Instant Access To 100,000+ Essays!

Rebel Without A Cause, released in 1955, is a film that sympathetically portrays the rebellious, misunderstood, American middle-class youth. The story provides a full, but stylized look at the world of the conformist mid-1950s. Critics of the 1950's industry in America have claimed that it is ideological, serving as a propaganda machine to perpetuate conservative myths of the American Dream, gender, and racial stereotypes. The principal feature of post-World War II American society was its overwhelming prosperity in comparison with the rest of the world. This newfound freedom and prosperity led to the migration of families by the thousands flocking to the so-called center of the American Dream: the suburbs. Living in the suburbs was supposed to be the ultimate sign of success: the perfect home, family, and neighborhood, would all be present. Contrary to this popular belief, Rebel Without a Cause is a true dose of reality, revealing the truth that as long as families do not have structure, communication, and morals, life in the suburbs will prove to serve as no solution at all. Rebel Without a Cause, portrays a true, and yet, grim look at the life of teens in the 1950s, growing up in the suburbs, and what American society can do to