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Exploring Post-War Economy Through The Graduate And Easy Rider

The Golden Age of America, the period post WWII, was taken out behind the proverbial house and beaten by the coming of the Counter Culture Revolution of the 1960s.   Everything that the “greatest generation,” built and quite literally defended was thrown to the wind by the next generation without a second thought.   They were able to free themselves from the shackles of society so easily for various reasons, including: affluence, leisure time, easy access to literature, and higher education.   These topics have been touched upon far too much for me to mention them in my paper, and I will save you the boring read. The real question is, why? Why after being handed everything, why after being groomed for this new world where America was at the head of power, why would they throw this away for a system that was unproven and idealistic?   The easy answer would be that they were tripping...hard, but surprisingly it was way more complicated than that.   Two stories are presented   representing this “revolution” in the movies, The Graduate, and Easy Rider; each are very different but share an origin and typify the reasons behind the movement, family pressure. However, before we can even touch upon the movement, we have to define the changes that occurred in the world before big boy went boom and gave a dose of radiation to our economy.
The year is 1930 and the American economy had done a complete 180 from the era of flappers   and speakeasies.   A good many Americans were unemployed due to one heck of a drought coupled with a shoestring market, and it seemed that something needed to to jump-start their economy. That something winded up being a global war, incorporating the world's industrial leaders. WWII came to America through a domino effect of back room treaties and international pressure, but the downtrodden citizens put their shoulders down and dove head first into a propaganda charged war-time economy.   Government spending on the war grew huge industries that dried up...