When one thinks of kids in the USSR, one thinks of Communism and institutionalism. Therefore, before I read, I had to actually remind myself that there are actually families in the USSR. It’s also easy to forget that the Soviet education system was one of the best in the world, easily comparable to that of the US. When the narrator discusses when she and the other girls studied “Home Economics” and the boys studied “Shop”, it really brings some parallels back to the US, where there are similar divisions in the education system.
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I noticed this as well. The Shop and Home Economics classes are indicative of the broader social and educational divisions between men and women of this time in America. This similarity forces us as Americans to recognize the social behaviors the United States and USSR shared during this time and continue to share today. It weakens the perception of American Exceptionalism, in a way.
I also thought the idea that the generation of Natalie’s son tended to be more spoiled than their parents’ generation spoke to a broader phenomenon as well. For instance, in Greece, our generation and younger tend to be less constrained than their parents and grandparents due to the fact that their parents and grandparents want them to have a better childhood than they had growing up. Nothing is ever contained to just one country or region of the world.