Interpretation Of Little Boxes By Malvina Reynolds

The American Dream has always been synonymous with family, financial stability, and a well-kept home. However, following WWII, the traditional American Dream has shifted to encompass a new set of ideals from those forced to deal with the consequences of a rise of suburbanization, the mediocre man’s interpretation of the American Dream. With suburbanization comes a comfortable mass-built house, a comfortable income, and 2.5 children, but for many people, this new American Dream became more of a nightmare. In her 1962 song “Little Boxes,” folk singer, Malvina Reynolds, delivers a sharp critique of the new bourgeois in post-WWII America who chose to embrace conformity and its acceptance of the new standard for the American Dream and “all look

the same” (Reynolds 4). “Little Boxes” provides a thought-provoking commentary of the manicured mediocrity that is suburbanization.
PP2- Context of the song- date, style, popularity,
The song was written 1962 by Malvina Reynolds and was covered the following year by her friend and fellow folk singer, Pete Seeger.

Seeger’s cover of Reynold’s song was widely popular, breaking through the Billboard Top 100 in 1964 and maintaining its position on the charts for 8 weeks that same year (“Pete Seeger Chart History”). The style of the song is simplistic, similar to folk music of the 60s, and, in Reynold’s version, features only her vocals and an acoustic guitar. Additionally, the lyrics of the song are very repetitive, and I felt like the song has a “nursery-rhyme” quality to it, due to its repetition and overall simplicity. The song was widely popular following the release of Seeger’s cover, and even made the term “ticky-tacky,” which is used in the song to describe the shoddy materials the houses are made from, a popular catchphrase in the 60s (“Little Boxes”). A unique aspect of the song is its vast number of covers. The song has been covered by over thirty different musicians and groups since its initial release. Well known groups and artists such as The Shins, Linkin Park, Randy Newman, and Elvis Costello have all released covers of the song, allowing for fans of those musicians to discover the song when it otherwise might have faded into obscurity (“Little Boxes”). Furthermore, in 2005, the song was first used as the theme song for the widely popular Showtime show, “Weeds.” (“Little Boxes”). “Little Boxes” has withstood the test of time and managed to

maintain its popularity despite the ever-changing political and social climate in America.
The main theme highlighted by Reynolds in “Little Boxes,” is her dislike for the conformity and America’s acceptance of a dull, predictable lifestyle. According to her daughter, Nancy, Reynolds was inspired to write the song after she saw firsthand, the effects of mass suburbanization. While driving with her husband in California, Reynolds was taken aback when she saw that the once undisturbed landscape had become overwrought with “little boxes” (“Little Boxes”). Unable to accept the complete overhaul of what was once natural and unrefined, Reynolds made her husband take the wheel while she wrote the first draft of the song (“Little Boxes”). Reynolds’s personal experience with suburbanization and her dissatisfaction of the conformity of Americans led her to write her personal commentary on her own feelings regarding suburbanization.
While Reynolds experienced suburbanization in her homeland of California, suburbs were not limited to a handful of states, but instead were implanted all across America in the years following WWII.

The need for suburbs following WWII was due partially to a rise in migrants in America who needed homes, a need for jobs for returning Veterans, and the introduction of “low-interest home [mortgages]” (“Suburbanization in the United States After 1945”). These houses were designed to be produced in mass quantities, meaning that the quality of the building materials used in these houses was far from exceptional; however, many of the houses interiors were equipped with “up-to-date appliances, mechanical systems and utilities” (“Suburbanization in the United States After 1945”). Additionally, early suburbs cultivated a sense of assimilation for new residents. Suburbs provided “Italians, Poles, Greeks, Jews, and other European-Americans” with a way to more easily homogenize with white Americans, leading to a racial divide in suburbs amongst races and ethnicities who were unable to pass as white (“Suburbanization in the United States After 1945”). Once the European ethnic groups integrated into the white suburbs, they found that they could “[attain] symbols of white, middle-class status, such as college educations, pensions, [and] small businesses” (“Suburbanization in the United States After 1945”). As reflected in Reynold’s second verse, “the people in the houses/All went to the

university/Where they were put in boxes/And they came out all the same.” Following their formation, suburbs became a hotspot for the acculturation of certain ethnic groups and became a breeding ground for the ideals of middle-class, white Americans such as attending college.
PP4- Song lyrics that relate to new American Dream
While “Little Boxes” opens with a commentary on the houses made of “ticky-tacky,” throughout her song, Reynolds chooses to highlight the parallels between the middling homes and the run-of-the-mill people who inhabit the “Little Boxes” (Reynolds 2). Like the houses where “there’s a pink one and a green one/And a blue one and a yellow one,” amongst the people who live in the houses, “there’s doctors and lawyers/And business executives” (Reynolds 5-6, 13-4). In these lyrics, I believe that Reynolds is directly comparing the houses to their owners and showing that no matter the color of the house, or the career of the man who owns it, they are still the same on the inside. Furthermore, these lines demonstrate that minor, surface-level tweaks can’t make things that are “just the same” unique (Reynolds 8).
In the final verse of her song, Reynolds refers to the owners of the “Little Boxes,” and how “they all play on the golf course.” I found this line interesting because just like the large chucks of land that are demolished in order to build suburbs, the same can be said for the large areas of land required to build golf courses. Overall, this line continues to demonstrate the general disregard for anything unrefined and pure from those living in suburbs; they would much rather sit around, enjoying manicured greenways while they “drink their martinis” instead of appreciating the beauty of pristine, unsullied nature (Reynolds 18). In the final verse of her song, Reynolds continues shifting the focal point of the song from the houses themselves to the owners of the houses.
Reynolds final commentary on the “Little Boxes” and their owners focuses on the next generation and the effects of being raised in suburbs. According to Reynolds, these “pretty children”, who based on the year this song was written would be classified as Baby-Boomers, are placed on a metaphorical hamster wheel, destined to continue living the same mediocre life their parents have lived (Reynolds 19). In the final three lines of her song, Reynolds continues to utilize a repetitive structure and talks about how the children living in suburbs go “to the university/Where they are put in boxes/And they come out all the same.” This is the turning point of the song, and the point where the truly devastating effects of desiring conformity are shown. Not only are those who choose to live undistinguished, meaningless, lives in suburbs forced to follow the stringent ideals of their new lifestyle, but they have also unconsciously placed their children in the same unrelenting cycle they have placed themselves in.
While Reynolds’s underlying message still reigns true today, suburbs have considerably changed since Reynolds wrote “Little Boxes” in 1962. Following the end of the first wave of suburbanization, we have “witnessed the construction of more varied types of suburban housing” (“Suburbanization in the United States After 1945”). Personally, I believe this partially ties into the desire for conformists to project differences on a surface level, but the changes in housing styles were also due in part to more diverse residents with differing needs from their homes moving to suburbs. As time progressed, the umbrage of assimilation that plagued early suburbs gradually receded, allowing for the diversification of suburbs. Additionally, because of the steady development of suburbs over the last 60 years, land has become a limited commodity, opening the doors for more compact styles of housing such as condos and townhomes, which allow people to own their own space, without having to own a lot of land. While suburbs have become more varied since their initial inception and partially shed parts of their traditionalist attitudes, the ideals of early suburbs are still observed in modern suburbs (“Suburbanization in the United States After 1945”).
As someone who grew up in the suburbs of the 2000s, my personal connection to the song relates more to modern suburbs as opposed to the early suburbs Reynolds was originally referring to. I was first introduced to the song in high school, when I started watching “Weeds.” Soon I found myself listening to the song as I drove around Knoxville, and I could not help but draw parallels between my experience living in the suburbs of West Knoxville to the lyrics in the song. I attended a high school where the majority of the students lived in lavish, newer West Knoxville neighborhoods like Kensington and Whittington Creek, and after spending time with my classmates, I realized that they, much like the “pretty children” Reynolds references in the final verse of her song, were stuck in the same loop that their parents and grandparents have been stuck in since the original rise of the suburbs. As someone who has many fundamental differences compared to my parents, I was startled when I realized that I was surrounded by people who so willingly believed exactly what their parents told them. Additionally, I felt a particular connection to the song as the “Little Boxes” of my neighborhood and my friends’ neighborhoods were my surroundings throughout my childhood and adolescence. Throughout the earlier years, I always craved independence and freedom¬¬– the ability to drive; however, once I turned sixteen, I realized that I could not go anywhere new and exciting, just travel back and forth between my neighborhood and my friends’ neighborhoods, forever surrounded by “Little Boxes.” While my precocious attitude during my adolescence was not always an advantage, it did help me relate to Reynolds’s lyrics regarding conformity and allowed me to embrace my uniqueness in order to disassociate myself with those wishing to conform to their will of their parents and their parents before them.
Conclusion- Reflecting on America now/cyclical nature of craving mediocrity
In our ever-changing world, there are people who chose to cling onto invariable desires and values and people who embrace the change and alter their desires and values as the world continues to shift. While Malvina Reynolds shows her discontent regarding the changing political and social landscape surrounding the suburbanization of America in the 50s and 60s, I believed she used her songwriting as a means to both express her discontent and come to terms with a world that was embracing conformist and mediocre ideals. In a new world where children are “put in boxes/And come out all the same,” the best we can do is embrace what makes us different and forge our own dreams and ideals separately from those forged by our parents and grandparents (Reynolds 23-4).