Social and

Historical Context
LI:
LI: To
To understand
understand the
the context
context of
of WHALITC
WHALITC
LI: To understand the context of WHALITC

1 I can Identify gender roles in 1950s America

2 I can Research a feature of 1950s American society

Write a pragraph explaining how the book

3 I can connexts to context
 “I'm going to put
death in all their food
and watch them die.”
 APK: Sketch to
Stret ch
“Jackson halves of her own personality into two odd,
damaged sisters; the older Constance Blackwood,
hypersensitive and afraid, unable to leave the house; and the
younger Merricat Blackwood, a willful demon prankster
Draw or
describe attuned to nature, to the rhythm of the seasons, and to death,
two (Jonathan Lethem, Intro, pp.ix-x).
opposite
parts of
your own
personality
 Ne w
Info
1950s America
WHALITC published in 1962
Gender Roles in the USA in the 1950s

Watch and respond

How did women’s roles change
in America in the 1950s?
Who was the ideal kind of
woman in the 1950s?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlnH6
V83QRA
Consumerism in the USA in the 1950s

Watch and respond

What are the wives most excited
about?
What is their role at home?
Who has control of money?

Just watch the first 4 https://youtu.be/sx7RJ7-ogPI

minutes!
Shirley Jackson’s Cartoons
 Question
Power write Why do you think the gothic trope of the
haunted house was present in so much
of Jackson’s writing in the 1950s and
early 60s? Why might she see the home
The house/castle as evil or somewhere you can’t leave?

“There’s no question that, in Jackson’s books, the house is a deeply ambiguous

symbol—a place of warmth and security and also one of imprisonment and
catastrophe. But the evil that lurks in Jackson’s fair-seeming homes is not
housework; it’s other people—husbands, neighbors, mothers, hellbent on
squashing and consuming those they profess to care for. And what keeps
women inside these ghastly places is not pressure from society, or a patriarchal
jailer, but the demon in their own minds.”
Zoe Heller – The New Yorker
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/17/the-haunted-mind-of-shirley-jackson
LI: To understand the context of WHALITC

1 I can Identify gender roles in 1950s America

2 I can Research a feature of 1950s American society

Write a pragraph explaining how the book

3 I can connexts to context
Apply
Be the
teacher
Prepare
Prepare aa slide
slide to
to teach
teach to
to the
the class
class
Table of contents
The Feminine
Women’s Role
01. You can describe the topic of
04. Mystique
You can describe the topic of
the section here the section here

Men’s Role Mental Illness

02. You can describe the topic of
05. You can describe the topic of
the section here the section here

Consumerism Nuclear Family

03. You can describe the topic of
06. You can describe the topic of
the section here the section here
 Women’s Role
Describe women’s roles in 1950s America:

Add a picture

How is this social context seen in the book?

 Men’s Role
Describe men’s roles in 1950s America:

Add a picture

How is this social context seen in the book?

 Consumerism
What is consumerism? How was it seen in 1950s
America?
Add a picture

How is this historical context seen in the book?

 The Feminine Mystique
The Feminine Mystique was a book written in response
to women’s roles in the 1950s. What main problems was
it looking at?
Add a picture

How are these problems explored in the book?

 Mental Illness in the
50s
How was mental illness treated in the 1950s?

Add a picture
What illnesses were more common for women in the
1950s?

How is this historical context seen in the book?

 Nuclear family in the 50s
What is a nuclear family? What is pro-natalism?

Add a picture
Why were people encouraged to create nuclear families
in the 1950s?

How is this historical context seen in the book?

LI: To understand the context of WHALITC

1 I can Identify gender roles in 1950s America

2 I can Research a feature of 1950s American society

Write a pragraph explaining how the book

3 I can connexts to context
•
Writing an analytical paragraph Ch.9
What do you think the destruction of the house in WHALITC symbolises?
Like children hunting for shells, or two old ladies going through dead leaves looking for
pennies, we shuffled along the kitchen floor with our feet, turning over broken trash to find
things which were still whole, and useful. When we had been along and across and diagonally
through the kitchen we had gathered together a little pile of practical things on the kitchen
table, and there was quite enough for the two of us. There were two cups with handles, and
several without, and half a dozen plates, and three bowls. We had been able to rescue all the
cans of food undamaged, and the cans of spice went neatly back onto their shelf. We found
most of the silverware and straightened most of it as well as we could and put it back into its
proper drawers. Since every Blackwood bride had brought her own silverware and china and
linen into the house we had always had dozens of butter knives and soup ladles and cake
servers; our mother's best silverware had been in a tarnish-proof box in the dining-room
sideboard, but they had found it and scattered it or the floor. One of our whole cups was green
with a pale yellow inside, and Constance said that one could be mine. "I never saw anyone use
it before," she said. "I suppose a grandmother or a great-great-aunt brought that set to the
house as her wedding china. There once were plates to match. We will take our meals like
ladies," she said, "using cups with handles."
 Writing an analytical paragraph – Ch.10
• How does the final scene represent a rebellion against society’s expectations for women in the 50s?
• What do you think the destruction of the house in WHALITC symbolises?

We learned, from listening, that all the strangers could see from outside, when they looked at
all, was a great ruined structure overgrown with vines, barely recognizable as a house.
“You can't go on those steps," the children warned each other; "if you do, the ladies will get
you." Once a boy, dared by the others, stood at the foot of the steps facing the house, and
shivered and almost cried and almost ran away. That night we found on the doorsill a basket of
fresh eggs and a note reading, "He didn't mean it, please.“
"Poor child," Constance said, putting the eggs into a bowl to go into the cooler.
"I wonder if I could eat a child if I had the chance.“
"I doubt if I could cook one," said Constance.
"Poor strangers," I said. "They have so much to be afraid of.“
"Well," Constance said, "I am afraid of spiders.“
"Jonas and I will see to it that no spider ever comes near you. Oh, Constance," I said, "we are
so happy."
LI: To understand the context of WHALITC

1 I can Identify gender roles in 1950s America

2 I can Research a feature of 1950s American society

Write a pragraph explaining how the book

3 I can connexts to context
“I was pretending that I did not
speak their language; on the
moon we spoke a soft, liquid
tongue, and sang in the starlight,
looking down on the dead dried
world.”