Aspiration Midterm Essay

The word “aspiration” is defined as: a strong desire to achieve something high or great. (Merriam Webster Website) I believe this word can be directly linked to the home and home ownership. Many people define the American dream as owning a home. Since 2007, due to the housing crisis, we have seen the American dream under siege due to mass foreclosures and falling home prices. Having said this, I still believe most Americans dream of owning a home and have the expectation that someday they will own a home. (Arnold, NPR.org) (The picture below is a foreclosed house which is a pretty good representation of today's housing market.)

The Puritans settled into New England in the 17^th century. This group came to America searching for freedom from religious persecution. Even as far back as the seventeenth century it is apparent that the home was an extraordinarily important part of the typical American community. In the Puritan community the home was centered on religion. Building the American Dream, states, “The Puritans goal in the New World, which governed all their activities, was ‘to manipulate material life for spiritual ends.’” (Wright, 4) Entire Puritan towns were designed with the church in mind. As the book, Building the American¸ dream mentions on page 3 “For the Puritans, architectural structures were a microcosm of God’s exacting structure for the universe.” (Wright, 3)

In the late 1800s and early 1900s towns like Winter Park were experiencing a boom of real estate development. Rollins College was founded in 1885 and had a very attractive Mediterranean design. (McGlane, 17) As I mentioned in one of my blog posts towns like Winter Park have benefited greatly from having lakes. Architects like James Gamble Rogers II, had a massive impact on this town’s architecture. We still see his architectural impact today such as Casa Feliz and a house we saw in class on the Winter Park boat tour. The houses James Gamble Rogers II completed in the 1920s and 1930s were not the type of McMansions we see today. Rogers’ houses were “mostly modest but notable residential designs.” (McGlane, 21) (The first picture below is a picture I took of the interior of Casa Feliz. The second picture below is the James Gamble Rogers house we saw on the boat tour.)

After the end of the Second World War there was a huge boom in the demand for housing. Millions of men were coming home from serving in the military. (Hayden, 52) As mentioned in class, towns such as Levittown built houses quickly and affordably for many Americans. It was less expensive to own a house in Levittown than rent one in New York City (Hayden, 23)

The expectation for the typical American family was that most women would not work outside of the home. Advertisements were tailored towards housewives and homemakers. I have always found it interesting that families put so much effort and resources into maintaining a nice parlor or formal room but rarely ever use it. This is the case in many houses including my family’s house. We have a dining room that we rarely use. (The picture below to the left is a picture of Levittown and the picture to the bottom right is a stereotypical ad featuring a woman as a homemaker.)

In the latter half of the twentieth century and into present day much has changed about the home. Many households transformed from having one parent, generally the father, working to both parents working. This has had an effect on family life because it used to be that mothers had time to spend with their children most of the day but now parents spend less time with their children and have to find daycare to have their children spend most of the day at.

Today, Americans still aspire to own a home. It has become apparent that with the recent housing crisis that the aspiration of home ownership is under threat. Americans' expectations with home ownership must change in order for American’s to purchase a home. I believe if Americans realize that they have to save more and put a larger down payment towards a home then home ownership and the American dream can be a possibility for most families.

Works Cited

Arnold, Chris. Slow, Plodding’ Economy Stalled By Housing Market. National Public Radio.

December 27, 2011. Accessed March 3, 2012. Available:

< http://www.npr.org/2011/12/27/144319175/housing-market-stays-mired-in-low-home-price-

spin>

Definition: Aspiration. Merriam Webster. Available:

< http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aspiration> Accessed: March 2, 2012.

Hayden, Dolores. Redesigning The American Dream: Gender, Housing, and Family Life. New York:

W. W. Norton. 2002.

McGlane, Patrick W and Debra A. The Architecture of James Gamble Rogers II in Winter Park, Florida.

Gainesville: University Press of Florida. 2004.

Wright, Gwendolyn. “Building the Dream: A Social History of Housing in America.”

Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. 1981.

Photo Sources (Url)

Picture of Lake house and Casa Feliz were taken by me.

http://www.levittownhistoricalsociety.org/history.htm

http://www.practiceofmadness.com/tag/women/

http://www.stgeorgesold.com/foreclosurelist

Home Aspirations and the American Dreamer

Home ownership lies at the central core of our national existence. The home visually and figuratively expresses the structure of American society. It has come to display the very result of an individual’s hard work. In fact, the most essential component of the “American Dream”, in which so many people have aspired to attain, is ownership of a nice house in suburbia and living the lifestyle attached to it. In the mid-20th century, the aspirations of the American Dream were primarily achieved through: owning a home, consumerism and maintaining a happy household. The American Dream concept emerged mainly in the first half of the 20th century. It captured our nation’s values of: freedom, property and happiness. It also popularized the motives of working hard and capitalizing on opportunities available in America in order to achieve a happy and rewarding life. Especially because of the consequences of the Industrial Revolution, many Americans had lived in city dwellings under miserable conditions. Moreover, the Great Depression had halted cities from developing and prospering. After the World Wars, the government wanted to raise national morale and increase the prospects for American dreamers. So in 1944, the Serviceman’s Readjustment Act guaranteed WWII veterans mortgages with favorable terms, which was an initial spark in the rise of suburbanization. Also in the 1940s, the government issued mortgage plans, “a majority of middle class tenants (of rental housing) had the hopes of buying a house in the suburbs” (Wright 229). Suburbia, therefore, became the ideal living situation for many Americans seeking an escape from cramped city life (which is illustrated in the photograph).

Suburbia was so desirable for Americans because it was the combination of both worlds: town and country. In suburbia, families could commute to the city in a short distance but also raise their children in a more peaceful setting away from urban life. In this way, people could also become more integrated with their communities.

Nonetheless, within these communities were centralized malls and commercial areas. And with this came the “Age of Consumerism”. This cultural phenomenon was exciting for suburban residents and helped the economy with war debts. Like the video portrays, people received a sense of pride buying the newest technological advancements and social developments. For example, cars became popularized with the rise of consumerism in suburbia. Likewise, it became more common for families to own a car than ever before. Cars, along with television, catered to the American vision of a charmed life. Life became more simple and convenient for the average American. Hence, consumer culture and the expansion of the middle class truly characterized the 1950-1960s in America.
1960's Consumerism in Suburbia by consumerismjkn Women, particularly the popular 1950s housewife icon, represented the highly domesticated life in suburbia. They seemed to have found a “fulfillment“ in home life and servitude. They played a role in the vision of the American lifestyle. As the saying goes, “a happy wife, a happy life”. The Good Wife’s Guide commercial (as shown) encouraged and taught women how to maintain and nurture a happy household. Housewives contributed greatly in fueling consumerism. Advertisements especially targeted them, the media "portrayed American women as possibly the best-dressed housekeepers ever seen” to attract buyers (Young 47). The wider availability and array of consumer items and appliances encouraged an attitude of “Keeping Up with the Jonses”. Happiness to people in this era consisted of what one could buy. Maintaining the image of a perfect life became extremely important. Home life, as seen through commercials, became a glamorous appeal to middle class Americans. The Kelvinator Commercial, played in the 1950s, addresses the statement: “What a dream of a kitchen come true, what a wonderful setting for you” (Reeves).

Even today, suburban life is one of the most important aspirations in American history. It has been the residential sanctuary and ideal home life that many Americans strived to attain. It maintains both of the beliefs central to our American existence: security and freedom.

Works Cited "1960's Consumerism in Suburbia." Dir. Consumermjkn. Dailymotion: Video. http://www.dailymotion.com/consumerismjkn Christmas Morning She. N.d. Photograph. American Memory of the 1950's housewife http://americanmemoryofthe1950shousewif.bgsu.wikispaces.net/Stereotypes "The Good Wife's Guide." Dir. PatMc4Fun. You Tube: TV. . An American Values? 2008. Photograph. An American Studies. http://www.anamericanstudies.com/2008/12/american-values.html Fern, Miranda. GI Goes Suburban. 2011. Photograph. Eclectic Eccentricities. http://mirandafern.com/blog/?p=907 Jacobs, Emma. Cooperative housing built in the 1920's and still existing Cooperative housing built in the 1920's and still existing. N.d. Photograph. Amalgamated Housing Cooperative. http://www.placematters.net/node/995 Reeves, Scott. "Why Advertising Will Never Be Golden Again." Minyanville. (2009). William H. Young with Nancy K. Young, The 1950s (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2004), 47. Wright, Gwendolyn. Building the Dream. 1st. New York: Random House, 1983.

Aspirations: The American Dream and the Ideal Home

(Aspiring to The American Dream through the Ideal Home)
An aspiration can be defined as a strong desire, longing, ambition or a clear hope, and aspiring to the American Dream is deeply rooted in the American culture. The theme of aspiration has been explored, investigated and discussed multiple times this semester in the Art and Diversity Class, particularly focusing on individual, societal, and governmental aspirations on creating the ideal vision of an American home within the frameworks of the American Dream. Accordingly, since the year 2000, Americans have enjoyed the largest “amount of private housing space per person ever created in the history of civilization…the dream house replaced the ideal city as the spatial representation of American hopes for the good life” (Hayden 55).


"Aerial View"

This shows that numerous Americans have been able to realize their aspiration of living their version of the nation’s ultimate goal: the so-called American Dream.
The individual plays a central role in creating her ideal vision of the home, as she aspires to create a warm, welcoming and organized house that looks tidy and orderly, creating a prosperous, safe and comfortable environment. Here, she can tend to her husband and children after they return home from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, as portrayed in the The Good Wife’s Guide: “The Good Wife Knows her Place”.


"The Good Wife's Guide"

These alleged individual aspirations are unfortunately not entirely dictated by the individual, but rather by larger societal aspirations, more specifically advertizing companies working hard to make sure their interpretations of what roles people should play and what the ideal American home should consist of are bought into. Advertizing campaigns told men that if they loved their wives, they “owed it to them to buy particular appliances. Women were told that if they bought certain items, men would love them more” (Hayden 96).


"He will Love you More"

The suburban house “seemed the only way to provide a good family life. This is what the government, the builders, the bankers and the magazines”(Wright 258) pushed people to do.
Consumerism, which translated into material wealth reflected the content of the “ideal home”, and was considered a direct route to virtue as Gwendolyn Wright wrote (1981). It symbolized social status and success in the pursuit of the dream.


"American Consumerism"

Thomas L. Friedman in “Hot, Flat and Crowded” defines consumerism as a “cultural orientation that holds that the possession and use of an increasing number and variety of goods and services is the principal cultural aspiration and the surest perceived route to personal happiness, social status and national success” (448). Owning a picture perfect home and possibly several cars, with each member of the family possessing a full closet of clothes, being surrounded by thousands of material gadgets, and possessing everything that will seemingly make lives more pleasurable is the ideal Americans still continue to follow to this present day.
There are many views and opinions on which designs or models embody the ideal aspirations for the perfect American home. Designing the ideal home means incorporating the individual’s desires, while creating a unique and distinct space, which strongly reflects an individual’s hopes and visions. In my opinion Casa Feliz exemplifies a blending or type of union between the individual, social and architectural desires as for how the ideal American home should look like. Casa Feliz brings out “an atmosphere of comfort, color, harmony, as well as a certain air of subtle distinction” (Rodgers 80). In addition, it was even built in one of the most desired neighborhoods in America in the prestigious East side of Winter Park on lakefront property


"The Ideal Home"

In this sense, the “Happy House” reflects the ultimate vision for the prefect home, as it blends in with the landscape and the larger community. When it was built it represented the ideal temple, with a strong sense of privacy and intimacy and still today brings to life the model for American aspirations and the ideal American home.

Works Cited

Friedman, Thomas L. Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America. New York: Picador, 2009. Print.

Hayden, Dolores. Redesigning the American Dream: The Future of Housing, Work, and Family Life. New York: W.W. Norton, 1984. Print.

McClane, Debra, and Patrick W. McClane. James Gamble Rogers II: Residential Architecture in Winter Park, Florida. Winter Park, FL: Four-G Pubs, 1995. Print.

Wright, Gwendolyn. Building the Dream: A Social History of Housing in America. New York: Pantheon, 1981. Print.

"The Good Wife's Guide." J-Walk & Associates Home Page. Web. 02 Mar. 2012. .

Images Cited

(“Aerial View of Suburbia”)

"Urban Planning." Sutmundo. Web. 02 Mar. 2012. .

(“The Good Wife’s Guide”)

"The Good Wife's Guide." J-Walk & Associates Home Page. Web. 02 Mar. 2012. .

(“He will Love you More”)

"Print Ads Through the Decades: The '50s." CrazyLeaf Design Blog. Web. 02 Mar. 2012. .

(“American Consumerism”)

"Current Events in Europe.": America: Consumed More than We Bargained For? Web. 02 Mar. 2012. .

(“The Ideal Home”)

"Celebrating the Architecture of Life Lived in Community." Winter Park, FL. Web. 02 Mar. 2012. .