The New Jersey Institute of Technology's
Electronic Theses & Dissertations Project

Title:	Wickedness in high places : a rhetorical analysis of the film Hitler's Children
Author:	James, Alicia Pearlette
View Online:	njit-etd2003-047 (xiii, 186 pages ~ 19.2 MB pdf)
Department:	Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
Degree:	Master of Science
Program:	Professional and Technical Communication
Document Type:	Thesis
Advisory Committee:	Lynch, Robert Edward (Committee chair) Coppola, Nancy (Committee member) O'Connor, John E. (Committee member)
Date:	2003-05
Keywords:	Propaganda
Availability:	Unrestricted
Abstract:	The premise of this investigation is that propaganda works best when presented through a fictional work rather than through factual documents. The fact/fiction combination of the non-fiction book, Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi (1941) and the fictional feature-length film, Hitler's Children (1943) is used to illustrate how film propagandists use camera angles, lighting, music, dialogue, narration, storyline, footage from other films, and cinematic conventions to dramatize and emphasize several scenes from the book. Attention is also paid to scenes in the film that dramatize government war aims, as supplied by the Bureau of Motion Pictures of the Office of War Information. An analysis of the book and film reveals that propaganda, especially when conveyed through fiction, works best when it reinforces and builds upon the viewer's pre-existing beliefs.