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Conformism in the 1950s
The influence of American culture 1950s
Television's influence on american culture
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Sloan Wilson published a great novel in 1955 based on his own life, The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit which is presented as an illustration of stereotypical 1950s conformity. In a time when the belief that the normal family was the most important part of America, Betsy Rath is rearing her children and is very influenced, consciously and subconsciously, by the existing thinking of that time. While being the perfectly supportive wife that Tom needs, she is far from the domestic goddess showed by the mid-century media. In fact, she is very human in her mistakes and flaws. Only her constant cheerleading has kept her husband from losing momentum, even as she struggles with their dissatisfying lives, their
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Betsy has never been a quiet person and she has never been afraid to disagree or speak up to Tom. When she gets this new interest of hers she starts using her voice outside the house as well, and there is a significant scene during a town hall meeting. Without thinking or talking to Tom about it, she gets up and lets her voice be heard: “The Children need a new school,” Betsy continued “Don’t let our housing project be used as a weapon against…” (246). for the first time she does something where she can feel important. She is the one who does all the calculating and measuring to develop the property. She figures out how to make as much money as possible with the land they inherit, and there is a sense of her finding out that there is more to life than being a …show more content…
The media influenced society consciously and subconsciously as demonstrated by the Rath’s love of television. Their three children cannot get enough of their constant western movies with lots of violence and blasting guns. Betsy realizes the inappropriate nature of this entertainment and it infuriates her: “No more television. I’m going to give the damn set away” (66). She devise alternative sources of entertainment “Instead of shooting them off to the television set, we’re going to sit in a family group and read aloud. And you ought to get your mandolin fixed up. We could have friends in and sing- we’ve been having too much passive entertainment” (66). She is forging a new, honest path for her family. They will develop the Rath property and make money while benefiting the community. Her family will be engaged and thoughtful rather than passive
In the 1950’s becoming a wife, having and raising children and taking care of the home was the primary goal for most women. Post war brides were marrying young, having children at significant and unrivaled rates, and settling into roles that would ultimately shape a generation. This ideal notwithstanding, women were entering the workplace like never before and changing the face of American business forever. In the movie The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit directed in 1956 by Nunnally Johnson, we get an inkling of the type of voice American women would develop in the character of Betsy Rath. We are introduced to a wife and mother who leverage her role in the family to direct and influence. The decade of the 50’s signify the beginnings of the duplicity that women would embrace in America, being homemakers and independent women.
In the exposition of the story, Minus immediately delves into the characters, introducing us to both and young Carrie Johnson and Mrs. Cado P. Clark, the main characters in the story. She also gives us a physical description of Carrie, as well as a beginning presentation of Mrs. Clark’s character. Of Carrie, Minus writes, “…Carrie had come out of the South, the red clay clinging to her misshapen heels, made migrant by the disintegration of a crumbling age” also “Carrie’s wide brown nostrils...”(Girl, Colored 1940). Of Mrs. Clark’s character as person from the upper class; she writes “A pale blonde woman opened the door. Wisps of inoffensive hair strayed from the leather thongs of a dozen curlers set at variance on her head.”Minus instantly offers a feel for how each character will shape up to be, and presents a chance for us (the reader) to attach ourselves to these perhaps not-so-unique individuals. Without further ado, Minus expounds on her both her characters initial descriptions of throughout the remainder of the story. We learn that Carrie has a quick temper and she easily angered but manages to keep of her emotions under control, Mrs. Clark ha...
The media is a powerful tool and has the ability to influence and change one’s overall perspective of the world and the position they play in it. Although Television shows such as Friday Night Lights are seen as entertainment by consumers, its storyline contributes to the social construction of reality about class in the United States.
In the mid-1900s, the Unites States was rapidly changing from the introduction of a new standard of technology. The television had become the dominant form of entertainment. This seemingly simple thing quickly impacted the average American’s lifestyle and culture by creating new standards for the average household. New, intimidating concepts came about, and they began embedding themselves into American culture. It became clear to some people that some of these ideas could give rise to new social problems, which it did. Sixty- five years ago, in a library basement, a man named Ray Bradbury wrote a book called Fahrenheit 451, which was able to accurately predict social problems that would occur because he saw that Americans are addicted to gaining quick rewards and new technology, and also obsessed with wanting to feel content with their lives.
Twain supports this idea by arguing that how a person is brought up often affects their entire life, seeing as how the majority of life-changing decisions occur in one’s childhood. Throughout the beginning of the novel, Tom’s lavish upbringing was one of luxury, which is telling later on in his resulting attitudes. Considering his socioeconomic status, and his family’s accumulated wealth, his childhood was one of stereotypical, wealthy, aristocratic, 1830’s, white child. One example of this is seen on page 17 of the novel, “Tom got all the petting, Chambers got none. Tom got all the delicacies, Chambers got mush and milk, and clabber without sugar.” Here Twain displays how extravagant Tom’s childhood was in comparison to Chambers. By including this set of details in the storyline, it shows that a person’s race affects their daily lives and routines, eventually shaping their future. Tom was fed delicacies and prepared meals, while Chambers received only enough food to keep him strong in order so that he can eventually work the fields on the plantation, since he was a slave. This also displays how Chambers was considered and treated as subhuman and property, given his race and extremely low social status in the early to mid 1800’s. Another example of how an upbringing shapes a person’s
Some critics have argued that Richard Wright’s women are “flat, one dimensional stereotypes, portrayed primarily in terms of their relationship to the male character”. (Quote, p540) However, in Uncle Tom’s Children, Wright resents three very distinct types of female characters who did not fit this description. Wright portrays women as an Avenger, a Sufferer and a Mother figure whose actions propel the stories to their final conclusion. In the story “Bright and Morning Star” Wright places the protagonist, Aunt Sue, in a domestic environment. “Her hands followed a lifelong ritual of toil” (pg222) as she cleans and cooks. Interestingly, Aunt Sue is the only heroine in the stories, who shows a different type of bravery than perhaps shown by the male figures in other stories. She is brave in the face of the loss of her two sons; she is brave as she does not show weakness to the white men who attempt to control her and make her do their bidding. She does not allow herself to be bound by the conventions of society. She speaks her mind to the white men who invade her home and states “Ah don’t care who Ahm talking t!” (pg238). Aunt Sue is portrayed as a cunning woman, who hides behind men’s perception of her as weak and uses it to her advantage. Her final act of bravery in the story is to giver herself up to death, before the white men can take her life from her. Wright also portrays women as sufferers in his work. Sarah, in “Long Black Song” suffers from isolation and is stuck in a loveless marriage. The gap between men and women is very much evident in this story. Sarah is very much dependent on Silas for company, security and items of comfort. Silas is allowed to exceed from the isolation imposed on his wife. Even when Sarah flees from ...
Flannery O’Connor uses Mrs. Turpin to show the evils of prejudice and pride. One should always try not to judge others by their appearances, actions, or looks. Man was placed on this earth not to take dominion over others who might be seen as lower, but to serve others with humility and grace.
To begin with, the narrator provides research and graphs to show how people feel as they watch different shows. Furthermore, she gets into other research about television, except this time about interests, for instance, inspiration state and moral ambiguity state, comfort, social commentary, and irrelevance, and fantasy and imagination.
The major idea I want to write about has to do with the way Mrs. Hale stands behind Mrs. Wright even though it seems like everyone else especially (the men) would rather lock her up and throw away the key. We see this right away when she gets on the County Attorney for putting down Mrs. Wright’s house keeping. I find this to be wonderfully symbolic in that most women of this time usually allowed the men to say whatever they wanted about their sex, never standing up for themselves or each other
The many evils that exist within television’s culture were not foreseen back when televisions were first put onto the market. Yet, Postman discovers this very unforgiveable that the world did not prepare itself to deal with the ways that television inherently changes our ways of communication. For example, people who lived during the year 1905, could not really predict that the invention of a car would not make it seem like only a luxurious invention, but also that the invention of the car would strongly affect the way we make decisions.
Suburban life in the 1950s was ideal, but not ideal for the women. Women were continuously looked at as the typical suburban housewife. In Richard Yates’ novel, Revolutionary Road, we are given the chance to see the dynamics of the Wheeler family and of those around them. Through the use of theme, tone and major symbolism in the novel, we are shown the perspective of gender roles in the 1950s. The author shows the reader the struggles of strict gender roles and how the protagonist of the story will do just about anything to escape from it.
Throughout the book, McKibben compares the two experiences, contrasting the amount of useful information he received from nature, as opposed to the amount of useless, hollow information the television provided. He goes on in the book to make several very important observations about how the television has fundamentally changed our culture and lifestyle, from the local to the global level. Locally, McKibben argues, television has a detrimental effect on communities.
In Jack Finney's short story, "Contents of a Dead Man's Pocket," the main character, Tom Beneke, over works and doesn't spend much time with his wife, Clair. He soon regrets that after he spends a lot of time working on a paper, then loses it and realizes that he did all of the work for nothing. Finney uses setting, internal conflict, and dialogue in his story to create suspense and to develop the theme.
While at first glance the novel seems to be about the consequences of drugs or the War on Drugs, the drug use is never extreme or life-threatening. However, the consequences of television addiction are described in great detail, even if just referenced in the characters’ mannerisms. The Tube portrays a false sense of reality and makes viewers believe in a perfect world. It reduces the viewers’ view of the world to a mere peephole, a narrow “Tube” perhaps, focusing only on the quirky antics of the Brady family and the wardrobe of those that lived through the period and, gradually, viewers become obsessed with this false utopia and are unable to cope with the real world without incorporating it into their
The movie, Fifty Shades of Grey, portrayals its dominant ideology sexuality through the story between two main characters: a female literature student named Anastasia Steele, and a young male billionaire Christian Grey. In this movie, it indicates strong traditional heterosexuality, and it reflects the gender roles about submission and dominance, which leads to gender inequality through misinformation. Although entertaining and refreshing, this movie brings more negative impacts more than positive ones.