The House Next Door Summary

The culture of the 1970’s that can be seen in The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons was focused around the suburban neighborhood, which began to increase in popularity after World War II. The soldiers had come home and only wanted a simple life, reminiscent of American dream. In my research, I found that this image of the American dream followed strict gender roles and life in the suburban neighborhood, which was only accessable to white people. This meant that the American dream was inaccessible to any other races, including Jews.
In my initial reading of the book it was hard for me to see why the author chose to include racist jokes as well as jokes about Hitler, but in doing my research I found that a lot of it had to do with the nature of exclusivity within suburbia. When I reread the passage “So there’s nothing in the world I need, except maybe a genie or a few slaves or something.’ She laughed, a stiff, social little laugh” (Siddons 231), I saw it as more of a critique than when I had first read it, because in my research I saw how bad the situation was back then. When Susan said this, she said this as a woman living in an exclusively white community in the south, who was married to a Jewish man, and joking about slavery. At first

glance, this comment seems like her acting from the stereotype of a racist white woman living in the south, but in conjunction with my research I see this as her trying to fit in with Claire and Colquitt. Susan was just trying to fit in so as to bond with her neighbors, and this was how she felt she could best do it. I can understand more of how this was a product of the time and how this works with the book as a whole to critique the very glamorized idea of America, a country that preaches about inclusivity, but is acting exclusively.
In our research we found that “[One architect] also enacted racially restrictive covenants, ensuring that no resident sold his or her house to African Americans, Jews, or members of other minority groups” (Berg).

Suburban neighborhoods were built for white people, but the house was sold to someone who was “trying to pass for Episcopalian” (Siddons 232) instead of a family who actually was. Therefore, the fact that the house was sold to a Jewish family shows how badly the house’s reputation was damaged by the Harralsons and the Sheehans. Whereas Pie and Buddy fit the southern stereotype very well, the Greenes did not. Norman was half Jewish and Susan had had a child out of wedlock with another

man.
By studying the rise of the suburban neighborhood and the culture that went along with it, I found that I understood why the author wrote about what she did and I even found my own premises shifting. I always assumed that after great tragedies, the American community comes together stronger than ever, but during my research I found that people typically drew into their smaller communities after WWII, becoming more exclusive than ever. Making jokes about Hitler and saying Norman Greene likely “burns books and Jews” (Siddons 232) shows just how disparate society was at the time Siddons wrote the novel.