"Looking for Work" by Gary Soto, I thought was a very well written essay about the everyday life of 9 year old boy in the 1950s (not that I'd know, but it sounded good!). The point of both essays was to get across the similarities and differences of the present time and the 50s. Soto, writing the essay in a very laid back manner, only talking about how "Mrs. Moore gave him a quarter and two peaches after weeding the flower garden." While Coontz, forgive me but was probably one of the most boring essays I have ever read! The whole thing was statictics and comparing the 50s to the 90s. I didn't like her writing as much as I liked Soto's.
I think that both authors, as much as I would rather not talk about the second one because the reference and use of nostalgia in the first paragraphs was a bit of overkill! What both authors were driving at in their essays was that even though the 50s were nice, they had many problems we don't have today and vise versa. Some people really do miss the 50s as pointed out by Coontz but then there are those people that couldn't be happier that they are over. I don't think these essays challenge cultural beliefs about American families because once Soto realized that the life of "Leave it to Beaver" wasn't how his was going to be, he was content on going out in the last hour of light and making dime to end the day right.
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