Michael Harrington The Other America

After World War II, America was seen as potentially the greatest country in the world. It was powerful, thriving and wealthy. So many people were proud to be part of this country and others were dying to be apart of it. There were however, many Americans who felt that they were getting left behind and forgotten in the progressing nation. Women, people of low socio-economic status, and minorities were among many different groups who felt this way. Many writers of this time focused on getting the word out about the suffering of these groups.
A major group of Americans that were displeased with the way society was changing after World War II were the women. At first they did not realize that they were unhappy about this change. As we can see

in Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, most women of this time were quite satisfied with their place in the world moving back into the home rather than out in the workforce. In the beginning of this piece, Friedan discusses how just one century earlier they had been fighting for higher education and now the sole purpose of attending a university was to find a husband; even the institutions brought about the “Ph. T” or Putting Husband Through (Friedan. The Feminine Mystique. p. 336). She also determines that experts were teaching women how to be the best housewife they could be by teaching them to how to things such as “…breastfeed their children and handle their toilet training, how to cope with sibling rivalry and adolescent rebellion; how to buy a dishwasher, bake bread, cook gourmet snails, and build a swimming pool with their own hands; how to dress, look and act more feminine and make marriage more exciting; how to keep their husbands from dying young and their sons from growing into delinquents (Friedan. The Feminine Mystique. p. 336). These experts were telling these women that if they were basically the perfect housewives, they would be the most feminine they could possibly be. The only time women worked outside of the home was when they had to help pay the mortgage, put their husbands and sons through school (Friedan. The Feminine Mystique. p. 337). They were no longer interested in careers nor did they care to advance society with their knowledge. Friedan even states, “They were taught to pity the neurotic, unfeminine, unhappy women who wanted to be poets or physicists or presidents. They learned that truly feminine women do not want careers, higher education political rights…” (Friedan. The Feminine Mystique. p. 336). With this new idea that it was unfeminine to work outside of the home and even more so in fields of science and medicine, America was falling behind other countries in these areas as well as education. Friedan states, “Concerned over the Soviet Union’s lead in the space race, scientists noted that America’s greatest source of unused brainpower was women. But girls would not study physics: it was unfeminine” (Friedan. The Feminine Mystique. p. 337). It can be determined from this that not only were women suffering from this idea, but America’s advancing to a great power across the world was as well. “Is this all—“ a question many women asked themselves about their lives as the “perfect housewife;” “Is there nothing else out there for me to make of myself, and this is what I am forced to be?” (Friedan. The Feminine Mystique. p. 336).
Another group of Americans that were greatly affected by the new society were the poor.

In Michael Harrington’s The Other America, he discusses the great and prosperous America and then he discusses what he calls “The Other America” or the poor people. He determines that because America has the “highest mass standard of living the world has ever seen” that it is no longer worried about the basic human needs; and now they have moved on to focusing on an abundance of things. He states that really it is not that America no longer has poor, starving people but rather they have more or less become invisible to the middle and upper classes. Harrington determines that these lower class people have gotten pushed out of sight to outlying cities where they can be left to survive (Harrington. The Other America. p. 333). They are caught in a vicious circle because of their lack of voice and lack of recognition in this so-called great America; they cannot move up in society, nor can they speak up about their conditions and make them better. Harrington talks of the different programs designed to help the poorer of the nation, but he determines that even those are designed to keep the poor, poor. But due to these programs, the upper classes have a sense of satisfaction believing the poor are being taken care of (Harrington. The Other America. p. 334). Another aspect of life the poor suffered in was the inability to acquire health care. Because the poor did not have unions, they could not

demand health care from their employers, therefore even in old age they continued to suffer (Harrington. The Other America. p. 334).
One group of minorities in America that feels they are being left behind in the new society is the Mexican-Americans.

Minorities in America have always been seen as different and not even necessarily Americans. But as American society has progressed since WWII, acceptance of Mexican-Americans or any other minority has not altered. Armando Rendón wrote a manifesto determining just how difficult it was to be a Chicano in America. In his manifesto, he talks of his life growing up and how he changed to fit in with his surroundings and how when his surrounds changed, he realized he had completely lost himself. Rendón discusses the fact that his whole adolescent life, people always told him Spanish speaking, Mexican culture would never benefit him in life, and it would never be important to his life (Rendón. Chicano Manifesto. p. 369). Finally, when he graduated college, he realized that he had no idea what he was. He determines that he had no real particular allegiance to his Spanish culture, nor did he feel he was an Anglo-American either (Rendón. Chicano Manifesto. p. 369). It was not until his career brought him to Sacramento to an area completely populated by Mexican-Americans, that he realized that he was no longer part of that culture; he realized that he needed to reemerge himself in this culture. Rendón uses the word Chicano many times throughout his work. Before this it was seen as a derogatory word, until he and the other Mexican-Americans decide they will no longer

see it as negative. They redefine themselves as Chicanos, a great group of people who have pride in their culture. This group decides that they must make something of themselves and have faith in their culture to ever see a change in the way they are viewed. Rendón and the other Chicanos realize that if they do not believe their race is a great one that deserves everything Anglo-Americans deserve there is no way they will ever receive it.
Even though America as a whole is progressing and becoming an example to whole world, they cannot become great without every aspect being improved in the process. America is not focused on certain parts of the country, such as women, people of low socio-economic status and minorities, but they are determined to rise up and do their part to make the nation great.