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Aubrey Buck

Mr. Phillips

Cultural Media Literacy

16 December 2019

“Scrooged” Essay

“Scrooged”, a film based on A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, is about a man

named Frank Cross who is unhappy with his life for several reasons. He has no one close to him,

is constantly on edge about his job, and is quite literally obsessed with money. Frank is visited

by three ghosts, past, present, and future, in order to discover what went wrong in his life to

make him so closed off from everyone. Frank begins as a stereotype of a rich man. He is

unconcerned about anyone else and has only money on his mind. His secretary, Grace, is the

opposite of him in relation to class. She is a poor black woman who is struggling with the stress

of her children and her job, while never outwardly showing that struggle. Both characters begin

the movie as one dimensional caricatures of the upper and lower class. Throughout the film,

though, one of those characters becomes much more complex and one stays a stereotype. While

still upholding the stereotypes of how people in the upper-class act versus how people in the

lower-class act, “Scrooged” does challenge these stereotypes by developing some of its

characters into emotionally complex people.

At the beginning of the film, Frank is a complete stereotype of a rich man. He does not

care about his secretary, Grace, his brother, James, or any of his employees. He is only

concerned with if the company he works for makes money from people watching their Christmas

special about Scrooge. Frank does not care about the consumers, either. He says he will “have to
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kill all of you” to his employees when they do not produce the advertisement he was hoping for,

and says that the consumers have to be “so scared to miss it” when speaking of the Christmas

special. He does not care about the quality of the program, but rather cares about the viewership.

He is much like Mr. Burns from “The Simpsons”, rich and uncaring about how what he does will

affect his employees. Frank completely leans into those stereotypes. He is mean because he has

the power to be mean. When Frank’s old business partner, Lou Hayward, comes to warn Frank

of the three ghosts, Frank still does not take his greed seriously, and laughs in the face of Lou.

This is right after he made Grace stay at work even though she had an incredibly important

appointment to take her son, who has not talked since his father died, to. Frank is a self-made

millionaire, so he is so focused on keeping his money that he would do anything to keep it. It is

said that “the percentage of first-generation millionaires is 80 percent, dispelling the idea that

most millionaires just inherit their money from a prior generation” (Stanley). Frank was raised

poor, much like many millionaires, which is why he is so concerned about keeping his money.

He revisits the household he grew up in with the ghost of Christmas past, which is when

complexity is first introduced to Frank. Stepping away from the stereotype of being a completely

cold and unemotional person, he starts to cry when seeing his childhood. Frank also is shown

how happy he was before he was rich. He was in love with a woman named Claire who he had

given up in the pursuit of money. Frank also regrets letting her go when seeing his past. Frank

becomes a person with a few complex emotions and not just a stereotype.

During the middle of the movie, Grace’s family is introduced a bit more. Grace is a

positive stereotype of a hardworking woman, but a stereotype all the same. She is much like

Harriette Winslow on “Family Matters”, always thinking of her family before herself.

Throughout the movie, she never really gets out of this stereotype and never really develops
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emotionally. Grace is a kind woman throughout the entire film, never really stepping away from

that part. She lives with many members of her family and is close with all of them. She seems

like America’s idea of the perfect poor black woman, caring about others and uncomplaining

about her situation. She vocally disagrees with Frank at some points when morals are in question

but does not push him too much. It is not surprising, though, that the filmmakers decided to make

her poor, since “Blacks (20.8%) [have] the second highest poverty rate” (Poverty USA) in

America. The media often plays into what everyone already thinks about a certain group of

people, in this case black people, instead of showing different sides of them. Then, the movie

goes back to Frank, who has somewhat shifted back into a stereotype. He is thrilled when he

hears a woman died while watching an advertisement for his special because “you cannot buy

publicity like that”. At this point, Frank is still leaning into negative stereotypes about rich

people. Then, the ghost of Christmas present shows up and shows Frank what is presently

happening. He sees a kind, poor man he met at a shelter has died because he froze to death.

Frank had previously decided not to give him a couple of dollars after telling Claire, who worked

at that shelter, that if she “want[s] to save somebody, save yourself”, and he regrets it immensely.

He also sees his brother James playing games on Christmas eve. Frank realizes he could have

had that life, but he instead decided to be closed off and worried about money. While Grace stays

the stereotype of a good poor woman, Frank transforms from a stereotype to a complex man with

many emotions: regret, sadness, anger, and sympathy.

At the end of the movie, Frank is visited by the ghost of Christmas future. He sees that he

will die if he does not change his ways. Also, he sees the way Claire transforms if she takes his

words about saving herself to heart. She eventually becomes a rich woman who refuses to help

the needy. When questioned, she says “someone once told me to save myself”. Frank finally
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realizes the absolute importance of kindness over greed. Grace, on the other hand, never really

changes how she acts. A study “looked at more than 800 local and national US news stories and

opinion pieces… [and] the media overwhelmingly depicted black families as poor and dependent

on welfare” (Mohdin). Black people in real life are so often depicted as poor that Grace’s

situation is looked at as completely normal. She has little originality and is presented as many

real black people are presented. By the end of “Scrooged”, Frank is finally kind, advocating for

helping those in need. Frank has become a completely different person, showing that rich people

can have compassion and care about others.

“Scrooged” does lean into stereotypes of the greedy rich and the saintly poor but gives

complex emotions to people in those situations. Frank starts as a terribly selfish and greedy man

with no care in the world about anyone but himself. Throughout the movie, though, he becomes

less of a stereotype of a rich man. He becomes caring and giving, showing that rich people do

have the capacity for growth and for compassion. Grace does not show this difference from

people’s expectations, though. She is shown as a saintly, motherly figure throughout the film.

This is how America wants to see poor women, and she does not challenge that stereotype.

“Scrooged” does challenge stereotypes of the upper class but fails to adequately challenge

stereotypes of the working class.

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Works Cited

Donner, Richard, director. Scrooged. Paramount, 1988.

Mohdin, Aamna. “A Study Shows That the Media Often Presents a Distorted Image of Black

Families.” Quartz, Quartz, 15 Dec. 2017, qz.com/1158041/study-media-portrayal-of-

black-families-versus-white-families-in-the-us/.

Stanley, Thomas J. The Millionaire Next Door. Pocket, 1996.

Poverty USA. “The Population of Poverty USA.” Poverty USA, 2019,

www.povertyusa.org/facts.