Monday and Tuesday

Dover Beach Analysis and Connection to 451

Consumerism in the 1950’s

• Consumer Culture In the 1950s consumption became the reigning value and essential to individual’s identity and status and satisfaction was achieved through the purchase and use of new products. 
• 4 out of 5 families owned television sets, nearly all had refrigerators, and most owned at the least one car. The number of shopping centers quadrupled between 1957 and 1963. 
• What spurred this abundance? A population surge which expanded demand for products and boosted industries ranging from housing to baby goods. Consumer borrowing also fueled economic boom, as consumers increasingly made more purchases on installment plans. Diner’s Club issued the first credit card in 1951 – as a result private debt more than doubled during the decade.
• TV also had an impact on the consumer culture – commercials for the products of the affluent society. 
• Advertisers spent $10 billion to push their goods. Television dominated leisure time, influenced consumption patterns, and shaped perceptions of the nation’s leadership.

Gender Roles in the 1950’s

"The Feminine Mystique" - Betty Friedan

• "Housewives are mindless and thing-hungry... ; They are trapped in trivial domestic routine and meaningless busywork within a community that does not challenge their intelligence. Housework is peculiarly suited to the capabilities of feeble-minded girls; it can hardly use the abilities of a woman of average or normal human intelligence."
• “Over and over again, stories in women's magazines insist that women can know fulfillment only at the moment of giving birth to a child. They deny the years when she can no longer look forward to giving birth, even if she repeats the act over and over again. In the feminine mystique, there is no other way for a woman to dream of creation or of the future. There is no other way she can even dream about herself, except as her children's mother, her husband's wife.”

Taken from a 1950's American High School Home Economics textbook, the essay is entitled "How to be a Good Wife." It reads in part:

• “Have dinner ready. Prepare yourself. Touch up your makeup, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people. Be a little gay and a little more interesting. Clear away the clutter -- run a dust cloth over the tables.  Prepare the children: Take a few minutes to wash the children's hands and faces, comb their hair, and if necessary change their clothes. They are God's creatures and he would like to see them playing the part.  Minimize all noise. . .eliminate the noise of the washer, dryer, dishwasher or vacuum. Try to encourage the children to be quiet.
• Some Don'ts: Don't greet him with problems or complaints. Don't complain if he is late for dinner. Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soft, soothing and pleasant voice.  Listen to him: You may have dozens of things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first. Make the evening his. Never complain if he does not take you out to dinner or other pleasant entertainments.”

Compare the ideals of “The Good Housewife” to the Victorian “Cult of Domesticity":

• The attributes of True Womanhood, by which a woman judged herself and was judged by her husband, her neighbors, and her society, could be divided into four cardinal virtues:
• Piety - a religious habit of mind and spirit, enacted through service, suffering, upholding Christian morality in the home
• Purity - sexually virtuous, chaste, proper in all relations with ―the opposite sex
• Submissiveness - obedience, in ALL things, to one‘s husband, because she is inferior in reason, strength, and intelligence
• Domesticity - the private sphere of the home is woman‘s sacred space; housekeeping is her ―morally uplifting task; she must avoid frivolous or intellectually challenging distractions. 

Bewitched Pilot Episode

Coping with Depression

• “In the bathroom, water ran. He heard Mildred shake the sleeping tablets into her hand.” (98)
• The Little Yellow Pill
• "Mother’s Little Helper” - The Rolling Stones

What a drag it is getting old

"Kids are different today"

I hear ev'ry mother say

Mother needs something today to calm her down

And though she's not really ill

There's a little yellow pill

She goes running for the shelter of a mother's little helper

And it helps her on her way, gets her through her busy day

"Things are different today"

I hear ev'ry mother say

Cooking fresh food for a husband's just a drag

So she buys an instant cake and she burns her frozen steak

And goes running for the shelter of a mother's little helper

And two help her on her way, get her through her busy day

Doctor please, some more of these

Outside the door, she took four more

What a drag it is getting old

”Men just aren't the same today"

I hear ev'ry mother say

They just don't appreciate that you get tired

They're so hard to satisfy, You can tranquilize your mind

So go running for the shelter of a mother's little helper

And four help you through the night, help to minimize your plight

Doctor please, some more of these

Outside the door, she took four more

What a drag it is getting old

"Life's just much too hard today"

I hear ev'ry mother say

The pursuit of happiness just seems a bore

And if you take more of those, you will get an overdose

No more running for the shelter of a mother's little helper

They just helped you on your way, through your busy dying day

The Finishing School

Smith College Song

You’re sharp as a pin point,

Your marks are really ten point, 

You are Dean’s List, Sophia Smith – 

But if a man wants a kiss, kid, 

He doesn’t want a Quiz Kid – 

Oh, you can’t get a man with your brains! 

Your French may be flowing, 

Your Russian just as knowing, 

You may sprechen zie Deutsch with ease – 

But love for a man is The Universal language – 

Oh you can’t get a man with your brains! 

You might know the futility 

Of marginal utility 

And believe that our enterprise is free – 

But that’s irrespective 

Of love, which is collective, 

Oh, you can’t get a man with your brains! 

You may know Lucretius, 

And all the things he teaches, 

You may think with Socratic skill – 

But when a guy wants a mate, oh 

He isn’t quoting Plato, 

Oh, you can’t get a man with your brains! 

You have Joyce in your carrel 

And write like James T. Farrell, 

You recite all of Shakespeare’s plays – 

But you can’t get a Romeo With a Smith diplomee-oh. 

No, you can’t get a man with your brains!

Homework- Study for test over the 1950’s.

Wednesday

Short Answer Test

Homework - 

Thursday 

The 1960’s

“Strange memories on this nervous night in Las Vegas. Five years later? Six? It seems like a lifetime, or at least a Main Era—the kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run . . . but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant. . . .

History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of “history” it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody really understands at the time—and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened.

My central memory of that time seems to hang on one or five or maybe forty nights—or very early mornings—when I left the Fillmore half-crazy and, instead of going home, aimed the big 650 Lightning across the Bay Bridge at a hundred miles an hour wearing L. L. Bean shorts and a Butte sheepherder's jacket . . . booming through the Treasure Island tunnel at the lights of Oakland and Berkeley and Richmond, not quite sure which turn-off to take when I got to the other end (always stalling at the toll-gate, too twisted to find neutral while I fumbled for change) . . . but being absolutely certain that no matter which way I went I would come to a place where people were just as high and wild as I was: No doubt at all about that. . . .

There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda. . . . You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. . . .

And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . .

So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.”

― Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Making Sense of the Sixties- Documentary

Discuss connections between:

• JFK’s Democratic Acceptance Speech
• Pericles Funeral Oration
• JFK’s Inaugural address

Pericles Funeral Oration Questions:

- What does this speech reveal about Greek civilization? For example, in the picture above one can see a sculptor pausing from his work to listen to Pericles. From this one can infer the value of the arts to the Greeks. What can be inferred from the "picture" given of Greek life by Pericles in his speech? 

- What does this document reveal in terms of history as a genre of writing at that time? What was worth recording, and why do you think Thucydides chose the methods he used?

- What was Pericles’ purpose in the Oration?

- Picking up off the last suggestion from history, how does the additional historical information you researched help us better understand the kairos for Pericles' oration?

- Analyze the arrangement of his speech. What significance is there to the order in which the ideas were given? 

JFK Inaugural Address Questions:

- Identify those segments of President Kennedy’s Inaugural Address where heacknowledged the significant dangers posed by the arms race and the nuclear threat. Howdid he explain his concerns?

- Beginning with the paragraph “To those old allies,” select two paragraphs where JFKdefined our relationship with another nation and / or region. Then, list and explain thespecific pledge he held out to the nation and / or region you selected.

- How can you explain President Kennedy’s emphasis on international concerns while atthe time of his inauguration the United States was facing serious internal issues regardingpoverty and civil rights?

- How did President Kennedy urge the citizens of the United States to rise to the challengesthat faced mid-twentieth-century America?

The Big Question: Does Ginsberg’s “America” adhere to the Kennedy ideals of responsible citizenship or does it go against them?

How do the lyrics from Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A Changin” reflect the transition to the Kennedy Era and the “New Frontier”?

“The Times They Are A Changin” - Bob Dylan

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin'
And you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
The battle outside ragin'
Will soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'

"Times are a Changing” Analysis - Bob Dylan

1.What does the expression ” the waters around you have grown” mean?

2. Explain “you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone.”

3. What does the poet ask the writers and critics?

4. What is the battle implied in “There’s a battle outside and it is ragin’?”

5. What does the line “the first one now will later be last” imply.

6. Explain “Your old road is rapidly agin'”

7. What is the context of the song” The Times They are A-Changing”?

8. Why does Bob Dylan say that the present now will later be past?

Blowin’ In the Wind - Bob Dylan 

How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly
Before they're forever banned?The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the windYes, and how many years must a mountain exist
Before it is washed to the sea?
And how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn't see?The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the windYes, and how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
And how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, and how many deaths will it take 'til he knows
That too many people have died?The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind

Homework- Read about The Berkeley Free Speech Movement

Friday

Questions:

1. What was Rule 17 and how did it apply to the area immediately outside Sather Gate in 1964?
2. What options did students have other civil disobedience to get Rule 17 changed? Should they have resorted to these options before choosing civil disobedience? Why or why not?
3. Mario Savio said the issue at Berkeley was student free speech. UC President Clark Kerr said it was a matter of the rule of law. Who do you think was right? Why?
4. Would you have voted for or against the amendment to the motion before the Berkeley Academic Senate? Why? How would you have voted on the main motion itself? Why?

Mario Savio - Rage Against the Machine

The Big Question: Does free speech have limitations? Are there things we cannot say?

Vietnam Touched Off a Firestorm

Homework- Make sure you bring The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien to class on Wednesday.

Monday

Vietnam War Webquest

1. Click [here] to learn about the history of Vietnam.

Briefly describe the background to the Vietnam War. Answer the following questions: 

How did Vietnam end up being split into two?

Why did the US get involved?

Who was Ho Chi Minh?

Who were the Vietcong? 

2. Click [here] to learn about the Gulf of Tonkin. Answer these questions

What was the Gulf of Tonkin resolution?

Why was it necessary (what had happened in the Gulf of Tonkin)? 

3. Click [here] to learn about the Tet offensive.

What was the Tet offensive? 

4. Click [here] to learn about Guerilla warfare.

Describe Guerilla warfare. 

5. Click [here] to read about "trouble on the home front".

Why was support for the war declining? 

6. Click [here] to read about 1960's counter-culture.

What was the counter-culture and how did it relate to Vietnam 

7. Click [here] to learn about the antiwar movement 

What were the different ways that students protested the war effort?

8. Click [here] to learn about Woodstock

Describe Woodstock in 2-3 paragraphs

9. Click [here] to learn about the violence of the antiwar movement

Of the seven different examples listed, which 2 do you believe to be the worst? Why?

10. Click [here] to read the lyrics to Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind".

What is Bob Dylan trying to say with these lyrics? How do you think he felt about the war? 

11. Click [here] to view a photo gallery of pictures from Vietnam.

Choose 5 categories and describe 5 photos from each. (Yes, that is 25 photos!)

12. Click [here] to view a photo gallery of America from 1965-1971.

Click on the numbers, 1-8, at the top to see all 8 pages.

Write a brief summary about her experiences with the following:

The counterculture

Communal living

Woodstock

13. Click [here] to read about the war and media.

What was the role of the media in the "living room war?"

Homework- Read “The Things They Carried” in the book TTC.