Capítulo 20 de 27 · 4'04"
Kirby boasts that he is a lion with the sharpest claws, and Grandpa answers by calling him a failure: "A failure as a man, a failure as a human being, even a failure as a father." The chapter ends in night court, where the judge learns the great banker has been held in the drunk tank.
❝ Monólogo · 9 frases Grandpa's verdict on Kirby
It builds from poorer to failure to a single tear, taking Kirby's whole life apart in one breath.
Kirby in the Drunk Tank
Kirby tells Grandpa he will teach him how to do business, describing himself as a lion in the jungle with the sharpest claws. Grandpa refuses to be impressed and delivers a brutal verdict, calling him a failure as a man and as a father. Later, in night court, the judge is amused to find Kirby in the drunk tank.
The chapter is the film's moral climax, and it is not gentle. Kirby presents himself as a predator, and Grandpa answers by taking the metaphor seriously: if you live like a lion, you die alone. His judgment, "a failure as a man, a failure as a human being, even a failure as a father," is the hardest line in the movie, and it lands because Grandpa has just been shown to be generous with everyone else. Then the film undercuts the seriousness with a courtroom joke, as the judge learns that the famous banker spent the night in the drunk tank. The two scenes together are the film's whole argument: the man who has everything is the poorest one there.
A1–C2 es la escala MCER. Las tarjetas por encima del nivel elegido se atenúan y la reproducción no se pausa en ellas.
“You may be a high mogul to yourself, Mr. Kirby, but to me you're a failure.”
The parallel structure splits how Kirby sees himself from how others see him, and the verdict lands cold.
Neutral
“A failure as a man, a failure as a human being, even a failure as a father.”
The repeated a failure as builds like three hammer blows, and the last one hurts most.
literary
“When your time comes, I doubt if a single tear will be shed over you.”
Measuring a life by whether one tear falls is a quiet, chilling way to say nobody will mourn him.
literary
“You're poorer than any of these people that you call scum.”
It flips money against the man who worships it: the richer, the poorer.
Formal
You're poorer than any of these people that you call scum. Because I'll guarantee at least they've got some friends. But you, with your jungle and your long claws, as you call them you'll wind up your miserable existence without anything you can call a friend. You may be a high mogul to yourself, Mr. Kirby, but to me you're a failure. A failure as a man, a failure as a human being, even a failure as a father. When your time comes, I doubt if a single tear will be shed over you. The world will probably cry "good riddance." That's a nice prospect, Mr. Kirby. I hope you'll enjoy it. I hope you'll get some comfort out of all this coin you've been sweating over then.
Siguiente · 21take the trouble toLa escena: The Sycamores Pay the FineKirby brags about being a predator who climbed over everyone else. Grandpa points out that he has no friends and that even his own son matters to him only as a tool.
He means Kirby is poorer than the people he calls scum, because they have friends and he does not. He measures wealth in relationships, not money.
He apologizes and says he has not lost his temper like that in thirty years, and he offers Kirby his new harmonica as a way of making up for it.
The clerk tells him that one of the people arrested is A.P. Kirby, the famous banker, and the judge is amused that such a man was held in the drunk tank.
