Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Bc. Kateřina Martináková Women of American Suburbia through Cinematic Reflection Master‟s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: doc. PhDr. Tomáš Pospíšil, Dr. 2012 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Kateřina Martináková Acknowledgement I would like to thank my supervisor doc. PhDr. Tomáš Pospíšil, Dr., for his guidance and patience. Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………………….1 1. Women and Suburbia………………………………………………………….4 1.1. Occupation: a Housewife………………………………………………………..4 1.2. The Problem That Has No Name……………………………………………..5 1.3. Green Widows……………………………………………………………………….8 1.4. The Institution of Family……………………………………………………….10 1.5. Family and gender in suburbia……………………………………………….13 2. The Stepford Wives and the Quest for Perfection…………………….17 2.1. Welcome to Stepford…………………………………………………………….17 2.2. The Feminist Perspective…………………………………………………..….18 2.3. The Notion of a Housewife…………………………………………………….23 2.4. Cinematic Approach of The Stepford Wives...............................28 2.5. Concept of Uniformity and Perfection in American Suburban Space …………………………………………………………………………………………………….34 3. The Virgin Suicides and Teenage Oppression………………………….44 3.1. The Story of Lisbon Girls……………………………………………………...45 3.2. Teenagers and Suburbia……………………………………………………….46 3.3. The Lisbon Girls and Symbolism ……………………………………………50 3.4. Cinematic Techniques Used in The Virgin Suicides.....................54 4. Revolutionary Road and suburban American Dream………………..59 4.1. Revolutionary Wheelers…………………………………………………………60 4.2. Vibrant City versus Monotonous Suburbs………………………………..62 4.3. Reversed Gender Roles…………………………………………………………64 4.4. UnfulfilledDreams…………………………………………………………………68 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………..71 Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………74 Résumé (Czech)…………………………………………………………………...78 Résumé (English)…………………………………………………………………79 Introduction Suburbanization has profoundly shaped and marked not only the American landscape but also culture and character of the people. In the middle of the 20th century the image of suburban environment was full of happiness and neatness. The place was filled with beautiful houses and cheerful families. Rectangular streets subdividing individual estates enhanced the feeling of uniformity and order. Suburbia was the embodiment of perfection. However, post-war criticism of suburban environment started to emerge in 1950‟s. The original intention to create an ideal homogenous society was violated. At that time various ridiculed archetypal patterns of suburbia were determined. The critiques also pointed at the fact that behind the shiny and polished surface there are personal dramas and stories of human dissatisfaction. This thesis will seek to examine the role of a woman in American post- war suburban area. It will compare the image of a happy housewife, given by commercials, with the reality. An analysis will be made of the most crucial themes connected to the female role in the suburban environment. The themes prepared for analysis are unfulfilled dreams, gender roles, values, perfection and uniformity. Furthermore, this thesis also aims to take into consideration the cinematic techniques which helped to emphasize the atmosphere of the movies. Nevertheless, the cinematic approach that appeared in different decades of the 20th and 21st century is not relevant for this thesis. The following American feature films will be examined in this thesis: The Stepford Wives (1975) and its re-make from 2004, The Virgin Suicides (1999) and Revolutionary Road (2008). These three movies are great representatives 1 of the suburban issues therefore no other films are necessary to get the picture of a female suburban figure. The methodology of this thesis focuses on selected movies that reflect the themes and motifs of post-war suburbia. All of the movies are adaptations of books but the purpose of the thesis is not to compare the original book with the following adaptation. The purpose is to describe the situation in the post- war American suburban space portrayed in the selected film. Not only topics, problems, motifs, symbols and metaphors are presented but also cinematic usage of camera, building of atmosphere, music, cutting, lightning and overall visual aspect. Nevertheless, the level of cinematic techniques examined differs with every movie. For example, the visual aspect and cinematic skills are important in The Virgin Suicides because they help to sketch in the atmosphere of the youth. On the contrary, Revolutionary Road focuses more on the inner conflicts of the characters than on the overall mood of the movie. The perception of suburbia is influenced by images presented in media. The depictions are either excessively negative or positive. On of the biggest problem concerning suburbia is generalization. The topic struggles with stereotypical and prejudiced public awareness of suburban area. The thesis aims to examine three statements derived from the stereotypical notion of suburbs. The statements are observed on the basis of selected movies. The first researched statement claims that suburbia is the place where middle and upper-class couples have moved in hope of finding their own version of American dream. The second statement argues that suburbia is a place where symmetry and order are visible in every aspect of its existence. The third 2 statement reflects on the claim that in spite of positive and affable impression of American suburb it is the nest of delusion and oppression. This thesis is divided into four chapters. Before the main analysis of the movies there is the first chapter that seeks to examine suburban space in connection with women. This theoretical part focuses on different definitions of female suburbanites. The following chapters examine every aspect of the movie that is connected to women. The second chapter deals with two adaptations of The Stepford Wives. Therefore, this chapter is longer than the other ones. It is given by the fact that there are two movies examined. The suburban theme of The Stepford Wives deals with gender roles and with the quest for perfection and uniformity. The third chapter focuses on Virgin Suicides. The main area of interest is focused on young teenage girls growing up in a very strict traditional family. The conflict between wild youth longing for freedom and old-fashioned values represented by the parental world is inevitable. The fourth chapter and thus third movies selected for analysis is Revolutionary Road. The main topics of the movie are reversed gender roles and unfulfilled dream. It is important to state that the suburban topic is vast and the purpose of the thesis is not to comment on all aspects of the problematic, such as ethnical, racial, social and religious diversity. As it will be demonstrated in this thesis, the target group examined is narrowed down to middle and upper-class of white settlers. 3 1. Women and Suburbia 1.1. Occupation: a Housewife General opinion is that women in suburban areas share one great goal – to have a perfect family with a happy and contented husband. It seems that the fulfilment of this dream will make them completely satisfied. The question is if cherishing children and spouse is the only way how to fill mothers and wives with satisfaction and happiness. To be a regular housewife in suburbs in the second half of the twentieth century was neither physically difficult nor time-consuming difficult task. The development of modern electrical labour-saving appliances allowed women to spend less time by cooking, dusting, doing laundry or vacuuming. New innovative products and tools enabled young mothers to spend less time taking care of the household and more time taking care of their family, participating in local affairs or sharing few moments with the neighbours. During the day while children studied at school and husbands left for the city to enlarge the family fortune women were left alone in a place with no cultural or social background and no other way for any entertainment. Gradually, the female part of suburbia started to gain feelings of loneliness, isolation, vacancy, frustration and indifference. They became irritated, moody, annoyed and depressed for no tangible reason. Moreover their frustration often led towards addiction1 and infidelity. The vision of becoming a housewife in the suburbs was a life goal of many American women. According to the public opinion suburban women were 1 Betty Friedan did a research in 1960‟s covering twenty-eight women from suburbia who were devoted housewives. “Sixteen out of the twenty-eight were in analysis or analytical psychotherapy. Eighteen were taking tranquillizers; several had tried suicide; and some had been hospitalized for varying periods, for depression or vaguely diagnosed psychotic states” (Friedan 206). 4 some of the luckiest people on earth with no problems. However, they had a problem - with no essential cause. American psychologist Betty Friedan called this phenomenon as a „problem that has no name‟.2 1.2. The Problem That Has No Name The image of a modern American woman in 1950‟s and 1960‟s portrayed a full-time mother and wife. There was the image of a pure feminine role which involved catching the ideal husband, nourishing children properly, throwing memorable dinner parties, cheering up the husband after strenuous day at work, running