Finding James Cain's Life in Mildred Pierce
An individual is greatly influenced by his/her environment, life
challenges, and experiences. As a result, in addition to imagination, a
novelist uses his life experiences to create his/her books. The influence
of James Cain's life in his writing is obvious. In Mildred Pierce, James
Cain utilized his characters to portray the hardships suffered in the
Great Depression, characteristics that impressed him about his mother, and
his experience with love.
James Cain employed his experience of the Great Depression as a context of
Mildred Pierce. Like any American who lived during this period, he
suffered from this economic slowdown. In November 1931, Cain came to
Hollywood to start a six-month contract with Paramount; however, "within
six months of his arrival in Hollywood, Cain was out of job in the middle
of the Depression"(Contemporary Authors Online). Layoffs were common
because of the bad recession. Thus, although James Cain attained a job at
Columbia, he quickly lost it (Skenazy 12). Consequently, Cain used the
effects of the late 1920's market crash to create the story of Mildred
Pierce. Bert, Mildred's husband, lost all his invested money in the AT&T
stock on "Black Thursday of 1929, and his plunge to ruin was so rapid he
could hardly see Pierce Homes disappear on his way down" (Cain 10).
Similar to Bert, Cain was financially unstable, with a wife and two
children to support. Cain wrote some stories and essays; nevertheless, the...
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...pedia of World Biography Supplement, Vol. 19.
Gale Group, 1999. Reproduced in Biography Resource
Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: The Gale Group 2001.
(http://www.galenet.com/servlet/BioRC)
Hoopes, Roy. Cain: The Biography of James M. Cain. Southern
Illinois: University Press, 1987.
Marling, William. Hard-Boiled Fiction. Case Western Reserve
University. Updated 2 August 2001.
(http://www.cwru.edu/7177060/artsci/engl/marling/hardboiled/Cain%20James.HTM)
Murray, Bill. James M. Cain: July 1, 1892 - October 27,
1977.(http://www2.rmcil.edu/users/dhaynes/hum120/caincainbio.htm)
Skenazy, Paul. Cain James M. (James Mallahan), 1892-1977.
New York: Continuum, 1989.
Adaptation of James Cain’s Mildred Pierce In contemporary film making, “Hollywood-ization” generally refers to the re-creation of a classic work in a form more vulgar and sexually explicit than the original in an effort to boost movie attendance. After all, sex and violence sell. However, from the mid-1930’s to the 1950’s, “Hollywood-ization” referred to the opposite case where controversial books had to be purified to abide by the Production Code of 1934.[1] This occurred to many of James Cain’s
Love and Hate in James Cain's Mildred Pierce Some may say that the character Mildred Pierce of the novel, Mildred Pierce by James Cain, may be a good role model for an entrepreneur or a single working mother. Some may say that she was hopelessly devoted to her ungrateful daughter, Veda. Some may also argue that Veda was a terrible daughter who lacked compassion, sincerity, and most of all, respect. As true as that may all be, the candlelight glowing about the flawless