“Dad’s like a kid again when Bill and Bobby bring out their construction set. And Mom and Betty can’t resist a little “experting” on the sidelines. At all family affairs 7 up is a welcome part of everybody’s fun. 7-Up the all family drink-is a good friend of youngest and oldest alike. Be a fresh family…every member can be a 7 Up steady.” Vintage 7-Up advertisement 1949 (Ad from envisioningtheamericandream.com)
In the slides, I suggest that while Bradbury’s book attacks intellectual and social conformity, Fahrenheit 451 also gives us a complicated vision of the idealized nuclear family of the 1950s. In what way, if any, does the novel seem to welcome the vision of family in this 7 up ad? In what ways might Bradbury find the ad appalling? You don’t have to discuss everything about the family pictured, just one or two details.
Plenty of people have already pointed out some great things about the picket-fenced superficiality of the ad, and how it dovetails perfectly with the shallow society satirized and condemned by the novel. One aspect that hasn’t really been touched upon yet is the construction set they’re playing with, and what it reflects about the depicted culture. Elise pointed out the gendered roles of the men playing while the women smile and watch–a dynamic made all the more salient by the specific activity they’re playing with. A construction set in the late 40s is made for boys; the entire “charm” of the ad is that the father, a man who might know a thing or two about real construction, gets down on his hands and knees to tinker with a toy variation alongside his sons. Working construction is a historically (and toxically) male-dominated career and even on the living room rug, the men dominate the construction site.
One of my favorite passages in Fahrenheit is when Faber says, “So now do you see why books are hated and feared? They show the pores in the face of life. The comfortable people want only wax moon faces, poreless, hairless, expressionless. We are living in a time when flowers are trying to live on flowers, instead of growing on good rain and black loam. Even fireworks, for all their prettiness, come from the chemistry of the earth. Yet somehow we think we can grow, feeding on flowers and fireworks, without completing the cycle back to reality.” (p. 79) Playing with a construction set is a far cry from the pastime of reading a book. This toy construction set is a manmade construct created to resemble a larger manmade construct–a flower feeding on flowers. It is not a pore-riddled text commenting on culture; it is a proverbial firework referencing bigger fireworks. At the end of the day, true construction sites represent humankind’s attempt to remodel the earth in the way/shape/form that’s most convenient for it; it is a distinctly human-imposed–often corporate–fabrication. And though it comes from the chemistry of the earth, just like fireworks–a toy construction site definitely loses sight of that cycle.
This picture certainly displays the ideal nuclear family however, this is not shown in Montag’s life in Fahrenheit 451. Instead the only version of this nuclear family that we see in the book is through Mildred’s TV family. Since Mildred does not have children of her own she religiously watches this show in order to fill this void. In general however, the novel discouraged the nuclear family we see in this picture. The main message is that free speech and intellectualism take precedent over everything and must be preserved. This is only achieved when Montag gives up his wife, job, and house in favor of living with a crew of homeless intellectuals where he is finally given his purpose to exercise his intellectual freedom by memorizing a book.
Bradbury would also find the conformity and consumerism exhibited family appalling. The fact that they are all drinking 7-Up shows how loyal they are to the corporate machine and in the dystopian world this would be the authoritarian regime. Bradbury also admires Clarisse, someone who goes against societal norms. The family could not be more opposite from how I pictured her. This family goes against the individualism and free thinking that Bradbury admires through this story. One thing I will say Bradbury would like is the fact that instead of watching TV they are at least talking and not consuming media.
Throughout Fahrenheit 451, it is evident that many characters do not appreciate the importance of family however in the 1950s 7-up ad, family seems to be the central concept. There are multiple incidents in the novel where parents are not appreciating their children or their spouses. For example, the novel reads, “I plunk the children in school nine days out of ten. I put up with them when they come home three days a month.” The characters in the dystopian society are so controlled by television that they would rather watch TV than enjoy time with their children. This is opposite to what the ad is intending. The Ad depicts a family playing (or for the girls, experting on the side?) with a construction set, and enjoying their 7up and time together.
Bradbury, i think, would find the conformity of this add appalling in the sense that they are all consumed with the materialistic items and consumeristic characteristics in the ad. However, as mentioned in the slides, Bradbury struggled with more feministic views , so he might find the gender roles in the ad adequate.
This 7-Up ad defines what the “idealized” nuclear family was in the 1950s. They have the “happy” and perfectly done up housewife mother, the businessman father who is still in his suit from work, the little sister holding her baby doll (sitting on the sidelines with her mother, not participating at all), and finally, the two little boys eagerly playing with their father. This vision of what the idealized nuclear family is would be welcomed by Bradbury, highlighting the looks of admiration and joy seen on the children’s faces bonding with one another. This ad depicts a sense of true loyalty and what a true family should be. I agree with Henry that this ad goes directly against the “adult superficiality” presented with Mildred and the other characters in Fahrenheit 451.
I believe that Bradbury might find this ad appalling in the sense that everyone in this family is conforming to the same thing (i.e., everyone has a bottle of 7-Up, even the little girl). This ad, in essence, is preaching for social conformity, with 7-Up being “a welcome part of everybody’s fun.” Therefore, as Elise said, the ad itself’s very goal (everyone drinking 7-Up) would be appalling to Bradbury, even if the different aspects of the ad could appeal to him as well.
The image of the family in the 7-Up ad is one that we intentionally don’t see in Fahrenheit 451. The absence of the nuclear family is largely a product of the intellectual and social conformity present in the novel. One might argue that Mildred does not feel a need to have a tangible nuclear family of her own with the consistent presence of the “TV Family” in her parlor. Other than this trait, however, Mildred fits the description of most of the tropes of the suburban (or at least the dystopian suburban) housewife, as the slides suggest; she is a product of post-war consumerism and doesn’t demonstrate any desire to achieve beyond the TV parlor. I wonder if Bradbury creates Mildred as a criticism of the societal role of the housewife, and the manner in which societal conformity and technological advancement has reduced her to an effectively unimportant player outside of the home.
The absence of the nuclear family, per Bradbury, is necessary towards cultivating selfhood. The image of the organized family with the stay at home housewife and three children is perhaps the most common symbol of conformity in post-war Suburbia. That Montag by the end of the novel is not restricted to a job, a wife, or a child enables him to pursue intellectualism and operate as an independent agent. Montag’s refusal to conform with the regulations does save him after all. As a fugitive on the run with no ties to the city when it is destroyed, he is able to save himself and the knowledge he has accrued. I take this to be Bradbury’s essential message of the novel; conformity leads to destruction, both of the society and the individual. I imagine, then, he would view an advertisement revering the nuclear family as abhorrent.
The 7 up add depicted in this post clearly idolizes the nuclear family unit. It is also true that Fahrenheit 451 goes to great lengths to reject societal conformity. However, I think its important to investigate what precisely is being rejected.
One theme that repeatedly crept up for me in the novel was that of superficiality. Montag hated the way that his singularly opinionated society created a stark sense of correctness and superficiality in people, especially his wife. Effectively, by only giving them one opinion from which to choose, it seemed like society made it incredibly easy for people to not only perceive themselves as correct, but to do so pretentiously.
Take the scene where Montag’s wife and her friend’s are watching television together and are discussing the upcoming war to be declared. Likely they were feeling very adultlike and informed. Montag on the other hand wanted nothing to do with their conversation, and preceded to get himself into trouble by reciting poetry. In the eyes of his wife’s friends, Montag was likely being childish, just as in his eyes they were being superficial.
Clearly this sentiment bothered Montag. His journey with Faber represents a pursuit of freely seeking intellectual joy, striking out against this false sense of maturity. I see parallels to this rebellion against superficiality in the 7 up ad. We have a father and his children playing together nearly as equals. We have the mother even ‘experting’ on the sidelines. In my view, the ageless unity demonstrated by the ad goes directly against the sense of overly adult like superficiality that is developed throughout Fahrenheit 451, which is in turn established by the dystopian conditions of its broader society.
Ultimately, it is this child-like joy that leads me to believe that Fahrenheit 451 would actually welcome the subject matter of the ad.
At the very least, the family in the ad is one that actually interacts with each other in a cooperative manner, as opposed to the very individualistic interactions of Mildred and her TV parlor. Bradbury also seems to condemn the childlessness of Mildred and Mrs. Phelps, and even Mrs. Bowles, who, although she has had children, interacts with them in the most mechanized, detached way possible. Thus, the very image of (the male) children bonding with their father over a collective activity would fit well into Bradbury’s image of what a family should be. Perhaps the very goal of the ad is what would appall Bradbury; every single member of the family has their own bottle of 7-Up, even the, ostensibly, very young child in the mom’s arms. The consumerism has taken a strong enough hold of this family that they’re feeding soda to babies.
Based off of Bradbury’s depiction of Mildred and Clarisse, as mentioned in the slides, the purely auxiliary roles that the mother and daughter play in this ad would probably be of no concern to Bradbury. They simply fill the role of women in the household, with the daughter only watching her brothers play and the mother to watch the daughter. As the ad says, they’re literally on the sidelines, despite whatever “experting” they can offer.