Michael Tarantino
Ms. Banks
50’s & 60’s (7)
16 November 2014
1950’s DBQ The 1950s is considered to be the model decade of America. Families were close, children respected their elders, workers worked hard to provide for their families who grew up in nice neighborhoods, and the economy was booming. The forced conformity, neglect of the poor, and segregation are often overlooked when talking about the decade as they were during the time period. The 1950s were a prodigious time period for family life but not for the individual or societal ethics. The ’50s boasted the archetype for the model family. As document H exemplifies, suburban families, coined the nuclear family, resided in ideal neighborhoods for raising the family, were close-knit, and the family was open with each other. These families would discuss any problems in their lives while eating nightly family dinner or sitting around the boob tube. Society dictated the norm for proper family etiquette such as how to behave in order to maintain a perfect household. Document I, “The Good Wife’s Guide”, offers tips on how to be a good wife so that the family machine runs smoothly. This decade received much praise for the development of this era as shown in document L, “With the growth of suburban developments, many families found they needed two cars to transport all members of the family…” This quote shows how the growth of familial development stimulated the economy. The ’50s may have been a great time for families, however if you were not married, the 1950s were punitive. The face you often do not see of the 1950s was the dominant conformity by society. Society’s expectations for people produced advertisements such as document B, telling women that if they wanted to have the dream life (nuclear family), they had to be beautiful so they had to purchase products to edit their appearances. Women who