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like i think both of those scenes show how the american dream is so restrictive to people of color and women. black people are entirely excluded from that narrative and women are either forced into it, or cannot attain it on their own terms. even when don shows his perfect 1/2
american house he& #39;s so unhappy with it. even betty is upset. and the 60s are when people are just starting to realize that this idea of a white picket fence is, by design, keeping ppl out. no tv company wants to cater to black communities because they want to exclude black ppl.
also the sylvia plath references in this episode are so common, betty standing in her kitchen in front of the oven, her mother tending the wounds of medgar evers and saying "you see what happens to people who speak up" and her dad mopping up the blood. (3/?)
as if to say "this is what happens to people who defy their roles," you can tell betty feels trapped by her position as a housewife, ever since she tried to go back into modeling. i think of betty as taking inspiration from a mix of betty friedan and sylvia plath (4/?)
what first drew me to this was in episode 2 when betty keeps feeling unsure about whats happening to her, she doesnt understand why being a housewife is making her unhappy, since everyone has been telling her to be grateful for it (don, her mother, francine) (5/?)
i think she is drawn to helen bishop because of this, since she kind of proves to betty that there is a life beyond what she has. however, seeing how helen has a pretty rough life (according to betty& #39;s friends) she feels even more trapped, because now she sees what would (6/?)
happen if she abandons her life with don. here she talks about her moms expectations of her, and i saw someone point out the way she phrases "until your in a box" recalls imagery of sylvia plath& #39;s suicide. sylvia plath comes up again at a party later on (7/?)
when someone brings up the summer the rosenbergs where executed, which seems like a direct reference to the bell jar, which opens with a sentence about it being the summer th rosenbergs were executed. plus betty lives in the same town that the rosenbergs were executed (8/?)
although she lived in manhattan at the time (also where the beginning of the bell jar takes place). the connection to the rosenbergs shows how when ppl conspire against the usa, against the "american dream" they are punished for it. (9/?)
its all just very
ill probably keep adding to this thread as the show goes on but im just feeling very
