Essay 3: draft 1

Jordan Ackerman
05-18-09
Literature 223
Essay 3
By the early 1950s, American women, particularly housewives, had begun to see a rather notable decline in their working numbers in industrial labor. This, however, had begun even before the fifties with the end of World War II in 1945. This was brought about, mainly, due to the return of the veteran soldiers to America and their assimilation back into the workforce, now that the war is over. With the return of the veterans eventually came a public image of women returning to becoming housewives and homemakers once again instead of the short lived Rosie the Riveter image that had reigned prominently over the home front during the war. Because of this, a new popular ideal of the socialite stay-at-home-wife emerged and became more engrained in the American mindset and can be seen in shows like I Love Lucy and even in movies from the time and shortly afterward as well. Let us explore a few of these examples to see how each of the different characters reacts to such ideals in their own situations.
In the 1960s film, Splendor in the Grass, a film based on the story written by William Inge from his own experiences from the 1920s, the main character Wilma Dean Loomis, more commonly referred to as ‘Deanie’ in the story and the film, is a stereotypical good girl of the time, a beautiful young woman in love with Bud Stamper, a fellow classmate in high school and the son of a wealthy owner of an oil mining company. In the movie, Bud explains to Deanie that there are two kinds of girls; good girls that men eventually want to marry and settle down with and have a family, and the not so good girls, also known as flappers, who men like to have ‘fun’ with. By fun, he means getting down and dirty in the car on Friday nights (translation: one-night-stands) and go drinking with to relieve their stress and cut loose from the responsibilities of their jobs and such. At first Deanie appears to be a good girl with a noticeable attraction to Bud and all seems to be somewhat normal. However, as Bud becomes more entangled in his angst of conflicting emotions, mostly brought on by the expectations of his father to go on to Yale and eventually take over his business, he becomes more distant toward Deanie and begins seeing another girl in Deanie’s class. The film implies that word gets around school, eventually getting around to Deanie, which causes her to take drastic measures when the school dance rolls around. This includes taking on a flapper-esque look and accepting an invitation from an old guy friend to go with him to said dance to meet Bud. Upon arrival, she finds Bud with another girl on the dance floor. This seems to push Deanie over the proverbial edge and she runs away from the dance to an old familiar spot where she and Bud used to make out in his car and proceeds to jump in the spring and begin swimming toward the water fall where she is eventually caught and brought back to the hospital, in shock. Bud, upon seeing her, leaves in horror for home and goes on to Yale as his father wished. Deanie comes to soon after Bud leaves the room, seeing only the nurse and says, “Someone was here. Someone was here” She then spends a couple of years in a mental institute before being deemed healthy enough, mentally, to return home. At this point, she returns a scarred, but resilient young woman to find Bud has already married after flunking out of Yale and expecting a second child with his Italian wife. She comes to terms with the way things are and the two of them go their separate ways.
In the 1950s science fiction film, Attack of the 50 ft Woman, the main protagonist, Nancy Fowler Archer is a rich and well-to-do wife of Harry Archer who has been cheating on her for what is implied to be some time at the time of the film. The reason for his infidelity, as alluded to by both Harry and his love interest, Honey Parker, is Nancy’s alleged mental instability for which she’s been sent to a mental institution several times for extended periods of time.