Wendy Kozol
A picture is worth a thousand words. This adage refers to the ability to convey a complex idea with just one photograph. Wendy Kozol, on the other hand, used several pictures to better explain her ideas in The Kind of People Who Make Good Americans. The author’s claim that the magazine, Life, helped to construct an imagined community of a middle-class at a time of economic turmoil, political friction and social change following World War II was further enhanced by the use of the visual portrayals from the magazine. Family portraits are often used to show a happy moment in a families life. Kozol uses family portraits shown in Life to show the “typical” family. Usually a man in a suit is standing near his wife and children as they occupy a
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However, at the time of the photographs and articles written in Life, domesticity was defining the gender roles appropriate for the time. The photograph “On the Maid’s Night Out, Veep Presides Over Dishwashing” shows a woman wearing an apron washing dishes while a chair stands in the foreground of the photo with a dishrag hung over the side. All the while a man dressed in a suit, presumably her husband, watches over. Kozol points out that in every picture showing “the American family”, photographers chose to have the man dressed in a suit and in an obvious position of power, such as standing above his family or away from any physical labor, while the woman tends to the children and household chores beneath him. She goes on to state “Life envisioned American politicians as breadwinners with wives who care for the home” in reference to the nation Life magazine envisioned as it’s America. During the time of these Life articles, the nation was celebrating economic prosperity filled with housing shortages and labor unrest while technological advances changed the dynamics of the working world. Middle-class families are shown with homes in the suburbs with the ability to care for approximately three children and still holding a smile on their faces. The magazine created a false sense of nationalism when the country was working to rebuild itself after a war and families were of all makes and
However, at the time of the photographs and articles written in Life, domesticity was defining the gender roles appropriate for the time. The photograph “On the Maid’s Night Out, Veep Presides Over Dishwashing” shows a woman wearing an apron washing dishes while a chair stands in the foreground of the photo with a dishrag hung over the side. All the while a man dressed in a suit, presumably her husband, watches over. Kozol points out that in every picture showing “the American family”, photographers chose to have the man dressed in a suit and in an obvious position of power, such as standing above his family or away from any physical labor, while the woman tends to the children and household chores beneath him. She goes on to state “Life envisioned American politicians as breadwinners with wives who care for the home” in reference to the nation Life magazine envisioned as it’s America. During the time of these Life articles, the nation was celebrating economic prosperity filled with housing shortages and labor unrest while technological advances changed the dynamics of the working world. Middle-class families are shown with homes in the suburbs with the ability to care for approximately three children and still holding a smile on their faces. The magazine created a false sense of nationalism when the country was working to rebuild itself after a war and families were of all makes and