Remember Beaver and Wally, the popular child stars of the
1950’s? I mean really, Wally and Beav
had it made in the show Leave it to
Beaver. The breadwinner father and
the homemaker mother, seems like the perfect nuclear family. However, according to Stephanie Coontz, the
families portrayed in many of the popular television shows, like Leave it to Beaver, were a
representation of how families were supposed to live, not how they actually
lived (Coontz 33).
When I think about the “good old days,” as many people
call them, I see happy families who are thriving in the community with few
worries. As it turns out, these families
were not necessarily ideal. In “What We
Really Miss About the 1950’s,” Stephanie Coontz writes about how many people
sacrificed their happiness to marry someone they didn’t love. The things they could provide for their child
were used as a measure of satisfaction in life instead of happiness (Coontz
34). These facts are quite disturbing
since the 1950’s was chosen as the best decade for a child to grow up. I always thought families from that decade
were perfect, like the family in Leave it to Beaver, because they seemed
so happy and there were fewer divorces at that time. However, as Coontz has expressed, things are
not always as they seem with families, especially in the 1950’s.
The next time I hear Leave
it to Beaver, I am going to think about how that was the way a family was
supposed to live in the 50’s. Every
family is unique in their own way because every person is different. So,
technically, there shouldn’t be a way that a family is “supposed to live.” So even though Coontz gives her readers many
reasons why, I find myself wondering why the 1950’s chosen as the best decade
if there was so much unhappiness in the world.
Works Cited
Coontz, Stephanie. "What We
Really Miss About the 1950's." Colombo, Gary, Robert Cullen and Bonnie
Lisle. Rereading America. Boston, 2013. 27-43.
I agree with your idea about the ideal family of that time. I thought that life was easier, families were happier, and everything was just all around good in the 1950's. Like you said, the show Leave It to Beaver reflects how a typical family of that era should have acted, not how they really did.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with how the amount of things they could provide for the family and children served as a source of satisfaction in their lives. They didn't need to be in love, but as long as they had money and a place to live it seemed like they were satisfied. The shows make it look like there was never any serious trouble or conflict between the family. Especially the children.
I wondered if a show like that aired today, would people still watch it or think it was ridiculous? Most shows today have a lot of conflict withing them.
Overall, I agree with you about the way families were portrayed in the 1950's.