1950s: A Decade of Conformity - The Heroes Who Brought About Change

     The 1950’s was a decade of conventional attitudes regarding expectations of society’s roles regarding race, gender, and age.  Those who portrayed individualism were condemned for their non-conformist stance.  Rabbit from Updike's Rabbit, Run is seen as a selfish, immature person for leaving his family and job in search of his own happiness and self-fulfillment.  Society expects him to sell the MagiPeel Peeler and support his wife and child regardless of how this makes him feel.  The fictional Younger family of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun was chastised for purchasing a home outside of their racial position.  Television star Ricky Nelson was expected to be the perfect son he portrayed on his family’s hit television show, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.  This pressure caused Ricky to rebel and become the opposite of his television persona, eventually triggering his criminal behavior.  Disc jockey Alan Freed refused to yield to racial expectations and lost his job even though he was a highly popular radio personality.  Emmett Till paid the ultimate sacrifice for defying the insubordinate racial class defined by the unwritten Jim Crow laws inflicted upon African Americans in the Deep South.  Fahrenheit 451’s futuristic society went as far as eliminating any means to provide for individual thought thereby making everyone “equal” in their “perfect” society.  

     Some of these examples are people who lived the conformist decade of the 1950’s and suffered real consequences for their actions.  Others are fictional characters portrayed in stories written during the 1950’s, however, the consequences they faced for their individuality within their story is a true reflection of the time in which these pieces were created.  Individuality was mistrusted and discouraged.  This was a result of Cold war paranoia including McCarthyism, ultimately causing people to fear any thought or action that defied the norm.  This fear and paranoia caused undue harm to each of those who chose to express their individuality and defy expectations.  Although each of these individuals suffered due to their non-conformist ways, they each were successful in opening the eyes of society as to the dangers of forcing conformity.  They laid the groundwork for the following decade which brought about changes for both women and minorities in seeking equal rights.  These novel ideals by our heroic individuals were able to ultimately allow a shift in views away from forcing expected roles at the expense of individual happiness and fulfillment.