Homeward Bound
Analytical Essay
Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound
“May sets a new standard for social history by linking intimate family life of the 1950s with the larger imperatives of the Cold War.” – Barbara Ehrenreich, author of The Hearts of Men. I found this statement on the back of my edition of Homeward Bound to be an accurate depiction of this book because Elaine Tyler May provides a unique perspective of how the Great Depression and the Cold War impacted family life in suburban America. May offers insight into the undeniable correlation between the newly found intense dedication to domesticity and the Cold War ideology, or what is known as “domestic containment.” This essay will provide a summary of Homeward Bound, what domestic containment means and the issues May associates with this ideology, and how it has affected U.S. society. May begins by discussing containment at home, comparing women of the U.S. with the Soviet women as well as examining the different expectations of men and women at that time. After the Great Depression, the country was shaken and the U.S. was now going into a Cold War, and May links the political policies at that time with the American family lifestyle. She proposes a direct correlation between political containment and domestic containment. In chapter one, May discusses Vice President Nixon’s comparison of American women and Soviet women, referring to his thoughts of the American postwar domestic dream, which included men bringing home the income to beautiful wives taking care of their beautiful homes (p.12). May continues by discussing postwar America and the marital norms and lifestyle choices of Americans due to their searches for peaceful existences, including security. She also writes about the statistics and attitudes, which favored large families with more children than previous and post decades. In addition, she discusses women in the workplace and autonomous women. May refers to films in the 1930s and 1940s, such as
Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound
“May sets a new standard for social history by linking intimate family life of the 1950s with the larger imperatives of the Cold War.” – Barbara Ehrenreich, author of The Hearts of Men. I found this statement on the back of my edition of Homeward Bound to be an accurate depiction of this book because Elaine Tyler May provides a unique perspective of how the Great Depression and the Cold War impacted family life in suburban America. May offers insight into the undeniable correlation between the newly found intense dedication to domesticity and the Cold War ideology, or what is known as “domestic containment.” This essay will provide a summary of Homeward Bound, what domestic containment means and the issues May associates with this ideology, and how it has affected U.S. society. May begins by discussing containment at home, comparing women of the U.S. with the Soviet women as well as examining the different expectations of men and women at that time. After the Great Depression, the country was shaken and the U.S. was now going into a Cold War, and May links the political policies at that time with the American family lifestyle. She proposes a direct correlation between political containment and domestic containment. In chapter one, May discusses Vice President Nixon’s comparison of American women and Soviet women, referring to his thoughts of the American postwar domestic dream, which included men bringing home the income to beautiful wives taking care of their beautiful homes (p.12). May continues by discussing postwar America and the marital norms and lifestyle choices of Americans due to their searches for peaceful existences, including security. She also writes about the statistics and attitudes, which favored large families with more children than previous and post decades. In addition, she discusses women in the workplace and autonomous women. May refers to films in the 1930s and 1940s, such as