(Donaldson, Scott. The Suburban Myth. New York: Columbia University Press, 1969. Print.)
"This excessive neighboring, this dominant hyperactivity, and this dreadful conformity all stem from the same root, as the critics see it. The cause is homogeneity. Nothing is easier than to assume solely on the bases of the architectural evidence that suburbia is homogeneous. ALl the homes are alike; ergo, all the people who live in the homes are alike. John Keats makes this generalization without pausing for breath. The dwelling, he states, shapes the dweller, and when 'all dwellings are the same shape, all dwellers are squeezed into the same shape.' This radically deterministic point of view gets partial--but only partial--support from the facts....[S]uburbs vary widely in the socio-economic characteristics measured by the census. But within themselves, many suburbs are remarkably homogeneous." (103) In a broader sense, it must be one of the goals of this project to note the intricate ways that 'the dwelling shapes the dweller.' This must hold true not only at the level of the home, but should be expanded to the community and contracted to the room, even to the individual piece of furniture.
