Document Type
Thesis
Degree
Bachelor of Arts in English
Advisor
James Tackach, Ph.D.
Abstract
Many people reflect on the 1950s as one of the “golden times" in America. Television shows such as Leave it to Beaver and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, as well as the media, magazines, and advertisements, all propagated the concept of the nuclear family and a life of domesticity in the quaint suburbs. However, analyzing the 1960s works of Richard Yates and Sylvia Plath shows that this lifestyle was not all it was believed to be. Rather, Yates and Plath point to domestic life as a cause of the mental and emotional breakdowns of countless American women in the 1960s, instead of leading a life of fulfillment and happiness they had been practically guaranteed.
Recommended Citation
Junker, Julia, "June Cleaver Who?: The Deterioration ofDomesticity in Richard Yates’s Revolutionary Road and Sylvia Plath’s 7he Bell Jar" (2017). English Theses. 135.
https://docs.rwu.edu/english_theses/135
