The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit by Sloan Wilson

The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit by Sloan Wilson Tom Rath is an angry man. It is no coincidence, as author Sloan Wilson tells us in the afterword to the 1983 edition, that his surname rhymes with “wrath.” As the book opens, life for Tom Rath looks like this: a dreary job in the city that doesn’t pay enough; a detested little-box house in a Connecticut suburb, wall cracked from a violent outburst; three kids; and a pretty-but-unhappy wife, Betsy, who doesn’t much care about the housework. Tom Rath had killed seventeen men during World War II, but seven years later, he feels powerless, condemned to a lifetime of gray-flannel-suit-wearing, Martini-(and Scotch- and Black-and-White)-drinking ennui. Money, he and Betsy find to their surprise, does matter, if only to buy a new house, far away from their tacky neighbors. Both Tom and Betsy have expectations at odds with their circumstances, expectations formed by Tom’s youth of privilege in the community of South Bay. His grandmother Florence Rath’s house sits atop a hill there, reached by a curving road with “outcroppings of rock,” on long neglected acreage offering prime views of Long Island Sound. Despite growing up on such a beautiful estate, Tom’s youth was not a happy one, marked by the tragic early death of his father on that same curvy road and his mother’s death when he was fifteen. Betsy also spent her childhood in relative isolation, represented by a big, lonely brick house, located on fashionable Beacon Street in Boston. In one scene, Tom reminds Betsy that her father had to take out a loan to pay for her coming-out party, where the couple met. Not unlike Florence Rath, Betsy’s father sacrifices financial security to maintain status. Tom and Betsy’s generation is no less consumed with status, and it is up to Tom, then, to find the job that will move them on up the ladder. After interviewing with United Broadcasting Corporation, he lands a job working for the company president, Ralph Hopkins, a brilliant workaholic, on his campaign to start a mental-health foundation. Though cynical about the man’s motives and unhappy that he is becoming what he once detested, Tom takes the job. At United Broadcasting, Tom runs into an old army comrade, Caesar Gardella, now working as an elevator operator, who terrifies him by telling him that the girl Maria Tom had loved during the war now has a son - and they might need Tom’s help. Is there hope for this character, Tom Rath, a not very likable man, who detests his aged grandmother because she spent his inheritance and who quickly plans to subdivide her estate after her death? A war “hero,” yet a man who probably killed his best friend during the war, and who ignores the desperate circumstances of the woman who bore his child? Will Tom do the right thing by Maria? Will he stand up to his boss and remain his own man? Will he ever talk to Betsy about the war? How Tom reaffirms his status in the changing world of South Bay, learns to trust his wife, and seems poised to make a mint in real estate, concludes this delicious portrait of fifties social roles, played out against the transforming suburban American landscape. “The Ozzie Show: Learning Companionate Fatherhood” by James Gilbert This essay, chapter seven of Men in the Middle: Searching for Masculinity in the 1950s, analyzes the significance of “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet,” one of the most influential early television sitcoms, which ran from 1952-1966. The author focuses on Ozzie, who as writer and producer of the show, possessed off-set drive that contradicted his gentle on-screen persona. The offstage tensions between Ozzie and Ricky, who became a rock star as a result of the show, seem to foreshadow the coming sixties rebellion. In essence the show, during its long run, explored the changing cultural values of the 1950s. In episodes such as “Career Woman,” where Ozzie and Harriet exchange roles, the show explores gender issues, as Ozzie tries to fit into a changing world where his traditional assumptions are challenged. The Organization Man by William H. Whyte, Jr. In The Organization Man, Whyte writes of the middle class committed to the “organization life.” He articulates his idea of the Social Ethic, which he argues has come to replace the Protestant Ethic – a shift from focus on values of individualism and personal achievement to an ideology that revolves around the organization, meant to rationalize the new bureaucratic culture. In Part I, Whyte identifies “scientism,” “belongingness,” and “togetherness” as the core values of the Social Ethic and those who espouse it. In Part VI, he uses Herman Wouk’s bestselling postwar novel, The Caine Mutiny, as an example of the “landmark shift of American values”: “It is not for the individual to question the system.” Or, even more dire: “He had learned to love Big Brother.”