A Summary Of Robert And Helen Lynd's Study Of Muncie

Robert and Helen Lynd’s study of Muncie, Indiana, focuses on the differences between the working class and the business class. As we learn through their study, “there appears to be a constantly closer relation between the solitary factor of financial status and one’s social status,” (Lynd & Lynd 1929: 81) thus paralleling our current society. The primary focus of the study is social mobility, and Robert and Helen Lynd expose that social mobility is increasingly becoming a myth created by society to control the work ethic and have all individuals uniformly working towards one goal. As the Lynds emphasize, “everybody who gets a living in Middletown is theoretically in the process of ‘getting there’; each person has a large degree of freedom to

The Lynds paint a picture of the two different kinds of homes in the Middletown mornings; “the dark ones where people still sleep, and the ones with a light in the kitchen where the adults of the household may be seen moving about, starting the business of the day” (Lynd & Lynd 1929: 53). The decisions that the heads of families in Middletown made regarding their employment profoundly affected family life and all things that revolved around the home. Being of working class was challenging in Middletown, and being of working class meant obtaining a living by having to make it the top priority at the expense of everything else. According to the Lynds, “layoffs have become much more automatic than the reluctant personal decision of a sympathetic employer,” (Lynd & Lynd 1929: 57) and this caused many working class individuals to feel like their unemployment was impending. Being in such a state of worry reinforced the working class citizens’ need to sacrifice their happiness for their social and economic stability. Relating to this idea, when the women of Middletown were asked about their husbands’ jobs, they “said that their husbands had taken or would want work that paid less and had less future if it seemed likely to be ‘steady’ and less subject to layoffs” (Lynd & Lynd 1929: 60). The working class citizens of Middletown faced a

This transformation was used as a distraction from the reality of what their lives were, and was seen as a form of denial. The working class citizens of Middletown had to distract themselves by making things on their side better; they knew they were not the business class, but this did not mean that they could not feel like them. Developing a routine allowed these individuals to feel comfortable in their current place in society, but also enabled them to live a life filled with much more ease, as a person in the business class would. The stressors of the working class can have an immense effect on the quality of life, which is why certain individuals within the working class chose to distract themselves with routine. The working class citizens transformed their lives by fixing the systems in their environment; they focused on improving their social life, economics, and other areas. One of the methods that they used to complete this transformation was unions. According to Robert and Helen Lynd, “organized labor formed one of the most active coordinating centers in the lives of some thousands of Middletown working families” (Lynd & Lynd 1929: 76). Creating these unions improved their daily lives and allowed them to have more of what the business class