How People Are Changed by Suburbia Occupation - Essay Example

Suburbia INTRODUCTION: Creation of suburbs usually is due to the force of cultural saturation and political compulsions. Pressure for change in life pattern of individuals in a society or country gets gradually mounted over time. Political forces are capable of making use of this mounted pressure to form suburbs. The motive of the politicians in forming such suburbs is not currently the subject matter of our discussion; instead, we are to find out to what extent people are changed by the experience of moving to suburbia. To evaluate and arrive at a plausible derivation we have selected the following books for our study. 1. William H. Whyte, Jr, 1956, “The Organization Man”, New York, Simon and Schuster. 2. Lewis Mumford, 1961, “The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects”, New York, Harcourt, Brace and World. 3. Betty Frieden, 1983, “The Feminine Mystique” Used by permission of W.W. Norton & Co, Inc. 4. Herbert J.Gans, 1967,“ Levittowners” Used by permission from Pantheon Books, Random house Inc. William Whyte (1956) and Herbert Gans (1967) present both sociological and psychological aspects of the topic under discussion, whereas Lewis Mumford (1961) describes the social aspects of the subject matter and Betty Frieden (1983) deals with the psychological impacts of suburbia occupation of the individuals especially the women. To arrive at a point of our goal – how people are changed by suburbia occupation—we undertake the job of fragmenting our study into the following sub classifications: a) What makes suburban life pattern more acceptable? b) What are the positive and negative aspects of suburban occupation? c) How do the people of suburban culture feel the difference? d) Are they completely satisfied with their new pattern of life? Acceptability of suburban life: The endurance of pressures exerted by society against an individual is termed ‘social ethics’ by William Whyte. Over a period of time such pressures are treated as morally legitimate (William Whyte, 295). He ascribes this ethics as the factor of mounting pressures on individuals in a society that leads to the formation of suburbia. Park Forest inviting new comers to its fold happily advertises itself as a friendly small town instead of lonely big city. The baby-sitting bank delineated in his work depicts the convenience felt by housewives of the suburb. (William Whyte, 296). Suburbs are created to get away from machine like busy cities. Suburbs are providing ample leisure. Entertainment and play find large scope in suburbs to change the lifestyle of the people. (Lewis Mumford, 299) Herbert Gans views social life of individuals in Levittown is relatively better than other suburbs, where he supposes proximity does not nurture intimate friendship.( Herbert Gans, 317) The positive and negative aspects of suburban lifestyle: Although the lack of privacy is retroactive, individuals of suburbs enjoy the warmth and security produced by the tight-knit group. Mutual revelations of family issues make them feel frank and ‘not alone’ in facing any problem. (William Whyte, 296) While portraying the good aspects of suburban lifestyle, William Whyte brings out the negative aspects also to the picture. He asserts that intensive communication among the inmates of suburban culture is highly sensitive and even a slightest misunderstanding is capable of generating friction with one another and proves sometimes to be havoc. The pressure to alikeness is as much strong as the vigor of search for common denominators among the inmates. (William Whyte, 298). The character of the group in a suburban society assumes both friendly and tyrant at the same time. Compulsive play and entertainment in a suburb are conceived as an alternate to compulsive work. Such a shift or drift from work to play and entertainment does not offer any gain of freedom, which is seldom understood by the suburbanites many times. (Lewis Mumford, 299). The spatial detachment experienced in suburbia, although appears to be enjoyable and beneficial at the initial stage, does not offer chances for common actions and collective debate involving social responsibility. Instead, it favors silent conformity alone. (Lewis Mumford, 299) Betty Frieden in expressing the tired feelings experienced by the women of American suburbs tries to delineate the kind of problems, which could not be named. Betty depicts the pain in fixing the problem and finding a way out for the mysterious problems picturesquely. While pointing either their husbands or kids for the problems, the women of the land forget their self completely. Such oblivion of their self is the crux of their identity crisis. Selecting the jobs like redecoration of their houses, relaxing like moving to a better neighborhood and even thinking of having an extra-marital affaire or having another baby exacerbates their yearning to be content in their self. Suburbs of today are giving way to urban slums of tomorrow. (Betty Frieden, 301). Levittowners are pleased to enjoy the diversities along them, since they feel the differences are harmless and provide variety to spice the exchange of ideas. Being with people of similar age and class is one of their chief aspirations of American working and middle class culture. (Herbert Gans, 319). The readiness to provide mutual aid is the first criterion of being a good neighbor. Mutual aid includes helping in emergencies, reducing loneliness by giving company to neighbors and above all listening to others troubles when necessary. This provides tremendously great results. (Herbert Gans, 317) Feeling the difference of suburban culture: While going through the works of the four writer of our selection, it is found that the inmates of suburbia accept the all-new lifestyle in their new agglomeration. The nearness of people creates a sense of belongingness that alleviates the monotony of being alone. Realizing the similarities of their status, class, age and life condition makes them feel that they are not left alone in their journey towards attainment of complete contentedness. The frictions that erupt out of their improper familiarity or excessive proximity too are enjoyed, since these are new experiences. Establishing their differences in their housing structural designs shows that people in suburbia are in quest of fixing their identities. In this process of fixing their identities the inmates unfortunately loose their nature of their self. They come out of cities under the pretext of getting freedom from a highly mechanical life, in which their social responsibilities are closely interknit. The life in suburbia provides ample chance for house works, plays and entertainments. These changes in their lifestyles simply glue them to the new environment. They become accustomed to a lifestyle with relatively less responsibilities but with greater load of work and entertainment. Those who fall preys to entertainment become numb to any responsibilities and those who are engulfed in workload are left mentally restless, in which they are even unaware of their inner question: ‘Who am I?’ and ‘For whom I live? Satisfaction over the pattern of life: According to Abraham Maslow’s theory of hierarchy of physical and emotional needs – comprising seven needs from physiological needs, Safety needs, Belongingness needs, Esteem needs, Cognitive needs, Aesthetic needs and Self-actualization needs—once a need is met it becomes less important and higher lever needs become more important. (Kosslyn & Rosenberg, 330). In suburbia culture it is found that the basic three needs are met easily whereas the needs starting from ‘Esteem needs’ are difficult to meet. The root cause for this inability in attainment of higher level needs requires still more research to be carried out. The political contribution in converting suburbia again into cities and metros play a key role for such insatiability. Here it is worthy to repeat the wordings of Betty Frieden: ‘suburbs of today are urban slums of tomorrow’. Putting it in other words: Geographic displacements of suburbs create an illusion that suburbia ever exists. But the truth is otherwise. * * * * * * * Reference list – Betty Frieden, 1983, “The Feminine Mystique” Used by permission of W.W. Norton & Co, Inc. Herbert J.Gans, 1967,“ Levittowners” Used by permission from Pantheon Books, Random house Inc. Kosslyn M.Stephen & Rosenberg S.Robin, 2001, “Psychology: The Brain, The Person, the World”, Allyn and Bacon, Boston, pp330 Lewis Mumford, 1961, “The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects”, New York, Harcourt, Brace and World. William H. Whyte, Jr, 1956, “The Organisation Man”, New York, Simon and Schuster. Read More