Frontline's Documentary, Two American Families

Frontline’s documentary, Two American Families, portrays the struggles of two middle-class American families as they navigate the ups and downs of life in an effort to hopefully achieve the American dream. Owning a home, sending children to college and planning for retirement epitomize the foundation of the American dream, and yet very few achieve these three goals due to a variety of factors: periods of unemployment, low wage jobs, little or no health benefits, debt, etc. The documentary weaves a narrative about the significance of family, work and education in a country where your social value is determined on your ability to obtain wealth, property, power and prestige, and ultimately it depicts the lives of many and their fight to overcome the structures of inequality. The social class, or socioeconomic status, of an individual helps sociologists predict life changes with regard to families such as the Stanleys and the Neummans both marring within their own social and cultural backgrounds. They hold the same values and beliefs, and upon marriage, such partnerships ultimately cement the new family’s social status. When they begin a …show more content…
Family, work, and education entwines to form the basis of our society and cannot be altered individually. Two American families in the heart of Milwaukee battle the everyday trials of social class inequality, only to learn that hard work does not guarantee the American dream. Wealth, property, power and prestige are the golden standard, and as a social structure, we smash the chances for many to attain them. The complexities of our society make resolutions difficult, but it can be done. The Stanleys and Nuemmans brought light to a dark issue our society is plagued with and through the cultivation of family, work and education we can begin to achieve the American dream as a