1. You have been invited to present at an undergraduate conference on “1950s Family Life.” You decide to submit a paper that will use the film Pleasantville as a case by which to show how films can depict particular values and norms of family life in this ‘golden era’ of the family. Use this essay to write the draft of your paper. Begin by: 1) noting specific historical, political, and social reasons that seemed to encourage people to adopt nuclear families as the dominant form in the 1950s. Then, in reference to specific scenes and/or characters in the film, describe: 2) how family and gender specific values/ norms/roles were portrayed. Conclude by: 3) considering how and why there is still a tendency for people to romanticize and idealize this particular version of family life in the year 2000s.
Family as a social institution changes and adapts depending on time, place, socioeconomic, political, cultural and historical circumstances. In this essay, I will explore the specific reasons as to why people adopted the nuclear family as the dominant form in the 1950s. I will begin by explaining the nuclear family according to Murdock’s explanation. I will explore various important historical factors that deeply impacted the 50’s, such as World War I, World War II, the great depression, and subsequently the threat of the cold war. I will use specific scenes from the movie Pleasantville to illustrate how the nuclear family as a unit worked, how the norms, values and roles were portrayed in the movie are reflective of this particular era, which is also referred to as the “golden era”. In conclusion I will explore how and why there is still a tendency for people to gravitate towards this idealized and romanticized version of a family by employing the concept of SNAF by Dorthy Smith. I will further explore how certain public policies, social, political and economic trends complement this version of the family.
1. Noting specific historical, political, and...