The fifties era was an era of consensus and order. As a family, there was a certain image to live up to in order fit into the American dream; however, a family only had to appear American and while it may be argued that Doris Goodwin succeeded in life because she grew up in a typical household in the fifties, that is not the case, and in fact, Goodwin’s life in the fifties did not live up to the stereotypical idea of the fifties time period. The image of being American during the fifties was based on consensus which was seen through the typical American neighborhood. All families were religious, the dads went to work while the moms stayed home and the children were at school, and each family had a favorite baseball team; however, it was not the idea of consensus that allowed Goodwin to succeed in life. (Anderson Class note, “Life at Home in the 50’s” 3 April 2014; Anderson Class notes, “Book Discussion” 8 April 2014) In the fifties, it was assumed of American families to be active Church goers in their respective religions; however, the idea of consensus didn’t quiet live up to its expectations. Families could all be the same through being religious, but still remain separate by believing in different religions. While the idea of consensus was certainly playing a role in that all people were religious, the safe conflict of being different still remained. Goodwin discusses in her book that everyone in her neighborhood was religious, and that her neighbors were active in attending Church services as was her family as well being Catholic. In general, religion laid out how people should behave in a black and white fashion in order to achieve salvation; however, the rules didn’t always match up with what a person wanted to do. For exa... ... middle of paper ... ...et in the World Series. The idea of consensus doesn’t operate well when people acknowledge their differences because consensus requires people to believe they are all alike (Anderson Class notes “Book Discussion” 8 April 2014; Goodwin pp. 61-62; Goodwin pp. 64) In conclusion, it is seen that while the fifties was believed to be an era of consensus, families managed to find small ways to remain different. Goodwin’s success doesn’t come from the idea of consensus during the fifties; however, it comes from her religious background which taught her a methodical approach in order to achieve things she wanted, her parents doing the best they could despite circumstances the family faced, and her love for baseball taught her that even though someone liked or even believed something different than she did, the relationship she shared with that person did not have to suffer.
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)
For this rhetorical analysis paper I chose one of my favorite, and most famous, sports speeches of all time, Lou Gehrig’s farewell to baseball address. Lou Gehrig was a famous baseball player in the 1920’s and 30’s. Lou didn’t really need to use a attention getting introduction, he was well known and loved by so many that people piled into Yankee Stadium to watch and listen to him give this speech. Although he didn’t need an attention getter, he began his speech with one of the greatest baseball quotes of all time, “Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.” (Gehrig, 1939) Every single time I hear or read that opening line it sends chills down my spine and stops me for a moment to reflect on everything that is going on in my own life.
Like stated earlier, gender roles in the 50’s were very strict and narrow-minded. That being said, women were extremely limited in their role in society. First of all, women were expected to be homemakers. By homemaker, I mean the women w...
Coontz, Stephanie. “What We Missed About the 1950s.” Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing. 9th ed. Eds. Gary Colombo, Robert Cullen, and Bonnie Lisle. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013. 27-43. Print.
While Doris Goodwin’s mother and father were a very important part of her life growing up her sisters were just as important. She talks about how while Charlotte, her oldest sister was not around as much as her other older sister, Jeanne she was still very important to her. She goes into detail about a shopping trip that was taken with the oldest and youngest siblings and how after the shopping trip to Sa...
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.
In the text, “The American Cultural Configuration” the authors express the desire of anthropologists to study their own culture despite the difficulty that one faces attempting to subjectively analyze their own society. Holmes and Holmes (2002), use the adage “not being able to see the forest through the trees” (p. 5) to refer to how hard it is for someone to study something they have largely taken for granted. The Holmes' article focuses predominately on paradoxes within our own culture, many of which we don't notice. In a paradox, two contradicting statements can appear to be true at the same time. This essay looks at two paradoxes commonly found in everyday life: the individual versus the family and religion.
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 1950’s were a deeply nostalgic time period for many Americans. This was a time of new technologies, economic expansion, a better standard of living and a growing middle class. By 1960, an estimated sixty percent of Americans enjoyed what the government defined as a middle-class standard of living. An increasing amount of people had access to television, air conditioning, dishwashers and air travel. America was being cultivated into a suburban nation because of cookie-cutter housing developments like the Levittowns. The number of homes doubled during this decade. While the white working class saw their status and wages improve,not everyone was reaping the benefits of this uplifting time. Many people were excluded from the prosperity of the
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.”
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
Richardson, R. W. (2005). Bowen Family Systems Theory and congregational life. Review & Expositor, 102(3), 379-402.
Youth culture in the nineteen fifties was a time that opened up the world to be integrated for whites and blacks. In this paper the fifties are analyzed through the clothing, styles, cars, family life, and most importantly entertainment.
“Crevecoeur explained the tragedy it would be for two individuals with different religions to start a family and created generations upon generations of confusion”. Each family in early America marrying based on common religious beliefs, and teachings their children in the way of their beliefs, would create a stable home for children to grow in. In today’s Christian church this is a value we hold true to well. Setting genuine religious values and morals are very important in today’s world. Whether you choose to practice that religion or not, the core values that are indebted in you from your childhood follow you into adulthood. Having pure religious principles promotes a balanced and well-functioning home. “Thus religious indifference is imperceptibly disseminated from one end of the continent to the other; which is at present one of the strongest characteristics of the Americans”. With core religious values or even a lack thereof, families will be able to create a solid foundation of morals and values to be built
...ng societal affairs in the world’s best country – the U.S. They also told me that basic human rights were only present in the U.S. and that understanding Christian faith is not clear among people in developing countries. As a result, during my later days in Ames, Iowa, while in seminary education, and during internships and ministry at a local church, I never shared with any parishioner about my cultural heritage, sociological background, religious tradition, hobbies, interests or customs. I developed a strong sense of rejection while living in Ames, Iowa and Evanston, Illinois.