Homeward Bound book chapter (“War and Peace: Fanning the Home Fires”).

Paper instructions:
This assignment requires you to write THREE summaries of the Homeward Bound book chapter (“War and Peace: Fanning the Home Fires”). The summaries should be about a page in length (double spaced!) and should condense the essential points that Elaine Tyler May makes in each section, as divided below:

Summary One: Pages 1-11

Summary Two: Pages 12-21

Summary Three: Pages 22-31

A summary is a brief overview or account of the main points of the text; in each set of 10 pages you will have to use your judgement to determine which (in your view) are the most important points and string those together to form a reasonable, accurate, quick and dirty overview of each section. A summary depends on your ability to paraphrase; be sure NOT to use the words of the source. Remember, any paraphrase should consist of ALL YOUR OWN WORDS

REMINISCING about life in the United States after World War 11, Joseph
Adelson aptly described the “spirit of the times” as profoundly domestic.
The utopian vision included “replenished” families with male providers “secure
in stable careers” and female housewives “in comfortable homes,” who would
“raise perfect children.” it was a dream that Americans had carried with them
since the depression. Like the depression, World War II brought new challenges
and new disruptions to families. For many who looked forward to building stable
and secure homes after the depression, the war put their hopes on hold. When
thousands of men were called to war, their unquestionably manly responsibilities

War and Peace: Fanning the Home Fires 59
as soldiers took precedence over their roles as breadwinners. While the men
vanished to foreign shores to fend off the enemy, the women were left to fend for
themselves.

The war emergency required the society to restructure itself and opened the
way for the emancipation of women on an unprecedented scale. The potential
for gender equality, thwarted during the 19305, now had a chance to reach
fruition. The depression ended abruptly: The unemployment rate fell from 14
percent to nearly zero. In response to the needs of an expanding wartime econ-
omy, public policy shifted dramatically from barring women from jobs to recruitv
ing them. Married women were not only tolerated in the paid labor force bth
actively encouraged to take umen’s jobs” as a patriotic duty to keep the war
economy booming while the men went off to fight. Public opinion followed suit.
During the depression, 80 percent of Americans objected to wives working out-
side the home; by 1942, only 13 percent still objected.2

As a result of the combined incentives of patriotism and good wages, women
began streaming into jobs. By 1945, the number of employed women had leaped
60 percent. Three-quarters of these new workers were married, and a third had
children under age fourteen.3 War production needs might have led to a restruc-
turing of the labor force along gender-neutral lines, ending sex segregation in
the workplace and bringing about a realignment of domestic roles. The disloca-
tion of wartime might have led to the postponement of marriage and child rear;
ing, continuing the demographic trends of the thirties toward later marriage, a
lower marriage rate, and fewer children. But nothing of the kind took place. The
potential for significant alterations in gender arrangements was, once again,
thwarted. In spite of the tremendous changes brought about by the war, the
emergency situation ultimately encouraged women to keep their sights set on
the home, and men to reclaim their status as the primary breadwinners and
heads of households.

Instead of deterring Americans from embarking on family life, the war may
have sped up the process. Women entered war production, but they did not give
up on reproduction. The war brought a dramatic reversal to the declining mar‘
riage rate of the 193os. Over 1 million more families were formed between 1940
and 1943 than would have been expected during normal times, and as soon as the
United States entered the war, fertility increased. Between 1940 and 1945, the
birthrate climbed from 19.4 to 24.5 per one thousand population. The marriage
age dropped and the marriage rate accelerated, spurred, in part, by the possibility
of draft deferments for married men in the early war years and by the imminence
of the men’s departure for foreign shores. Thus, a curious phenomenon marked
60 HOMEWARD BOUND
the war years: a widespread disruption of domestic life accompanied by a rush
into marriage and parenthood.”

Tangible as well as intangible factors spurred this increase in the formation of
families. Economic hardship was no longer a barrier to marriage, as it had been
in the 193os, and dependents’ allowances eased the burdens of families if the
breadwinners were drafted. But perhaps more important was the desire to solid-
ify relationships and establish connections to the future when war made life so
uncertain. Widespread warvpropaganda efforts called on the nation to support
the men who were fighting to protect their families back home. To Americans
who were steeped in an isolationist tradition, suspicious and not sure about the
stakes in Europe, these appeals were more than clichés. They provided tangible
reasons to live, and even to die. Men at war were well aware of the possibility
that they might never return. As an American fighter pilot wrote to the woman
he had married before he left, “Our love will never die. . . . I love you more than
anything in life. . . . A million kisses, darling, I’ll see you again-sometime,
somewhere.” Shortly after writing this declaration of undying love, he died in a
flight over France.5

With losses and tragedies pervading the national consciousness, Americans
were receptive to emotional appeals to home and hearth. The popular culture
carried many such appeals. Under the sponsorship of the Office of Facts and
Figures, all the major radio networks aired a series of programs in 1942 to mobi-
lize support for the war. One highly acclaimed segment, “To The Young,”
included this exhortation:

YOUNG MALE VOICE: “That’s one Of the things this war’s about.”

YOUNG FEMALE VOICE: “About us T“

YOUNG MALE VOICE: “About all young people like us. About love and
gettin’ hitched, and havinI a home and some kids, and breathinl
fresh air out in the suburbs . . . about livin’ an’ workin’ decent, like
free people.”6

Movies carried similar messages, and their sponsorship by the government
did nothing to dampen their popularity. The 1943 war propaganda film This is
the Army, starring Ronald Reagan, was the most successful film of the war years.
The plot revolves around the efforts of the central character’s sweetheart, a Red
Cross volunteer, to persuade her reluctant soldier to marry her. She finally suc-
ceeds, and the duo wed just before the hero leaves to fight on foreign shores. As

FIGURE 6 This scene from the 1943 war propaganda film This is the Army shows a GI
dressed in drag for an army dance routine, proving that he’s just as tough as the next guy.
The scene uses humor to deflect wartime anxieties about altered gender roles. (The
Museum of Modem ArtiFilm Stills Archive. Courtesy of Photofest.)
he marches off with his buddies, she remains at home. For the remainder of the
war, she would provide the vision of what the men were fighting for: home and
hearth. In addition to its affirmation of the family, the film also reveals a discom-
fort with the disrupted gender roles brought about by war. Soldier-comedians
joke about their female superior officers, and a group of hevmen in drag do a
clumsy chorus‘line routine showing their hairy legs beneath their skirts (see
Figure 6). Ironically, while the film was intended to make light of gender role
reversal, as well as to defuse fears about the very real potential for wartime to fos-
ter homosexual communities, This is the Army became a hugely popular cult film
among gays and lesbians.T

The popular culture reflected widespread admiration for the many thousands
of female war workers but also affirmed the primacy of domesticity for women.
Wartime films presented these contradictory messages to their female viewers,
62 HOMEWARD BOUND

who constituted twoathirds of the movie audience. Numerous popular movies
portrayed tough heroines who took on previously male responsibilities and sur-
vived on their own or with the support of other women. Whether in military sit-
uations, as in Here Come the Waves or $0 Proudly We Hail, or as war workers, in
films such as Swing Shift Maisie or Government Girl. women displayed courage
and independence. Major stars of the decade, such as Katharine Hepburn, were
noted for their dignity and strength, both on and off the screen.

Other popular media also emphasized women’s capabilities, most notably
the invincible “Wonder Woman,” who made her comic strip debut in 1941. But
the independent heroine did not replace the familial image of women. Often the
spunky career woman married her ardent suitor in the end, as did the nurse in
This is the Army, In popular magazine fiction, women remained devoted to their
homes and families rather than to careers. One study found that although female
characters were more likely to hold jobs in the 194os than in the 19305 or the
195os, the stories of the war decade represented “the strongest assault on femi-
nine careerism.” Heroines who gave up a career for marriage were portrayed
favorably, while those who combined a career and family were condemned as
poor wives and mothers.8 As in the depression, wartime gave rise to two differ»
ent popular images of women: one independent, the other domestic.

The emancipated heroine did not survive in peacetime, however. After the
war, less positive images of women began to appear in films. These movies por»
trayed female sexuality as a positive force only if it led to an exciting marriage;
otherwise, it was dangerous. The popular and aesthetically compelling film noir
genre, which evolved during and after the war, explored themes of personal anx-
iety and alienation. Films in this genre often portrayed female sexuality as both
powerful and dangerous. Barbara Stanwyck played an evil wife who plotted to
kill her husband in Double indemnin (1944), and Rita Hayworth’s sexy character
destroyed her man in the 1947 film The Lady from Shanghai. Perhaps the most
telling saga of the transformation of female sexuality in the popular culture is the
career of Marilyn Monroe. The future sex goddess first achieved notice when
Yank magazine published a picture of her working in a war production plant, and
she became popular as one of the noted “pinup girls” of wartime. Like the other
famous pinups, including Betty Grable, Rita Hayworth, and Lena Horne (the
most popular African-American pinup for the black troops), Monroe served as
an inspiration to the fighting men. After the war, she appeared in many film noir
movies that portrayed her sexuality as a destructive force.9

In the popular media, women’s sexuality became increasingly central to their
identity. The promising as well as the troublesome potential of female eroticism

War and Peace: Fanning the Home Fires 63
found expression in the plots and genres of the decade. From the late forties to
the fifties, subordination made the difference between good or bad female sexu-
ality. Sexy women who became devoted sweethearts or wives would contribute
to the goodness of life; those who used their sexuality for power or greed would
destroy men, families, and even society. Some of Marilyn Monroe’s films demon-
strate this dichotomy. In Niagara, made in 1953, Monroe portrayed a woman
whose aggressive sexuality ultimately leads to the deaths of her husband, her
lover, and herself. Niagara was one of the last films to portray Monroe’s sexuality
as dangerous; in most of her films in the 19505, she portrayed a harmless “sex kite
ten” whose childlike innocence and sexual allure contributed to men’s power
and enjoyment, without threatening them.10