"Unveil the unseen"

America: The land of the free?

The video commercial illustrates a “perfect” American family in the ‘60s:  the father, the mother, their children and friends. The message is clear: “Everything seems right when Coca Cola is on the dinner table. Coca Cola brings happiness to our lives. Coca Cola is American. And so are we.”

It is acknowledged that America changed completely after WWll. America became a country, recognized worldwide by its capitalistic system, which provided products to the American families that would secure happiness in life, just as Coke. People aimed to be as equal as possible, maintaining “order” in different aspects of life, such as work and family.

Nonetheless, many people knew that perfection was not real. Commercials and advertisements always simplified things, but it turns out that the concept of family and society, had its flaws, contrary to what propaganda showed to people.

In the 60’s, activists, play writers and poets started to change the paradigm of society, by demonstrating in their different art forms, that life is far more complex.

Who's afraid of the big bad Woolf..

Edward Albee, the creator of “Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf”, stated in his play the topic of family.

In the play exists a game of appearances versus. reality, which alludes to how people show themselves to others and how they really behave when nobody’s watching. This play sees the real drama in “family” and basically reveals against the preconceived idea of it. 

In the play, there are moments in which problems between Martha and George, the “not so perfect” couple, are made explicit. There is a game of verbal aggression between them.

In this scene, Martha tries to humiliate George by telling the younger couple, Nick and Honey, how she met George and how she pictured her life with him.

First it can be acknowledged that she had high expectations about her marriage with her husband.  

“Martha: (…) first, he’d take over the History Department, and then, when Daddy retired, he’d take over the college (…) that’s the way it was supposed to be.

(To George, who is at the portable bar with his back to her.) You getting angry, baby? Huhh? (Now back). (…) And Daddy seemed to think it was a pretty good idea (…).Until he watched for a couple of years! (To George, again). You getting angrier? (…) and started thinking maybe it wasn’t such a

good idea after all…that maybe Georgie boy didn’t have the stuff…that he didn’t have it in him!

Then, the desperation of George slowly starts to go up:

George: Stop it, Martha.

Martha: (…) You see, George didn’t have much…push…he wasn’t particularly…aggressive. (Albee, p.167).

After his moment, George can’t take the pressure anymore and breaks a bottle against the bar in the house. This is a clear situation of desperation, based on the passive-aggressive talking of Martha that makes him feel humiliated.

It is possible to say that this has nothing to do with the image of an American family that is illustrated in the video. Families were firstly not all composed the same way. Not all families had children and not all families were happy. The video shows an illusion of an ideal family in the 1960’s and in the family of Martha and George, the only thing that in the end hold both together, was the illusion of their imaginary child.

That could explain the end of the play, which is about George telling Martha that their son died. In the end, “killing” the son, is also killing the only illusion that the couple had, the only reason that kept them together:

“Martha: (…) I hold on…but I’ve wanted to…so often… oh, George, you’ve pushed it…there was no need…(…) you didn’t’ have to push it over the Edge. You didn’t have to…kill him.” (Albee, P.200).

The american Beat

Speaking of this supposed postwar perfection in America, in those times emerged a wave of revolution against the American ideal. “The beat generation” appeared, composed of young people who wrote about an America that was not perfect, but broken and fake.

The beat movement thought that the more equal and standardized we are, the more alienate individuals we become and our identity start to get lost. One of the Beatniks was Allen Ginsberg; he wrote the poem “Howl”, which was published in 1956.  

In the first part of this poem, Ginsberg criticizes America, claiming that people have lost sight of what America really is about. The aim of the author is not only announcing what America is, but “howl” it. The first part of the poem is the most crowded section, partly due to the stream of consciousness. In it can be found images of sex, violence, addiction and other visual descriptions that make the first part feel desperate:

“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix” (Ginsberg, p.10).

“With dreams, with drugs, with waking nightmares, alcohol and cock and endless balls, incomparable blind streets of shuddering cloud and lightning in the mind”. (Ginsberg, p.11-12).

This part becomes overwhelming, because it is too much sensation and information. The first part of “Howl” starts by showing a reality. It seems like the speaker is actually watching America; but he’s watching the America nobody wants to see, contrary to the “Coca Cola version” that is streamed in commercials, just as the one above.

References:

Albee, E. (1962). Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?  

Allen Ginsberg. (2006). Howl. Spain: Anagrama.

"Vintage 1961 Coca Cola Commercial". Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr1LTcAMIVg