Discussion posts

What moments from "The Gold Violin" struck you? How do these moments point to the many changes in our society since the 1960s? How have our values changed? How have they remained the same?

Specifically, consider the car salesman who sells Draper the cadillac. What warrant does he use to sell the car? What struck you about the picnic scene? The confrontation between Draper and Jimmy?

Classmate Response: Soomal

There were a number of things that stuck out to me in this episode. One thing that stuck out was women's roles in society in the 1960s. Women were expected to be obedient and homemakers to men. They were expected to do all the cooking and cleaning while keeping up appearances. Women did not really have any opportunities to surpass men especially when it came to jobs and careers. Women serve under men, no questions asked. In my opinion, women's roles have pretty much stayed the same, although more and more women are out in the workforce doing many jobs that were once male dominated. That is a good thing because we are seeing change for women in the workforce. Another thing that stuck out was the picnic scene. Draper just throws his can of beer out in to the open without even considering throwing it away in a trash can. His wife just leaves all their trash on the grass and they also let their son urinate in public vicinity. You can tell how fixated Draper is on his car because he doesn't want anything to ruin it, such as his children's dirty hands. Today, littering is pretty much illegal and you can get fined for it. It is amazing to see how that has converted into a law, when it was okay to litter in public back in the 1960s. The car salesmen did an excellent job in luring Draper to buy the car because he pretty much used the quality of the car as a warrant to make it look worthy of purchasing. He was able to lure Draper, who is practically a salesman himself, to buy an expensive product. The confrontation between Draper and Jimmy was hilarious because Draper pretty much pretended like he didn't know what Jimmy was talking about, but he knew the truth. Since Jimmy hinted to Betty about what was going on, it is easy to tell how oblivious she was of her husband thinking that he was always faithful, but he never was.

Classmate Response: Karla

The car deal between the salesman and Draper was interesting. The salesman said the perfect things in order to sell to Draper, a man all about image. He stated that Draper would be comfortable and stylish in the Cadillac and that it is for a man who is already where he wants to be, "already arrived". The picnic scene also stood out to me when the daughter asked if they were rich and the mother said it wasn't polite to talk about money. It also caught my attention when Draper threw his beer can into the field and the wife left all the garbage from the picnic on the floor. Things now are so much different. There are rules and laws about littering and people are way more open to discuss things in the family such as money.

I think Jimmy and Draper's confrontation was a big turn in the episode. I don't think Draper is used to people putting him in his place. He reacted with silence and acting like he didn't know about anything he was talking about.