Man Pham

Ms. Carroll

American Literature

5 June 2017

Fear Changes Everything

The 1950s were a time when authors began to contextualize fears within themselves and

society. Before taking another step forward, we must recognize the generations that have passed

by before us, such as the Lost and Beat Generations. Beginning with the Lost Generation, it was

a time period after World War I, when authors like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway

earned their popularity through their writings. Mainly due to the First World War, their texts

composed of ideas surrounding people who were morally, emotionally or physically lost.

Following that was the Beat Generation which made way for writers like Jack Kerouac, William

S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. All of which, through texts, expressed their dissatisfaction

with the nation for their ideas and viewpoints. Transferring into the 1950s again, most of the

writers from the Beat Generation expanded their ideas and incorporated factors like change and

fear into their writings.

The Beat Generation was full of new interpretations, one of the writers by the name of

Allen Ginsberg expressed it through his poem America. It stated:

Your machinery is too much for me.

You made me want to be a saint.

There must be some other way to settle this argument (Ginsberg 17-19).
This describes how change was a fear for Americans because no matter what improvements are

made, such as technological ones, there would still be disputes about it. As Ginsberg listed what

America has done, he stated Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb (Ginsberg 5), which

shows his hatred for what they have created. The atom bomb was a specialized weaponry created

to protect America from nuclear warfare. What the government didnt realize was how society

perceives it, which was a bad connotation, where Americans feared them greatly. In a changing

world, with more intelligent weaponry, it may provide protection to the community, but it creates

a larger fear to Americans.

This ultimately led to a consensus for Americans that a fear of change was their highest

concern. While reading A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, one of the arguments that

kept repeating itself was when Mama decided to buy a house in a different community. At a time

when Mama saw her family falling apart, she knew she had to use her insurance money to rent a

new house. Searching for a house suitable for her family, she compared the ones from a colored

community to a white community, finally finding one at 406 Clybourne Street. When this news

was presented to Ruth and Walter, Ruth stated, Clybourne Park? Mama, there aint no colored

people living in Clybourne Park (Hansberry 1.2). To the side of that, Walter was infuriated and

left the house after hearing about the news. But an encounter to remember was when Johnson

came to their home while everyone was packing. I bet this time next month yalls names will

have been in the papers plenty --- NEGROES INVADE CLYBOURNE PARK --- BOMBED!

(Hansberry 2.1). By stating that, it made the family reconsider for a second about their choice of

actions. This demonstrates a fear of change through people because certain individual, such as

Walter and Ruth, were not so keen about moving into a community that were full of white peers.
This leads to a society with fear to integrate and change, where boundaries in communities are

segregated due to race and skin color.

Changing the story, Fahrenheit 451 written by Ray Bradbury took place in a more

futuristic world where change was feared by society. Revolving around a man named Montag,

firefighters burned books and houses rather than saved them. One night while Montag was

walking home, he was confronted by a girl named Clarisse who opened his perspectives up by

questioning a ton of things. Unfortunately, her life was short-lived because of a car incident.

Later on when Montag begins to question society and its morals, such as his job to burn books

instead of preserve them, he discusses his dilemma with Beatty, the head of the firemen. Beatty

then stated, You ask Why to a lot of things and you wind up very unhappy indeed, if you keep at

it. The poor girls better off dead (Bradbury 58). As that encounter had ended, Montag decides

to take it up into his own hands to change society. It came to an abrupt end when Mildred, his

wife, called the firemen to his home to burn everything down. After a few deaths and a runaway

chase, Montag meets these strangers who were professors and writers or all sorts. While getting

acquainted with one another, the leader of the group, Granger, stated, Were waiting for the war

to begin and, as quickly, end. Its not pleasant, but then were not in control, were the odd

minority crying in the wilderness. When the wars over, perhaps we can be of some use in the

world (Bradbury 146). These encounters shaped how a fear of change was the top concern in

society because through Beatty, wanting to know more to change the world would lead up to

death. Whether the death may be accidental like Clarisses or purposeful such as the woman in

the burning house, trying to induce change would result in a negative outcome. As for the newly

met strangers, they fear the change that is undergoing with the world as well as speaking out.
Without any real power embedded to them, they straggle around endlessly waiting for a time to

create a new change, but right now, if they were to voice out their opinions, they would be found

guilty of disobeying the law, therefore, murdered by the Hound.

Fear is a state of mind where it cause people to develop negative ideas on the world. Fear

may be created by our thoughts and the community, but its easily carried out by the news and

society. Demonstrated by the compilation of film clips on American in the 1950s there was a

part with the caption of Boys Beware. In this video clip, it claims, A sickness that was not as

visible like smallpox, but no less dangerous and contagious. It was a sickness of the mind (5:06 -

5:12). Through that short clip, the narrator explained how hitchhikers should be aware of their

drivers, for there may be a homosexual right in the car. Using the news to portray homosexuals

as sick, it gives the audience a feeling of awareness and caution towards their safety now.

Another video clip was titled Duck & Cover which revolved around atomic bombs. First,

you duck. And then, you cover. And very tightly, you cover the back of your neck and your face

(3:44 - 3:54). This was a video appointed to the drop of an atomic bomb and what to do when

that occurs. The fear of nuclear warfare was due to the news on the deadly results to your health

and body if one was to be in the radius of the explosion. With more news on the weaponry, it

causes more people to have a fear for it and in result, making little kids prepare for the worse.

From How We Built the Ghettos by Jamelle Bouie, it describes how the white

community does certain things to restrict African Americans from being equal like them. In the

text, it stated, Racial Covenants (which forbid property sales to African Americans and other

minorities) then by violence and intimidation. In Chicago, for instance, anti-black riots were a

regular part of public life (Bouie 5). Due to a fear of change in the community, where colored
people can integrate into the same community as whites, they used violence to prevent any

change from occurring. The only reason how the citizens found out about integration was due to

the new broadcasts on African Americans fighting for equality and what theyre doing to ensure

equality to all. Another idea that was practiced was called redlining, Redlining is the practice of

denying key services (like home loans and insurance) or increasing their costs for residents in a

defined geographical area. In theory, this could be used against anyone. In reality, it was almost

exclusively a tool to force blacks (and other minorities) into particular geographical areas (Bouie

4). What that generated was communities where the rich lived one neighborhood, while the

poor lived in another. It not only separated the rich from the poor, but the superiors from the

inferiors. Due to the societal fear of change for equality, they decided to set boundaries for

everyone to live by.

Finally, with The Culture of Fear texts, there were plenty of fears scattered around where

the news portrayed it completely different from the actual truth. In the text How to Perpetuate

Prejudice Without Really Trying it stated, Consider Americans fears of black men. These are

perpetuated by the excessive attention paid to dangers that a small percentage of

African-American men create for other people, and by a relative lack of attention to dangers that

a majority of black men face themselves (Glassner 1). The is an example when the news only

gives what the audience wants rather than what it really is. It leaves out certain bits and pieces of

the news to make African-American men look like the culprits rather than the victims. In doing

that, it makes the society have a fear for African Americans as well as change because they

would want to keep everything the way they are, rather than let African Americans equal to

them. Another example is from How Fears are Sold when it claimed, A seemingly innocuous
beep of the car horn can lead, Jarriel said, to anger so explosive it pushed people over the edge:

fist fights, even shootings, between perfect strangers (Glassner 3). This news indicates that one

beep from a car translates to road rage and violence. However, it completely leaves out that a

honk may not always indicate road rage. There are different reasons to honk, but what this news

portrayed is only a one-sided outcome, which can lead to a fear for Americans.

In conclusion, the 1950s have generated plenty of new ideas in society dealing with

American fears. Authors such as Allen Ginsberg and Jamelle Bouie have developed ideas of fear

and how they are portrayed in society. The fear of change is largely known for Americans in the

1950s because of all the racial segregation that occurs. Even if fear starts off as something small,

with time, the news and society would expand it into something more known and seen as a social

fear that everyone has.