During the 1950's there are numerous themes that are explored in Elaine Tyler May's Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era. Such themes as the baby boom, hygiene, sex, bomb shelters, and marriage are some of the major examples. These particular themes and ideas can be seen in high volume through magazines, political cartoons, and advertisements especially during the 1950's.
Hygiene related advertisements were some of the many that I kept seeing over and over while looking through Life magazine. One in particular that caught my eye was a Colgate dental cream ad.Life It has a mother, son, and dentist all in it. The mother is applying the cream to the toothbrush of the son and the dentist is shown in another picture holding up an x-ray of perfectly healthy and un-decayed molars. The message behind the Colgate dental cream is the push for proper healthy hygiene during the 1950's. The audience for this ad is directed toward mothers or homemakers. During the 1950's it was the responsibility of the mother to teach and provide their children of the importance of good hygiene. The mother applying the toothpaste to her sons' toothbrush with a big pearly white smile symbolizes the effectiveness of the product as well as the significance of the homemaker to teach her children proper hygiene. Also the picture of the dentist holding up the x-ray of the back molars having no tooth decay symbolizes the effectiveness of the product as well as the back up needed to solidify the products success.
"In 1951, for example, Charles Walter Clarke, a Harvard physician and executive director of the American Social Hygiene Association, published a major article in the Journal of Social Hygiene on the dangers of atomic attack. "Following an atomic bomb explosion," he wrote, "families would become separated and lost from each other in confusion. Supports of normal family and community life would be broken down
there would develop among many people, especially youths
the reckless psychological state often seen following great disasters." This wording seen in Tyler Mays, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era supports that the theme in the US during the 1950's was to have and strive for good social hygiene. This advertisement would draw attention to its readers by the promotion and benefits that it offers.
Mrs. Carrie Watts, the main character in the movie, personifies the three common dilemmas of old age, e.g., “Where will I live? How will I cope by myself? And, What should I do about money” (Solie, 2004, pp. 91, 95, & 99). Having lived most of her life in the wide and open field of the town of Bountiful, Mrs. Watts cherished the thought of coming home to Bountiful. There had been several attempts in the past, that were all foiled by her over-protective son and overbearing daughter-in-law. Time and time again, she would express to her son, her desire to go back to Bountiful. The son, for the practical reason of employment opportunity, always decided against the idea of going back to Bountiful. It was a toss
A main theme in this small town’s culture is the issue of gender and the division of roles between the two. Not uncommon for the 1950’s, many women were taught from a young age to find a good man, who could provide for them and a family, settle down and have children – the ideal “happy family.” As Harry states after singing the showstopper “Kids,” “I have the All-American family: A great wife, 2 wonderful kids and a good job.”
Though the idea becoming a wife and mother was the most common occupation for women in the 1950’s and by no means was it simple. Women experienced immense pressure to act and be a certain way. The conformity of the 1950’s frowned upon things that weren’t apart of the established way of doing things. In the movie The Man in the Gray Flannel S...
Elaine Tyler May's Homeward Bound weaves two traditional narratives of the fifties -- suburban domesticity and rampant anticommunism -- into one compelling historical argument. Aiming to ascertain why, unlike both their parents and children, postwar Americans turned to marriage and parenthood with such enthusiasm and commitment, May discovers that cold war ideology and the domestic revival [were] two sides of the same coin: postwar Americans' intense need to feel liberated from the past and secure in the future. (May, p. 5-6, 10) According to May, "domestic containment" was an outgrowth of the fears and aspirations unleashed after the war -- Within the home, potentially dangerous social forces of the new age might be tamed, where they could contribute to the secure and fulfilling life to which postwar women and men aspired.(May, p. 14) Moreover, the therapeutic emphases of fifties psychologists and intellectuals offered private and personal solutions to social problems. The family was the arena in which that adaptation was expected to occur; the home was the environment in which people could feel good about themselves. In this way, domestic containment and its therapeutic corollary undermined the potential for political activism and reinforced the chilling effects of anticommunism and the cold war consensus.(May, p.14)
In Lynn Peril's Pink Think: Becoming a Woman in Many Uneasy Lessons, it entered the generation during the 1950s to the 1960s, the era of the Cold War. At the time, the fear of nuclear warfare with Soviet Russia was on everyone's mind, the idea that it could happen at anytime discomforted everyone. The whole Cold War scare became a culture change for America. For preparation, thanks to hyper suburbia, fam...
The era of the 1950s was an iconic era in American history. The American dream of freedom, self empowerment, and success was growing. After world war 1, the ideals of american culture changed. The country saw the aftermath of the war in the countries of western Europe where communism was beginning to take hold, and the U.S tried to be the opposite. Marriage was propagated to be the opposite of the war torn families across the world, where women were working in factories and children fending for themselves with no home. The American “nuclear family” strived to be one where the father supported his family, the wife stayed home and provided for her children. Family became a national priority, and women were taught that a happy marriage and home
The 1950s seemed to have brought families of all different kinds together and spend quality time with each other. Fathers were the head of the home out working all day to supply money for his family while the children were at school and his wife was at home. The children were gone all day just like their father but they were learning and obtaining a good education from school. The mother was a stay at home housewife doing all different chores, maintenances around the house, and preparing food for the
As mentioned before, sociologists Coontz and Hochschild further elaborate upon Parsons and Bales’ concepts of the American family, but they mostly critique the idea of the male-breadwinner family. One of the main arguments Coontz and Hochschild present is the decline of the male-breadwinner family due to the economic changes of the United States and the arising social norms of consumerism. Because Parsons and Bales never considered how the changes throughout society would affect family, they believed the male-breadwinner family would continue to be a functional type of family for everyone. However, within her text, “What We Really Miss about the 1950s,” Coontz specifically discusses the major expense of keeping mothers at home as consumption norms...
The 1950s was a time when American life seemed to be in an ideal model for what family should be. People were portrayed as being happy and content with their lives by the meadia. Women and children were seen as being kind and courteous to the other members of society while when the day ended they were all there to support the man of the house. All of this was just a mirage for what was happening under the surface in the minds of everyone during that time as seen through the women, children, and men of this time struggled to fit into the mold that society had made for them.
Hartmann, Susan M. The Home Front and Beyond: American women in the 1940s. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1982
The 1950s were a decade in American history that was filled with many of successes. Everybody was excited and relieved now that the war was finally over and that their loved ones were safely home with their families. Families in the 1950s were very conservative and always had the perfect family image, until the “teenagers” came along. Teens were not the most likable people in society, because they listened to crazy, tasteless music and were known as rebels. The crazy, tasteless music changed music forever. Since the 50s were right after WWII, many foreign policies emerged, some provided assistance to countries that were in need. The U.S. was also dealing with and epidemic for years, until the early 50s when a vaccine was created which also changed the way vaccinations were given to the public. The 1950’s were the most influential decade towards contemporary America because, throughout this decade not only did we discover vaccinations that saved hundreds of live, but we also had the rise of Rock N’ Roll which changed music forever including a foreign policy which helped rebuild economies in Europe called the Marshall Plan.
THOSE OF US WHO grew up in the 1950s got an image of the American family that was not, shall we say, accurate. We were told, Father Knows Best, Leave It to Beaver, and Ozzie and Harriet were not just the way things were supposed to be—but the way things were
After viewing an episode of I Love Lucy, positive aspects of family and financial issues can be clearly seen in the 1950s. The Ricardo's are middle class, Ricky works as a club band leader and Lucy stays home and `poured all her energies into their nuclear family.' (37) This is a positive side of the 1950s because compared to a few decades before, `women quit their jobs as soon as they became pregnant,' (36) and concentrated more on raising children. These families were much more stable and made almost `60 percent of kids were born into male breadwinner-female homemaker families,' (37) which is a important factor for children to have a good childhood.
Family life was a lot different today than it was in 50’s it was seen as materialistic nation also a social status decade(Stuart A. kallen “The 1950’s). After having the victory in world war 2 a lot of young veterans coming and finding girls, to settle down and have a family(Becky Bradley). Which came to be called the baby boom generation. Which in this time and in within the family life and what it was like to live in 1950’s neighborhood was that everyone knew each other (Stuart A. kallen). In the 50’s we were not afraid of lawsuits if you touch person or you did this etc. We were more together as a family. When times got hard are first was not to run from our partner but to, but to stay through thick and thin (Becky Bradley). Children growing up always had something to do from mak...
America in the 1950s is often characterized with many important social, political, cultural, and economic events. Many aspects of life changed in the 1950s with the ending of World War Two causing veterans to return home, but also the country continued some of its long time traditions. As veterans returned home, men returned to their job, the economy began to boom, and large families began to move to the suburbs. Socially, culturally, economically and politically America in the 1950s challenged, more than embraced the status quo.