The Setting of Edward Scissorhands

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The Setting of Edward Scissorhands

• A little bit about American suburbia in the 1950s

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Key Questions

• What was life like in the 1950s?
• Why was it like this?
• Where did the concept of suburbia originate from?
• How was Tim Burton affected by this?
• How does he show this in Edward Scissorhands?

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What was life like?

• Drive ins, McDonalds, Tupperware and convenience
  food were all new concepts in 1950s America.
• People prided themselves on their homes, cars,
  and gadgets.
• It seemed like a perpetual summertime, said
  Richard Abrams, history professer. These people
  dont want trouble. They dont want to make
  waves.
• America wanted to show off the promises to a
  capitalist democracy.

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Why was it like this?

• Late 20s- Mid 40s, hard and tumultuous time in
  America.
• Great Depression, World War 2. Uncertain, unhappy
  times.
• After the war US emerged as world power with
  communist Soviet Union.
• Wanted to show the world that capitalist
  democracy of US better than Soviet communism.
• Showed this through maintaining an ideal of
  affluence and congeniality.

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Pssst

• To put it extra simply
• Soviet Union communist collection of countries.
  Now dissolved.
• Communism living and producing for the good of
  the state.
• America (and NZ) capitalist
• Capitalism pursuit of the individual, hard work
  can make you affluent.
• Pros and cons to both systems.

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Where did the concept of suburbia come from?

• Levittown was one of the first manufactured
  suburbs.
• Mass produced, production line homes, 5 styles to
  choose from, kitted out with all the new
  appliances.
• Buyer could choose and buy in three minutes.
• Made decent housing accessible for working class
  citizens.
• Damned for blandness, conformity, racial
  exclusivity.

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How was Tim Burton affected by this?

• He grew up in the suburb of Burbank in the 1960s.
  
• Pastel houses, materialism, superficial
  priorities, grotesque ornaments on the wall and
  in the garden.
• No sense of history/culture/passion for anything.
• Neighbourhood could easily turn into an angry mob
  if displeased no sense of individuality.

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Quotes

• You never see anybody unless theres something
  weird going on in the neighbourhood.
• You were never quite aware of what people were
  feeling always surface oriented.
• Christmas Decoration and intensity without any
  real feeling about any real tradition except
  assembling a Christmas tree.

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Quotes

• The pictures my family had on the walls, I never
  got a sense that they liked them, that they
  bought them, that somebody had given them to
  them. It was almost as if they had always been
  there, and yet no one had ever looked at them. I
  remember sitting there looking at some of these
  things going What the hell is that? What are
  those resin grapes? Where did they get them? What
  does it mean?

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Quotes

• You were either forced to conform and cut out a
  large portion of your personality, or to develop
  as very strong interior life which made you feel
  separate.
• theres stuff underneath you just dont know.

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Where do we see this?

• Identify and explain instances where
• 1. There is a mob mentality, the neighbourhood
  turning on anything they perceive as a threat.
• 2. There is unusual or grotesque decoration.
• 3. The neighbourhood gathers when something
  weird is going on.(two examples)
• 4. Prioritisation or focus on the material value
  of things (three examples at least)
• 5. People going along with what everyone else
  thinks (conformity).