It’s a Wonderful Life

Questions:
1. What is the basic plot of the movie?

- On Christmas Eve as George Bailey is contemplating suicide. Prayers for George are heard in
heaven, the guardian angel Clarence, a second-class angel who has yet to earn his wings, is
tasked with saving him. He is assigned to help George by showing him what life would have
been like if he had never existed. First, however, he is shown highlights of George’s life in the
small town of Bedford Falls. Through a number of acts beginning in childhood, George is
revealed as selfless and kindhearted. After the death of his father, George sets aside his dreams
of traveling the world in order to run his family’s savings and loan business. His decision earns
the enmity of greedy banker Mr. Potter, who is determined to close the business. As the years
pass, George marries Mary and has children. Then, Uncle Billy unknowingly gives the
company’s bank deposit to Mr. Potter, who secretly keeps the money. When the bank examiner
discovers the shortage later that night, George realizes that he will be held responsible and sent
to jail. Distraught, he gets drunk and heads to a bridge in order to kill himself. At this point
Clarence appears and shows George what life would be like for his loved ones had he never
lived. The experience renews George’s passion for life, and his trials and hardships in turn spark
an outpouring of love and benevolence in the small community. After returning home, he is
visited by family and friends, who donate money to cover the missing deposit proving that
George is “the richest man in town.” As they sing, a bell on the Christmas tree rings, indicating
that Clarence has earned his wings.

2. What is the ethical dilemma the main character has to deal with?

- As a child, George was selfless, risking his own life to save his brother from drowning which
costs him the hearing in one ear. Then, with the life of another child by not delivering a bottle of
pills that had been inadvertently poisoned by his boss. As an adult, he gave up his dreams of
traveling the world and going to college to stay home and manage the business after his father
passed away and for his brother to go to college instead of him. Then, when his mother urges
him to try to steal away Mary. Next, comes when there is a run on the Building and Loan just as
George and Mary are leaving on their honeymoon. Yet again, George makes a huge personal
sacrifice and uses the money he saved for the trip to keep it from closing and out of Potter’s
clutches yet again. And then comes when Mr. Potter is trying to hire George away from the
Building and Loan with a large salary. George views the offer as an invitation to corruption, and
nobly turns it down. He detests Potter and all he stands for; if he agrees to work for the man, he
cannot avoid embracing Potter’s values, or at least becoming connected to them. He will have to
be loyal; he will be dependent on a man whose ethics he reviles. Throughout his life, George
lived by a creed that always placed human need above riches, and, as a result, his only wealth
was in his friends and family.

3. Who or what helps him decide what to do?

- Through the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence. He has come to Bedford Falls to prove
to George that his life is worth living. As a way of showing George just how valuable he is to the
community with all the lives he has touched, and helped, through his existence. Clarence creates
the alternate reality in which George had never been born. By witnessing the town’s tragedy and
havoc that would have occurred, George sees that the fate of the town would have been far
different and how much worse off many people would be. Without George's influence and his
care in keeping Bedford Falls a beautiful place to live, the town falls completely under Potter's
influence, and becomes a vulgar and mean place. Clarence was able to convince George that his
life is still worth living, and that in fact, the most valuable things in life have little to do with
money. And that his life has meant greatly to the people of the town. As he regains his faith and
is given a miracle from everyone he believed in to save him from financial ruin. Moreover,
George's family grounds him and helps him find meaning in the life he's ended up with in
Bedford Falls. Family is what George has leaned on, and it's what ultimately gets him through
his crisis.

4. Who are the stakeholders involved?

- Everyone’s life does touch many others, and everyone has played a part in the chaotic ordering
of random occurrences for good. The stakeholders involved are Mary, his children, the bank, or
his obligations, and even the town people, in their dreams and their hopes of building a better
future for themselves and their families. They’ve become the stakeholders thanks to George’s
influence. So when he's at his lowest point, everyone come through with spiritual and practical
support. As the entire community rallies to save George and the Building and Loan, out of
gratitude for his many unselfish acts through the years. Without the Building and Loan to
symbolize caring and a mutually supportive community, the ethical culture of the town would be
rotted. Thus, this make an emotional investment in George and his family, an outlay of the heart
which happens in tandem with the townspeople entrusting him with their savings. Since for
many working people in town, this company is the only hope that they will be able to buy a
house. In the end, the community saves itself.

5. What terms and concepts from this course did you see illustrated in this movie?

- It’s a Wonderful Life is to the power of free will when the going gets tough. In every instance
when George faces adversities, he could make the easy choice but instead, he makes the harder
decision to delay immediate pleasure in order to achieve or preserve his larger, lasting, most
profound values. The measure of our humanity has nothing to do with fame or money, but with
how we live our life on a day-to-day basis. Even the most ethical people usually have their
breaking point, the point at which ethical principles will be trumped by personal interest. Mary
has been the realist to George's idealist. There are parts that George Bailey was the rare idealist
who would stand true even when he was at personal risk. And Mary always knew what she
wanted: a family and a home in Bedford Falls with George Bailey. On the other hand, the greedy
monopolist and a coldhearted capitalist, Mr. Potter as seen as all of his dastardly schemes depend
on the people of Bedford Falls going along with them. As he is out to take over Bedford Falls
and consolidate all the power he can. He wants to dominate the town and prevent people from
owning their own homes, forcing them to live in his slums and pay rent to him. Since the banks
and many of the other local businesses are run or controlled by him. But there comes George
where he makes a point of improving his community and protecting it from mercenary and
corporate interests. Thus, he ends up embodying the heart of small-town ethics and sensible
values.