Thinking About the Text: pg 175

1. What is Heather Havrilesky’s main insight about Mad Men? How can you tell? Point to specific passages that reflect this conclusion.

Havrilesky’s main point is that Mad Men shows exactly what is wrong with our conception of the American dream. That perfect family, perfect job, perfect life that we dream of will never be good enough to satisfy our innate dissatisfaction with our lives; there will always be something better to hope for, so we can never be content. The piece opens with examples of media that gives us false ideals of what we need, telling us we have to be rich and powerful to really be living. Towards the end of the text, the author points out how invented the so called American dream has become, “The lovely details of this fantasy...occasionally fail to obscure the confused humans who straighten their shoulders and dry their eyes and take the stage day after day, dutifully mouthing lines about the thrills of work and family, all of it the invented, peppy rhetoric of laundry detergent jingles.” (P174) Behind the “lovely details” society instructs us to want, we’re all just people trying to play the role of perfect American citizen.

2. How does Havrilesky establish her authority to write about this show?

The author writes very clearly about different characters in the show, explaining in detail specific actions each character has taken, and connecting characters to each other. The amount of information she easily provides and shares with her audience leads to trust in her knowledge.

3. How does she appeal to her readers’ emotions? Identify specific passages where she does so.

Havrilesky paints the situations of the characters that we can empathize with. The problems that they have in the show, are human issues we still worry about today. “Told that they can have everything they want, these two are haunted by a constant desire for more. But what variety of more will suit them this time? The answer typically- and somewhat tragically- seems to spring out of impulse and ego and fear more than any rela self-reflection or wisdom.” (P172) We all worry that the decisions we make are the right ones, and none of us want to be lead wrongly by our first instinct. Bringing up these very human issues the characters have to worry about is what leads us to care about them.  

4. If you weren’t familiar with it, do you now understand the basic premise-and has Havrilesky made you want to watch it? Explain.

                       From someone who had only vaguely heard about Mad Men, I definitely now         understand what the show is about. The author did a great job explaining the characters, their situations, and why the viewers are so interested in them. I am interested in the show now, Havrilesky’s depiction of what the characters have to deal with has me wanting to know what they do. Especially towards some of the characters I deem more relatable, I want to know how they get through problems that aren’t entirely different than something that may happen to me.