Jazmine Ruiz

Mrs.Carroll
American Literature
5 June 2017

Fears In The 1950s and How They Were Created

As the 1950s progressed, much of society was accustomed to a certain way of living life.
Everyone was normal and people were all the same, which made trusting others much easier.
That was until, everyone started fearing change amongst others and their
environment/surroundings. Societys politically correct view on the word was so narrow, which
lead to not letting people express their ideas and gaining outside knowledge. People were unable
to express their own thoughts otherwise theyd be fired
from their jobs, arrested, put into physics warts, and sometimes even assassinated.
Americans trusted strangers so much that many would often hitchhike rides from them until
homosexuals started revealing themselves. As previously stated, society was already accustomed
to
their own way of life, everyone was the same. Until people discovered that a person was
attracted to
the same sex, which was not normal. Since this was out of the ordinary and as represented in
America
in the 1950s society treated and referred to homosexuals as criminals. The tradition of
hitchhiking ended
because of the fear accumulated based on not being able to tell whether a person was straight or
gay.
As stated in the video many parents would tell their children to stay away because those people
werent safe. Amongst fears in peoples sexuality, another fear stated in American in the 1950s
was
atomic bombing. The U.S first developed and tested a hydrogen bomb in 1952, which lead to
conflicts
with the Soviet Union. People were so overrun with the fear of being attacked at any time that
clips
were shown in school for little kids to duck under their desk for protection. This was called
Duck and
Cover.
In the 1950s many colored families migrated from the suburbs to the cities. Segregation has
been a
part of our history for many generations. In todays world much of our cities and suburbs are
segregated, which was intended by the government when making roads, such as highways.
During the
1950s whites were a vast majority who took up many neighborhoods, leaving the colors families
(especially those who were poor) to isolate themselves with those who were similar to them.
Many
practices in the 1950s lead to the help of segregation and trying to prevent races from interacting
with
one another. In How We Built The Ghetto, Practices such as red linings that denied access to
people
from a geographical area loans, contract buying which was a contract offered to colored people
that
gave them an opportunity to buy a house with a low down payment and eventually their interest
rates
would increase as high as up to 73%, and blockbusting which convinced colored families to
move to the
South with white families for low down payments, often times these houses would become
multi-family
homes or dwellings that left families crammed in their home. All of these practices contributed
to the
prevention of letting colored families reach the American Dream.
We are shown that bankers were trying to sell veterans and other american loans to build
houses. Race : The House we Live In states the american dream had a new name, suburbia.
soldiers who
fought for our country in segregated ranks returned with the high hopes that segregation would
have
ended in our country. The american dream for many was to obtain a home for little money and
have
good credit but many white americans would not sell their homes to colored people. In addition,
Starting in 1930s government officials institutionalized a national appraisal system where race
was as
much a factor in state assessment as the condition of the property. Colored people were not able
to
gain equity, meaning that the value of ownership of their home would not increase and the value
is built
up as the owners start paying off their mortgage and depending on how long they have the home.
This
goes to show that the ideal american dream was portrayed by the government even though they
set their
own people up for failure.
 The desire to reach the American Dream is represented in A Raisin In The Sun, a family of
five lived
in a two bedroom apartment. While living on the Southside of Chicago and in \poverty, the
family has to
work for rich white people in order to provide for themselves, Mama and Ruth both clean houses
and
Walter works as a driver. Everyone has different goals which become a challenge as soon as the
father/husband of the familys life check of $1,000 comes in. As time progresses this challenge
begins to
break the family farther apart because everyone is constantly arguing about the money. Mama
wants to
buy herself and her family a house, Beneatha needs money to continue with medical school, and
Walter
wants to invest in a liquor store. Eventually, Mama buys her family a house in Clybourne Park
surrounded by white families and leaves the leftover money for Beneatha and Walter. Greed gets
in the
way, Water takes all the money and invest it in the liquor store which downfalls because his
friend ran
away with the money but Walters goal was to be able to help his family move on and provide
for
everyone instead of working for another man. A neighbor within the apartment names
Mrs.Johnson
stops by before their moving date and shows Mama and Ruth a newspaper which shows that a
colored
familys house was set on fire in Clybourne Park, in an attempt to get rid of colored folks. Mama
explains that it was the only cheap house on the market was stated when she said Son - I just
tried to
find the nicest place for the least amount of money for my family (2.1.178) and tells the family
that
theyd still be moving. Mr. Karl Linger also shows up in an attempt to change the family's
minds, hes
From the Clybourne neighborhood and he was willing to pay the family money in order for them
not to
move. Change is a common fear represented in this novel overruled by the desire for colored
families to
reach the American Dream.
An ideal representation of the american government is Moloch. Moloch was a monster who
ruled
and was in power of the people as well as the town. Many americans fears and believed in
Moloch,
they sacrificed their even sacrifice their children to it. My exit slip said the government is
represented by
Moloch. Iit shows how many american must give up certain things, hence the children, to live
upto the
american dream.
In A Catcher In The Rye we are presented with a teenage boy who is in the process of
grieving for
the loss of his sibling, he fights to continue with school, and trying not to become a
disappointment to his
parents. Holden has gotten kicked out of many schools before Pencey for not doing his work and
following up with his classes. He tries to run away and live on his own before going back home
and
throughout the novel he tells us that he feels really lonely, he goes through a series of emotions
and at
one point he hires a stripper just to conversate with her. Eventually through his desperation of
wanting to
talk and constantly being lonely, he goes a little crazy which leads him to a mental institution.
One of the
biggest fears he deals with is not wanting to grow up and not wanting to take on his own
responsibilities.
He states I read a lot of war book and mysteries and when he visits his teacher at the beginning
of the
novel he says I passed english and all.. I didnt have to do much in english except write
compositions,
which becomes a note to a reader that he can do his work but he just doesnt want to after failing
four
of his classes. His teacher tries motivating him and tells him he can do better but Harold is in his
own
word, still trying to grow up and still trying to figure things out on his own. For example, the
time he kept
asking his taxi drives where drucks when the climate starts changing.
In many instances, the government has a big contribution to how fear is represented in our
society.
As stated in On The Road, the media has a huge impact on portraying our world problems. We
hype
everything up and the more people see on the media the move we become accustomed to certain
things.
Americans, especially those of color, fought for many rights while segregation was still going
on. As
much as the government tried to seem like it was helping our people, they were setting them up
for
failure with houses and such. As much as our government plays a role, we as people do too. We
become so accustomed to an image made up in our minds on how everyone is suppose to live but
as
soon as we notice that they dont live up to our standards, we label them as strange or people
who
arent of our kind.