The Patriarchy In The 1950's

179 Words1 Pages
The patriarchy also proves damaging and oppressive for individuals such as Roy. While Roy is far from a sympathetic character as he is abusive and controlling of Jack, it should be acknowledged that war veterans, especially in the 1950’s, were not given the social or medical support needed. Jack perceives Roy as “what a man should be” and sees him as stoic and strong, “He’d been to war and kept a kind of silence about it that was full of heroic implication.” The ideal that a man should be detached, unemotional, and violent lest he be seen as effeminate or weak comes from the idea that men need to be the providers and the powerful, something which is incredibly damaging to men, especially those who have been affected by the trauma of war. It