Joan Crawford's life appeared to mirror the characters that she portrayed on film in several ways. By analyzing the 1945 film Mildred Pierce, in which Crawford plays the titular character, one can see how Mildred's character is designed to reflect American perspectives of women.

For example, in the film and in real life, Crawford was able to reinvent herself and become more successful as time went on. However, despite her successes, society still maintained that in order for a woman to be complete, she had to have a man in her life, thus propagating the social stigma that a woman could not be independently successful. Allen writes, "in many of the woman's films what the heroine strives so hard to achieve is given up at the end of the film in favor of the 'happy ending'; a chance to be a traditional wife and mother." Another example is that women...
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