Cults & Society: The Petersons and the American Dream.
I've never seen anyone in the fandom attempt to discuss this, especially the books. I wouldn't blame you if you took the Aaron trilogy at face value, and to an extent, I only know slightly what the Forest Protector Society cult is on a surface level.
But as someone who is researching on HN1/HN2's inspirations, I cannot ignore Hello Neighbour's (possibly unintentional) symbolism to this, as it was a occurring theme in those media.
So we'll start with very surface-level stuff:
Just like the top of those images, next to the Petersons: they are the poster children of the American suburb's dreams that were advertised back in the '40s to '60s:
The Husband, Wife, and their two kids that was usually a son and daughter.
Even to the tee of the kids looking like their gendered parents.
This is also very important as everyone outside the Petersons is actually an unconventional household:
Nicky despite having both parents, Luanne has never been a traditional homemaker, the closest to that role is Jay (Very well aware Diane is a school teacher too but that was around the end of the Aaron trilogy not the start of it and I also have a comparison between those two). Usually, that kind of dynamic was unheard of and frowned upon.
The same applies to the Esposito and Yis are both single parents specifically on the widow and widower side, usually, stepparents would fill the role of that absent-gendered parent so they could go back to that very rigid gender role they were thrust upon.
Though the Bales also have both parents, there are few depictions of families with just a daughter. As having a son to carry family last names was more thrust upon the society.
Stay with me, so this is no surprise to anybody as much as those pictures depict a happy idyllic family in most depictions of media of this family structure (Especially HN's inspo media: Twin Peaks) They HEAVILY critique how this family structure is rigid if not hurting the individual rather than helping especially when the country at the time really pushed this very heavily: woman was forced to be financially depended on her husband and the man having zero help emotionally but to keep providing the family.
And if things took the worst like let's say a domestic dispute it was only till the 1970s that divorce became more accessible so these people were stuck in these marriages.
And for children, as much Bronisław Malinowski saw the good of this family structure it can take the worse if children take the brunt of the abuse as that period had a "Children should be seen not heard." mentality which you can understand how this will fucked the children up for life.
"Okay yeah they are essentially the American Family but what does this have to do with the Forest Protectors?"
What was the biggest goal of the cult?
Fortune, good luck, a dream if you say... And well we know what the American dream represents but this is the reward for these kinds of Family Values....
Despite that by the end of the Aaron trilogy, Theodore came out the husk of a man he once was, maybe worse. For Ted, he was ruined by the cult and destroyed his image of a renowned theme park designer for the kids, real life?
Breadwinner men like Ted end up chasing that dream, some achieve it and definitely reap the rewards... Some never, but it was something to "look forward to" while those who made the movement made sure they still kept their condition so they can exploit that for the rest of their waking lives till their children is next and they'll be exploited the same way.
And if you have nobody to take this out on, who else but the family you come back to every day?
Now I don't think in general the nuclear family is a bad dynamic there is no perfect family dynamic just the one that works the best, but for HN and what I believe is the criticism of conservatism and how it affects the generation after that, it is something to be very introspective.
Someday I'll do Diane and the kids cause this will get longer than it should be as well as generational trauma and what I believe HN1 was all about which was breaking the cycle (despite it not coming from the son but the son's friend but uh... We got some terrible news for the son).
PART II
The Petersons & The American Dream: The Glue that holds us all (Media analysis on the Matriarchy)
CW: This is gonna be an analysis about the deep-seated sexism instilled by midwest/southern states in the 1990s (Still very prevalent to this day) & mention of abuse within the family.
