A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT APPROACH TO DEVELOPING CHARACTERS - Part II

A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT APPROACH TO DEVELOPING CHARACTERS - Part II
  

In Part I of this blog, I introduced the idea that because people, and therefore our fictional characters, are the products of genetics, environment, and experience, the events which took place and the attitudes and values which prevailed during the first fifteen years of their lives have a big influence on their core values, beliefs, expectations, and self-image.  Writers can use this approach to enrich their characters on the page.

Part I deals with the events that took place between 1910 through 1939.  Individuals born during these decades would be 71 to 100 year-old age group in 2010.

Part II, covering 1940 through 1960, would apply to your characters in the 50 to 70 age group.  Think about how the following events might have contributed to their attitudes and values.

PEOPLE BORN BETWEEN 1940 AND 1950 WOULD BE FROM 60 TO 70 YEARS OLD IN 2010
This age group would have been influenced in the formative years by the following events

1940 - 1949      Top films of decade include:

                           Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), Bambi (1942), This is the Army (1943), The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), Duel in the Sun (1946), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Song of the South (1946), Mom and Dad (1947), Samson and Delilah (1949)

 1940 - 1949     New foods introduced: M&M’s, Cherrios, Post Raisin Bran, Dannon yogurt, Chiquita bananas, Redi-Whip, Fritos Corn Chips, Almond Joy candy bar, V8 Vegetable Juice, Kraft American cheese slices.

 1940-1950       Most popular TV shows:  The Milton Berle Show and Kraft Television Theatre

 1940 - 1949      Top popular songs: Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered (1940), When You Wish Upon a Star (1940), Chattanooga Choo‑Choo (1941), White Christmas (1942),  Ac‑cent‑tchuate the Positive (1945), There's No Business Like Show Business (1946), Riders in the Sky (1949)

 1941 - 1945      Holocaust

 

 What they grew up hearing about:

1940 - P.Goldmark invents modern color TV system

1941 - The first computer controlled by software
1941 - Aerosol spray cans and neutronic reactor invented
1941 - Japanese Attack Pearl Harbor
1941 - Jeep invented
1941 - Manhattan Project begins
1941 - Mount Rushmore completed

1942 - First nuclear Reactor built

 

1942 - Anne Frank goes into hiding
1942 - First electronic digital computer built by John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry
1942 - Japanese‑Americans held in camps
1942 - T‑shirt introduced
1942 - Max Mueller designs a turboprop engine.

1943 - Italy Joins the Allies
1943 - Synthetic rubber, the slinky, silly putty invented
1943 - The hallucinogenic properties of LSD discovered
1943 - Aqualung invented/ E.Gagnan & Jacques Cousteau

1944 - The kidney dialysis machine invented/Willem Kolff
1944 - Ballpoint Pens go on sale
1944 - D‑Day
1944 - First German V1 and V2 Rockets Fired

1944 - Hitler escapes assassination attempt

1945 - FDR Dies
1945 - United Nations is formed
1945 - The atomic bomb invented and dropped

      
1945 - First computer built
1945 - Germans surrender
1945 - United Nations founded
1945 - Bikinis introduced
1945 - Juan Perón becomes President of Argentina
1945 - Nuremberg Trials

 1946 - The microwave oven invented by Percy Spencer.

 1947 - Dennis Gabor developed the theory of holography.
1947 - Mobile phones first invented.
1947 - Earl Silas Tupper patented the Tupperware seal

           
1947 - Polaroid cameras invented
1947 - Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier
1947 - Dead Sea Scrolls discovered
1947 - First holography
1947 - The Marshall Plan

1948 - Columbia Records introduces "long playing" vinyl record.
1948 - Berlin Airlift
1948 - The Frisbee and Velcro invented
1948 - Arab-Israeli conflicts
1948 - "Big Bang" Theory Formulated
1948 - "Dewey Defeats Truman" in the newspapers

 

1948 - Gandhi assassinated
1948 - State of Israel founded
1948 - Ghandi assassinated

1949 - Mao Tse Tung / China Becomes Communist
1949 - The first cake mix introduced
1949 - First Non-Stop Flight Around the World
1949 - George Orwell Publishes Nineteen Eighty Four
1949 - NATO Established

 

PEOPLE BORN BETWEEN 1950 AND 1960 WOULD BE FROM 50 TO 60 YEARS OLD IN 2010
This age group would have been influenced in the formative years by the following events:

1950 - 1953     Korean War

1950 - 1959     Top films include:

                          Cinderella (1950), This is Cinerama (1952), Peter Pan (1953),
                          The Robe (1953), Lady and the Tramp (1955), The Ten
                          Commandements (1956), Around the World in 80 Days (1956),
                          South Pacific (1958), Ben-Hur (1959), Sleeping Beauty (1959).

 

1950 - 1959     Most popular TV shows:

                          I Love Lucy, Texaco Star Theater, Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts,
                          The $64,000 Question, Gunsmoke, Twilight Zone, Bonanza,
                          As the World Turns, What's My Line, Perry Mason, Ed Sullivan.

1950 - 1959     New Foods Introduced: Kellogg's Sugar Pops, Minute Rice,
                          Lawry's Seasoned Salt, Swanson TV Dinners, Lipton's
                          Onion Soup Mix, Clarence Birdseye introduced forzen peas,
                          Cheeze Whiz (Kraft), Star-Kist canned tuna, Eggo frozen waffles.
 
What people in this age group grew up hearing and reading about:

1950 - The first credit car (Diner's Club) introduced
1950 - First organ transplant
1950 - First Peanuts cartoon strip
1950 - Korean War begins
1950 - President Truman orders construction of first hydrogen bomb

1951 - Color TV introduced
1951 - Truman signs Peace Treaty with Japan, ending WWII

1952 - Car seatbelts introduced
1952 - Jacques Cousteau discovers ancient Greek ship
1952 - Polio vaccine created
1952 - Princess Elizabeth becomes Queen at age 25

1953 - Queen Elizabeth II coronated

1953 - DNA discovered
1953 - Hillary and Norgay climb Mt. Everest
1953 - Joseph Stalin dies

1954 - First atomic submarine launched
1954 - Report says cigarettes cause cancer
1954 - Roger Bannister breaks the four-minute mile

1955 - First fiber optics invented
1955 - Disneyland opens
1955 - James Dean dies in car accident
1955 - McDonald's corporation founded
1955 - Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a bus
1955 - Warsaw Pact signed

1956 - Elvis Pressley makes his appearance on Ed Sullivan show

1956 - Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier III of Monaco
1956 - Suez crisis
1956 - TV remote control invented
1956 - Velcro introduced
1956 - Hungarian Revolution

1957 - Dr. Seuss publishes The Cat In The Hat
1957 - Russians launch Sputnick
1957 - Small dog Laika becomes first living creature in space

1958 - Pope Pius XII dies
1958 - Charles De Caulle becomes President of France
1958 - The modem, the laser, and the Hula Hoop invented
1958 - Lego Toy Bricks introduced
1958 - The integrated circuit invented by J.Kilby & R. Noyce
1958 - NASA founded

1959 - Castro becomes dictator of Cuba

   
1959 - Nixon-Khrushchev Kitchen Debates
1959 - Sound of Music opens on Broadway
1959 - The internal pacemaker invented by Wilson Greatbatch
1959 - First Barbie Doll (She's over 50 now)
1959 - The microchip invented

Are you beginning to detect a difference in what values and expectations people in this age group might hav?.  Do you think about that when you read or write a novel?

Make comment by clicking the word "Comments" at the very top.  I want to hear from you.