these rapid images and the characters in the images, but also between Sol’s physical pain and the patrons’ emotional pain.
Sol’s flashbacks connected the members of the ghetto of the present with those in the ghetto of the past as well. First of all, his flashbacks all contained elements of pain, even the flashback of the picnic for that was the day his life was shattered. The fact that both ghettos were represented in those flashbacks provides a connection between the two ghettos. This connection is the pain experienced in them. In addition, similarities between the two ghettos sometimes triggered his flashbacks. For example, when the prostitute came into the pawnshop in trouble, needing money and to keep a secret from her dangerous boss, Sol had a flashback to when his wife was forced into prostitution by the similarly domineering Nazis. Parallels were drawn not only between the emotions experienced by the individuals in both time periods, but between similar situations they found themselves mired in as well.
