• Born Thomas Lanier Williams on March 26, 1911
• Always had desire to be a writer
• Tense family life -> Parent’s marriage
• Battled with father to write
• At 28, moved to New Orleans to write and became successful
• Became one of country’s best playwright by 1947 with A Streetcar Named Desire
• Cat on a Hot Tin Roof also won a Pulitzer Prize in
1955

• Mississippi Delta of the 1950s
• Margaret “Maggie”
• Brick
• Big Daddy – “Mississippi Redneck”
• Big Momma

• “National Security Rational”
• Federal Defense Act of 1950
• Korean War
• Heightened sense of alert

• Popular mode of communications in the 50’s
• Lots of PSAs
• Duck and Cover
• Dinner Etiquette
• Present in 90% of homes by end of
1950s
• Advertisements
• Helped distract Americans from Cold
War http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqIIeGmhL2Q

• Military vehicle production drawn to a close by end of WWII
• Spurred by advertising
• Fueled by the war
• Higher wages
• Cheap gas
• Highways

• Decade of Prosperity
• G.I. Bill
• Credit
• Increased standards of living in US

http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~mwaltos/lis506/project/1950s/cars.html
http://www.shmoop.com/1950s/economy.html
http://www.shmoop.com/cat-hot-tin-roof/plot-analysis.html
http://www.sparknotes.com/drama/cat/summary.html
http://www.coldwar.org/articles/50s/index.asp
http://www.biography.com/people/tennessee-williams-9532952?page=2 http://www.shmoop.com/1950s/culture.html