Little Boxes: A Modern Look at "Ticky-Tack"

 As soon as I read the assignment and saw "Little Boxes" I knew that I had to do a modern look. The show "Weeds" used this song as their theme for the first season- Weeds Opening Theme . When I first heard it I just found it to be a cute analysis of suburbanite life but now I see it differently. The little boxes are more than houses, they are a lifestyle.

 As the song states; 

"Little boxes on the hillside,

Little boxes made of ticky tacky,

Little boxes on the hillside,

Little boxes all the same.

There's a green one and a pink one 

And a blue one and a yellow one,

And they're all made out of ticky tacky

And they all look just the same."

As we can see the song looks at the houses all looking the same even with different colored paint. I believe the same is true of the residents of these houses. The song goes on to say the people all went to college and got jobs, then returned to their own "boxes" in the suburbs. The "box" can be the person himself as well. No matter what the person looks like or does he continues to follow social stigma and act the same. Whether it is drinking his martini dry or playing golf. As the show presents all the houses in the development are all the same and so are the people, so it would seem. All the women dress the same for exercising and the most important element to the males is the golf course built in the center of the development. 

Hayden believed that the suburbs offered a threefold approach to drawing people in. The home, nature, and community aspects of the area. I believe that these are very true when looking at the "sitcom suburbs" of the '50's but today the suburbanites are not looking for only the same three things. Yes, they still want the home and yard and the sense of belonging to the community. However, now people in the suburbs want a sense of belonging to lifestyle. The "country club" life if you will. The privileged life that many want to live.  The residents of the new suburb developments are still the cookie cutters that Reynolds sang about.