I never tested all that well on standardized tests, but I used to love the old SAT analogies. Puppies are to Dogs, as Kittens are to Cats!
So, here’s an analogy. Sort of. Bucky is to Hydra, what the Avengers are to… blank. To the Accords, to the US, to the combined governments of the world, to SHIELD, to Secretary Ross via the UN.
Rewatching Captain America: Civil War the other day, I realized that the complete and utter control Hydra had over Bucky, to use as a weapon however they chose, at their complete discretion, that this is actually what Secretary Ross would prefer the Avengers were. Subject to the UN panel (but preferably subject to government control). The Winter Soldier is the extreme example of that control.
Secretary Ross has that pesky problem of free will to contend with. Hydra neatly removed that problem.
It’s chilling through, at least to me, to see the slippery slope that Accords would/could set in motion.
Bucky: Who the hell is Bucky?
Bucky: The man on the bridge; who was he?
Bucky: I knew him.
Bucky: But I knew him.
Bucky: No I don’t!
Bucky: No I don’t!
Bucky: Shut up!
Bucky: You’re my mission. You’re. my. mission!
[That’s it. That’s literally it. That’s the whole of it.]
Hello friend! Thank you so much, I’m glad you enjoy it :). My apologies for the delayed reply – I recently moved across country and it’s been a time dealing with all the real life stuff.
So first off, yay for Stucky Big Bang and yay for interfaith Barnes family! That’s the way I write them myself, so I didn’t have to research much to answer this question. Yay for all the Yiddish! Do you speak it?? That is super cool, and I am all for multilingual fics. I hope you will send me the link to your story once posted! I would love to read it.
Families immigrating to New York during the relevant time period (you’re most likely talking about direct or first generation immigrant families, as New York City saw its largest wave of immigration between the 1870s through 1924) were likely to spend their first few years in Manhattan, and then make for their respective ethnic enclaves in the outer boroughs (Brooklyn and Queens, primarily, but many made questionable life decisions and moved to Long Island and New Jersey). Jewish families mostly made that trip from the Lower East Side out to Brooklyn neighborhoods like Crown Heights (what was known in the 1930s as Eastern Parkway), Flatbush, Brownsville (probably more lower class than middle), or Williamsburg (definitely more religiously orthodox than secular).
As far as what their homes might have looked like, you’re looking at brownstones in Crown Heights and Flatbush, and tenements in Brownsville and Williamsburg. You can find links to relevant images and descriptions here, and more generally in my master meta post.
Please allow me to point you to some more specific resources! 1940s New York is one of my favorite websites, because it gives a great breakdown for what neighborhoods were called at the time, what they looked like, and the demographic breakdown block by block. To give you some context about how far that median rent could stretch, please check out this excellent meta post.
I have some light reading for you regarding Jewish enclaves, and Brownsville specifically. If you’re looking for some more in depth resources, I recently purchased Jews of Brooklyn and Brownsville: the Jewish Years myself (I can’t vouch 100%, as I haven’t had time to read through them entirely, but they are highly rated). Jews of Brooklyn is somewhat available as an ebook?
Hopefully this is helpful! If you have more questions or are wondering anything specifically, please let me know. If you’d like me to answer something privately, please say so in a message.
Thank you to @dancinbutterfly for the opportunity to clarify: being raised Jewish is not limited to neighborhoods, but very much does include religious traditions. It’s not limited to neighborhoods, food, clothes, etc. The cultural history of Brooklyn is very much tied to Jewish culture, and I welcome anyone reading this to reblog or comment to add their own information, suggestions, resources, etc.
Something that had already caught my attention when I first watched Captain America: Civil War, and that now receives my full love, is the scene at the end of the movie when Steve says “I can do this all day” once Tony tells him to surrender. While it is cool in itself that it mirrors skinny Steve from the 1940s, it is cooler to me for another reason.
As soon as Steve says “I can do this all day”, a heavily beaten Bucky lying on the floor, and devoid of his metal arm reaches for Tony’s leg, to stop him from hitting Steve. This mirrors the real Bucky, the guy who befriended Steve when both were children, the guy who always got Steve’s back, who didn’t care about Captain America but for the little guy from Brooklyn who was too dumb to run from a fight.
To me that’s the crucial Bucky moment of the whole movie. That’s the moment when you know why Steve is fighting for Bucky. Inside of that broken, pretty dehumanised man, is still that kid from Brooklyn who couldn’t bare to see his best friend hurting.
The follow up of the “I can do this all day” scene in Captain America: the First Avenger is this:
They did go to the future. Yes, things changed and both of them changed, but at the same time they are still the same. The tiny, skinny, sickly kid who would never run from a fight, and his best friend, who would be with him till the end of the line.
Some time ago there was a post on my dashboard saying that the Captain America trilogy is beautifully symmetric, for Steve Rogers picked up the shield for Bucky and gave the shield up for Bucky, becoming Captain America and retiring from that position because of his friend. But to me that’s not it.
To me this trilogy is beautifully symmetric because of those two mirroring scenes I talked about above. Because Steve Rogers can expend his whole day, not to say his whole life, fighting for what he believes is right, and Bucky Barnes will always get his back, till the end of the line. Be it in the 1940s or the 21st century.
Captain America is Steve Rogers. A shield doesn’t make him. Being able to “do this all day” is what makes Captain America, be it in the past or in the future. From beginning to end Steve Rogers is not a perfect soldier, but a good man. At the same time, Bucky Barnes is not what Hydra made of him, what it made him do. He isn’t just a perfect soldier. Inside the perfect soldier “ready to comply” has always been trapped a good man.
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