Reaction #9:

Cheerful Robots

According to C. Wright Mills, Americans during the 1950s were Cheerful Robots. Using his excerpt, what you've read in the text, and heard in class, why is that description fitting (don't just repeat or rephrase what's in the Mills article).


Americans during this time were achieving their dreams of home ownership with the shift from cities to suburbs and enjoying the affordability and availability of home appliances, cars, and televisions. People began moving into identical suburban homes and stocked them with all sorts of new amenities. The new Nuclear family portrayed wives as happy homemakers, expected to stay home and take care of the house and children, while husbands were the breadwinners. The title Cheerful Robot was a fitting description for this new concept of the ideal American family and their prized American freedoms. Mills searched for a new definition of freedom, one where it was not mass conformity but a renewed independence and sense of self. He believed in a freedom that was not the ability to do as you pleased but to formulate your own options and make decisions for yourself. He depicted these Nuclear families as robots going through motions programmed into them with no thoughts or ideas of their own. They were not choosing to improve their lives with this new found “freedom”, they were being brainwashed by companies telling them they needed this or that to fit into the truly American standard.
There were already problems existing with this picture perfect American family. Wives were often depressed and sought professional help for their discomfort. Also women who had been working during the war wanted to continue working and earning fair wages. They had tasted independence and didn’t want to give it up so hastily. Women who voiced these desires or spoke of their unhappiness at home doing menial tasks were seen as silly or “faulty”. So these ideal American families weren’t all perfect or content. I think that women especially had a hard time conforming to the housewife mold because of their thirst to venture out into the business world and have a life outside the home. So there were already malfunctions within the Cheerful Robots and to Mills this was probably a positive thing. He encouraged thinking outside the box and coming to your own conclusions.