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The impacts of social class
The impacts of social class
How have advances in technology impacted social interaction
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Pleasantville starts off by introducing the viewers to David and Jennifer. They are siblings who are both attending the same school during present times (90's). The film instantly shows a contrast between David and Jennifer, David is nerdy and unpopular. An example of this would be when the viewers thought David was having an awkward conversation with a girl, but shortly afterwards discover that the girl was having a conversation with someone and that David was talking by himself. Jennifer is the polar opposite, she can be viewed as popular and successful with the boys. This can be seen when she invites a boy over to her house and he agrees. This later on leads to a conflict between the two siblings since both wish to use the television. During the argument, both David and Jennifer are …show more content…
The film portrays the present as gloomy times where it will be nearly impossible to get a job and that global warming is going to cause natural disasters in the near future. Compared to the 50's, where everyone has a job and everything seems right in the world. Since David was geeky and felt isolated, he took comfort in the simplicity and naïvety of Pleasantville. In the present, their true mother is divorced and was going out on a date. But cheating and divorce was uncommon for the time and so when Betty had an affair with Bill Johnson, it showed how David and Jennifer were influencing the people around them. A simple difference between the two-time periods was how couples slept. In the 50's, it was standard for a husband and wife to have separate beds. Compared to now, where that is no longer the case and couples commonly sleep together. The influence of David and Jennifer is seen here as well, because shortly after their appearance in Pleasantville a couple's bed was being advertised for sale which didn’t exist at the
May begins by exploring the origins of this "domestic containment" in the 30's and 40's. During the Depression, she argues, two different views of the family competed -- one with two breadwinners who shared tasks and the other with spouses whose roles were sharply differentiated. Yet, despite the many single women glamorized in popular culture of the 1930's, families ultimately came to choose the latter option. Why? For one, according to May, for all its affirmation of the emancipation of women, Hollywood fell short of pointing the way toward a restructured family that would incorporate independent women. (May p.42) Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday and Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, for example, are both forced to choose between independence and a happy domestic life - the two cannot be squared. For another, New Deal programs aimed to raise the male employment level, which often meant doing nothing for female employment. And, finally, as historian Ruth Milkman has also noted, the g...
A Fine Balance, written by Rohinton Mistry’s, illustrates the path to wisdom and humility before a calamitous end. The novel, A Thousand Acres, by Jane Smiley parallels a lot of similar themes and ideas depicted in A Fine Balance. As the story develops, a connection forms between the improbable household in both books and they generate an unbelievably uneven dysfunctional family, to either protect or torment one another through the experiences they encounter. Both novels develop the themes of, concern and compromise through the use of characters, conflict through appearance versus reality, and the position of a woman in a male-controlled society.
Pleasantville is a movie written and directed by Gary Ross that reveals the dystopian elements hidden within seemingly utopian worlds by portraying the contrast between modern society and the idyllic setting of suburban 1950s’ America. The film follows the adventure of twin teenagers David and Jennifer as they find themselves transported into the world of the 1950s’ television show “Pleasantville”, replacing the main characters Bud and Mary Sue. In various events throughout the movies, both characters spark a series of changes in the conservative Pleasantville society that result in the town gradually transforming from repressive black-and-white to liberating Technicolor. In Pleasantville, Ross shows that the Technicolor version of Pleasantville
After a decade of not seeing his mother and brother, Howard returns to his hometown in Mississippi. It is evident how thrilled he is. As the train approaches town, he begins “to feel curious little movements of the heart, like a lover as he nears his sweetheart” (par. 3). He expects this visit to be a marvelous and welcoming homecoming. His career and travel have kept his schedule extremely full, causing him to previously postpone this trip to visit his family. Although he does not immediately recognize his behavior in the past ten years as neglectful, there are many factors that make him aware of it. For instance, Mrs. McLane, Howard’s mother, has aged tremendously since he last saw her. She has “grown unable to write” (par. 72). Her declining health condition is an indicator of Howard’s inattentiveness to his family; he has not been present to see her become ill. His neglect strikes him harder when he sees “a gray –haired woman” that showed “sorrow, resignation, and a sort of dumb despair in her attitude” (par. 91). Clearly, she is growing old, and Howard feels guilty for not attending her needs for such a long time period: “his throat [aches] with remorse and pity” (par. 439). He has been too occupied with his “excited and pleasurable life” that he has “neglected her” (par. 92). Another indication of Howard’s neglect is the fact that his family no longer owns the farm and house where he grew up. They now reside in a poorly conditioned home:
Zora Neale Hurston has been married and divorced twice, which assisted her in developing Joe and Missy May’s marriage. Hurston’s rocky marriage occurred just prior to the writing of “The Gilded Six-Bits” which portrays a marriage replete with infidelity and hatred. Missy May’s infidelity tests the strength of her marriage with Joe, which ultimately succeeds the trials and tribulations. Perhaps Hurston spared Joe and Missy May’s marriage to prove to herself that marriages can stand through infidelity, because neither of her marriages continued through the hardships. Hurston saw marriage as an important commitment capable of forgiveness and recommitment. Hurston creates Joe, as the character that forgives and forgets, possibly this is what she expected or desired in her own husbands. Hurston uses her own life experiences to depict her characters a...
The original movie was revolution well before its time in the way it depicted women. Ms. Walker was shown as an independent, self-sufficient workaholic in a time when this was almost a taboo. Women in the 40s rarely were responsible for the income of the house. In fact, very few women worked outside the house, and even fewer had leadership roles like Ms. Walker did. The films showed her as a more professional women to promote the idea that women can be leaders and are not restricted to simple jobs or being housewives. In the latest version of the film Dorey (also known as Karen or Doris), Susan, and Brian (also known as Fred) have a Thanksgiving dinner. Susan points out that “the vegetables are catered, so is dessert,” (Mayfield 1994) and this shows how Ms.Walker differed from the typical woman and mother figure during the 1900s because she did not cook. The 1994 movie differed from the earlier versions when Ms. Walker and Brian (also known as Fred) kissed because at the time “many no longer considered marriage a prerequisite for sex,”(Edelman 3). This shows how the kiss did not really mean anything, even though it was a sexual act between the two characters. Ms. Walker also supported this claim when she says, “What ever possessed you to make such a presumption?”(Mayfield 1994), saying that Brian (also known as Fred) misread the seriousness of their
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...
There is a huge difference between life in the United States as it is today and in the 1950s/1960s. The greatest change is the way in which people lived back then verses how they live today and there are many things that influence these changes. For example, after World War II ended, there was a large increase in childbirth throughout the United States. As a result of this, many Americans moved to the suburbs in hopes of a better life. This would create not only more job opportunities, but some leisure as well. There also has been a significant change in the roles that both men and women played in society in the 1950s/1960s verses today. For instance, women are no longer looked upon as just a “House Wife”. Back in the 1950s/1960s, after a woman started a family her main job was to take care of the household while the men
The book takes place in the Roaring ‘20s, a time when everyone was rich. New money clashed with old money, and the sophisticated breeding of the wealthy class was not happy. The vulgar newly rich citizens were ruining society as morals loosened all around. Old money became hypocrisy, claiming they were pure when they were just as ruined as the new money. This is demonstrated in the Great Gatsby by Tom Buchanon. He says often that women shouldn’t run around and that new money is vulgar. He does this while flaunting his own relationship with his mistress. Everyone knows he’s cheating on Daisy, and he doesn’t care. He yells when Daisy cheats on him, but expects his own unfaithfulness to be overlooked. This sort of behavior is constant over time. Celebrities today are posted and paraded all over TV and magazines, no matter what they do. Justin Beiber was caught drunk dri...
During the 1950‘s suburbs such as Levitown were springing up all across the country, and the so-called American dream was easier to achieve for everyday Americans than ever before. They had just come out of two decades dominated by The Great Depression and World War Two, and finally prosperity was in sight. The need for women to work out of the home that was present during the war was no more, and women were overwhelmingly relegated to female-dominated professions like nursing, secretaries, and teachers, if they worked at all. Televisions became very popular, and quickly became part of the American cultural canon of entertainment. Leave It To Beaver is a classic American television show, encompassing values such as respect, responsibility and learning from your mistakes. But, at least in the episode used for this essay, it is also shockingly sexist to a modern viewer. This begs the question, what does the episode The Blind Date Committee1 say about the gender expectations of the 1950’s?
Women in the sixties were very limited on what they did. A woman was expected to marry in her twenties, and then start a family with her husband. A woman’s main duty was to raise her children, and focus on the home. Author Stephanie Coontz states in her book about sixties women, “The women is not to expect a whole lot out of life. She is someone’s keeper she is her husband and her children’s keeper.” (Coontz, 42) Back in those days, the husband was the head of the household; he made all of the decisions. If there was a divorce to take place the wife would end up with nothing, all the husband’s earnings and property belonged to the husband.
The 1960s provided a reality time of suppressed females and overindulgent males within the society spectrum. Yet the nostalgia aspect of this manifests in the idea of the perfect housewife and the graci...
The premise of the Honeymooners center on the life of a domestic couple and their everyday actions of trying to achieve happiness in post war America. Sterrit proclaims that the Honeymooners were set in atypical environment; he would on to say that the Kramden did not look the part in mirroring at the time the current household and contrast it with shows that would portrayed the common household at the time such as Father Know Best. Quoted he said that “Ralph and Alice are less typical than they appear at first glance, and less typical than they would probably like to be at a time when conformity and consensus are strong American Values” (16). I do agree that the Honeymooners setting did not mirrored the state of a household, but to an extent, the Kramdens were not financially in the upper echelon that could afford the comfortabilities of the High Class or Middle Class. They however were the depiction of the lower class, individuals that would struggle to make end meets and were comfortable with having a home than the commodities. Money played a role in the settings of the Kramdens, if the Kramdens were to say have been more financially successful than they were, the whole show would have been different, perhaps not a...
... last 60 years are the roles that each spouse play in the relationship. In earlier days, women were expected to clean house, cook, stay at home with the children, and wait hand and foot on their husbands. But, within the last 60 years women have become key assets to the work force. Men don’t necessarily expect women to be their live in maids anymore. Both men and women in 2014 cook, clean, and take care of the children. I now see more men with their children at sporting events, and taking them to and from practice. Now, roles have changed. In today’s world men and women share the responsibilities of taking care of their family. A lot has changed since 1970 within the American family, and I think America has finally figured it out. Taking care of a family can be tough at times, but if there are two to share the responsibilities, then it seems to work a lot smoother.
David arrived at Betty’s house, picked her up, and promptly proceeded to Lake Herman Road, a well known "lover’s lane" of the local teenagers. After a while, a car, possibly a blue Valiant, pulled up next to David’s 1961 brown and beige four-door station wagon, and a man got out. "Framed only in silhouette, the man appeared to be stocky in build and slightly heavy, with an eerie sense about him" (Tina 3). The man requested that the teens get out of their car, but they refused.