The Nightmare of the 1950sWhere were American citizens afraid in the 1950s? From the films we see about this time period most would say no because from the look of the film they had no problems. People smiled and families greeted each other happily as they came home from school or work. What you don't see in those movies is what was actually happening during the 1950s, the magic of cinema can cover up the parts of the 1950s that were basically pure nightmares to go through. While it may be true that families in the 1950s still greeted each other when they walked through the door, but it was all just black and white smiles. When you imagine the 1950s after seeing them on television you don't bother imagining things like The Red Scare, threats of nuclear attacks, or the Korean War. During the 1950s you basically had to watch what you said otherwise you'd be considered communist or drill in school in case a nuclear attack ever happened (although I seriously don't think ducking and covering yourself while hiding under your desk would really be protect you from a nuclear bomb). The 1950s weren't a dream if you think about it. Before I decided to do my report on how the 1950s were a nightmare, I first had to rule out which were nightmares and which were dreams of the 1950s. thinking about nightmares was easy while thinking about dreams was a bit difficult in the end I was putting trivial things like televisions coming out to replace the old radio and many other such things like the suburbs, credit or working holidays for the man who work. it all boiled down to the fact that the 1950s were a nightmare. While the 1950s weren't just a nightmare, I admit there are some parts of it that were dreamed of, but for the sake of this essay I can... middle of paper... communism. the 50's were a nightmare but to the invisible eye there were also some parts that were a dream but as I said when I tried to choose the topic of this essay I found that although there were good parts of the 50's there there were even more parts that made it a nightmare. which probably gave the filmmakers more reason to try to create the illusion for us with the movies and the novels and the total look of the 1950s as a dream, so that we aren't consumed by the nightmares of it all until we come out of it to knowledge through our education in history. work cited http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/red-scare http://www.radiochemistry.org/history/nuclear_timeline/50s.html http://www.atomcentral.com/the - cold-war.aspx http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/hollywood-ten http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/joseph-mccarthy