Introduction
The dominant fact of the American past was movement; the great westward expansion that animated the American life throughout the 19th century. It was so deeply ingrained in the imagination of the masses that it remained not just a plain and simple area but came to epitomize in the later years the identity of the American nation. The myth of the frontier is one of the strongest and long-lived myths of America that animates the imagination of the Americans even to this day.
The frontier cannot be marked simply as a geographical line; it has to be located in the American history as the delineator of an entire culture. In his book “The Imagined Communities” Benedict Anderson theorized the process by which communities, and ultimately nations, are products of unified imagination. The concept of frontier or the ‘myth of frontier’ was one such imagined concept created to unify the nation into one whole, with distinct characters of its own.
Discussion
The distinct character that has come to define the Americans has been created over the years through innumerable discursive practices-like through speeches, films, newspaper, theatre, songs etc. – adopted at critical junctures of American history. In this paper, an attempt has been made to prepare an anthology of quotes, drawn from various sources dealing with American culture and identity.
It intends to form a clear idea of the process by which this American identity was created and re-interpreted at various historical stages so as to construct a positive ‘Oneness’ of their way of life- rogueness and “why the hell not?” attitude- making it dominant on the negative construction or the ‘Otherness’ of the non-American subordinate groups.
“Why should you take by force that from us which you can have by love? Why should you destroy us, who have provided you with food? What can you get by war?” (Robert Blaisdell 4).
Powhatan Wahunsonacock, head of the Native American tribal confederacy, in an emotional appeal to his conquistadors coxed them to shun violence. It reminds us of the bloody battles and violent extirpations that had rocked the world of the aborigines of the distant New Land faced with the swords of their conquerors. They witnessed doomsday wrecking their way of life in the name of civilization. It was with much disdain that the question was asked, “What can you get by war?” Answer to that question though unfathomable has shaped a civilization, an identity, a way of life, called America.
“Turner and Buffalo Bill told separate stories; indeed each contradicted the other in significant ways. Turner’s history was one of free land, the essentially peaceful occupation of a largely empty continent, and the creation of a unique American identity. Cody’s Wild West told of violent conquest, of wresting the continent from the American Indian peoples who occupied the land.” (White 9).
The narrative of Buffalo Bill and that of Turner brings alive the memories of the great westward movement. The memories hark back to the days of energetic movement, action and adventure, deeply rooted not just into the character of the Americans, but also visible in their sensibilities. Though they differ in their description, their essential characterization of the American spirit remains the same. Thus, they variantly draw a picture of an American with plow in hand and the other with a gun in hand, their purpose and spirit calls forth the integral element of Americanness, to strive endlessly, to seek fearlessly, and to progress endlessly (just like the American sense of frontier which though geographically declared dead never died from the identity of the Americans.)
“Like baseball, the western is a sacred part of America’s post- Civil War national mythology- a shared language, a unifying set of symbols and metaphors, and a source of (mainly male) identity.”(“How the Western was Lost”. Village Voice, 1991).
As emerges from this statement the West appears in American imagination not as a physical topography but as a set of values. These values have often been dubbed as the true qualities of an American. The metaphors they have ingrained in the American imagination few cherished images- of rogues, adventurers, and land boomers (as pointed by Richard Slotkin) – have come to be identified as the founder of the new nation. This image has been standardized in the historical discourse continuum as the model to be aped, to be felt and to be developed to become a true (male and white) American.
“In speaking to you, men of the greatest city of the West, men of the State which gave to the country Lincoln and Grant, men who preeminently and distinctly embody all that is most American in the American character, I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy pence, but to the man who does not shrink from the danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph.” (Theodore D. Roosevelt. “The Strenuous Life”. 1899)
The speech delivered by Theodore Roosevelt in 1899 beholds the very image of American identity, so deeply entrenched in the minds of the Americans. This identity remains open ended yet is highly conglomerating in temperament. Roosevelt sets in this speech the basic characteristics that build the identity of an American. It has so far been successful in consolidating every hard working, and roguish soul, ready to accept a ‘strenuous life’ to reinvigorate the ‘American Dream’, into the folds of the nation. This has acted as the “ultimate triumph” of a highly structured mindset called Americanness.
“Today some would say that those struggles are all over – that all the horizons have been explored – that all the battles have been won – that there is no longer an American frontier. But I trust that no one in this assemblage will agree with those sentiments. For the problems are not all solved and the battles are not all won – and we stand today on the edge of a new frontier – and perils – a frontier of unfulfilled hopes and threats.” (John F. Kennedy. “A New Frontier”. 1960).
John F. Kennedy in his famous speech delivered at the Presidential debate held at Los Angeles on 15th July 1960 sounded new hopes for the Americans by opening a new horizon- a new frontier- for them to conquer. It was in this speech that he reinvested the spirit of America- the spirit of fearlessness, the spirit of adventure and above all the spirit of frontier, back into the nationalist discourse. This speech re-affirms the American way of life, one that stands “on the edge of a new frontier”. The indomitable American spirit and identity knowing no other bonding force other than the frontier, which held the community together, has remained intact so far by maintaining the myth of the frontier of opportunity.
“Clear and predictable on most occasions, the idea of the frontier is still capable of sudden twists and shifts of meaning, meanings considerably more interesting than the conventional and familiar definition of the frontier as a zone of open opportunity.” (Limerick 68).
American identity is presented in a new light by Patricia Nelson Limerick with her concept of ‘Velcro’ frontier. She characterizes in her work the essential elements of the American identity and sensibility, which were colored and shaped by the frontier. As the frontier moved westward a new source of opportunities were opened for the Americans, which Limerick has identified as “a zone of open opportunity.” It is in this movement a narrative of adventure, fearlessness and progress was etched which in the folkloric imagination of the Americans attained the status of the essence of American life and dream.
“Southern California is sharply defined region, not merely in the geographic sense, but in the sense that it is made up of people bound together by mutual dependencies arising from common interests.” (McWilliams 138).
The book of Cary McWilliams on Southern California is an enjoyable and an amazing piece of work, which makes us aware of the folklores associated with the frontier and the land beyond it. He brings forth to his readers the world beyond the frontier, which was narrativised, in the folkloric imagination of America as a land of wilderness yet adventure and opportunity, waiting to be won with sheer force. Yet demystifying the frontier from this folkloric characterization he brings out the picture of a frontier, which also fostered togetherness “arising from common interest.” Thus, the book reveals that the narrative of the West has so far concentrated only on the warring frontier to ingrain amongst the masses a nationalist discourse, which would invariably construct a progressiveness (both in mentality and ability to lead a strenuous life) in the American identity.
“Once “Americanized,” former hostile groups, with the worst among them exterminated, can no longer pose any threat and indeed can assist in the prolongation of conflicts against remaining evil-doers.” (John Brown. “Our Indian War Are Not over Yet: Ten Ways to Interpret the War on Terror as a Frontier Conflict”.)
The essay written by John Brown reveals the true character of the American identity. It is sensational as it exposes the duality dominating very construction of American identity. The essence of the adventurous American depends solely on its construction of ‘Otherness’ of its opponents, be it the Red Indians (constructed as savages), or the anti-socials (constructed as terrorists). Such binary constructions are essential to stress the singularly powerfulness of the Americans because the dominating group in the process of self-elation creates the ‘Otherness’ of the subordinate group so as to justify their ‘Oneness’ (Beauvoir 18).
American identity, with their essential element of rogueness, virility, and “why the hell not?” attitude, have become the world standard of conduct. Its position calls for construction of otherness and to effect it’s “Americanization”. The frontier thus lives on providing American identity its source of sustenance.
“The good thing about being Chinese on Amtrak
is no one sits next to you. The bad thing is
you sit alone all the way to Irvine.” (Lim).
In this poem of Lim, the ethno cultural divide that plagues America has clearly been revealed. The revelation is truly sensational as it adds a new side to the American identity. It is in the very act of vilification or humbling the ‘Other’ that America survives its identity. The duality, which we have already discussed pervades in spirit and essence in this book and clearly demarcates the position and identity the non-Americans have in America. The frontier which shapes the identity of the Americans on the other hand bars the ethno-cultural groups from this identity because it is on their very non-Americanness or ‘Otherness’ that their Americanness rests. Therefore, the very frontier that binds the nation into a community bars the immigrants to be absorbed into that community or exclusive identity.
Conclusion
American culture is an intriguing way of life with the vivaciousness, robustness and roughness that we normally associate with it. However, it would be wrong to imagine that this culture was created one fine day. Cultures are normally the outcome of multiple discursive elements, which contest amongst themselves in the public arena, and the ones that win shape the culture of a nation.
American culture was constructed with the single most powerful discursive element, which holds a sway over the American imagination even to this day. This singularly powerful discourse was that of the frontier. Frontier did not mean any physical boundary but was an abstract concept-epitomizing wilderness, savagery and the ultimate adventure in winning over it, which definitely had a masculine overtone to it.
In this paper dissimilar sources and quotes from them have been brought together to present a narrative of the frontier as an essential component in building the American identity. Though belonging to different sources they reiterate a singular truth, the truth of the American identity. The quotes, some extracted from speeches of great national leaders like Theodore Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, excerpts from some extraordinary historical works on the frontier myth-both fiction and non-fiction, have been used here to develop a clear idea about the role the frontier played in creating an American identity-united in its ‘Oneness’ and equally racist and ruthless in developing ‘Otherness’ to its self.
The paper ponders into the western identity and sensibility, which in the recent years has come dogmatically to be associated with the American identity. My paper tries to address the question of identity, especially that of America, as a key to understanding how and why the American Dream though widely promoted and encouraged remains to be highly elusive and simply a metaphor to muse oneself with.
In understanding the unique identity of America, the book by Patricia Nelson Limerick and Roger White “The Frontier in American Culture” has been immensely helpful. Writing this paper I have come to view America and the myth surrounding it in a new light. Understanding of the frontier myth as the driving force in America has enabled me to view the issues prevalent in modern times, one of racism, terrorism, and ethno-culturalism, in a new perspective. Overall, I have been able to contextualize each issue present in today’s society in the historical continuum, which has enriched my understanding of the cultural we are living in.
Annotated Bibliography
Eric Black. Our Constitution: The Myth that Binds Us. New York: Westview Press, 1988.
Eric Black candidly brings home to the reader the story underlying the making and subsequent authority held by the American Constitution in America. Breaking free of the boring narrative of sumptuous legal jargons the book brilliantly extols the history of the American Constitution drawing the reason behind its continued enjoyment of a superior status in America. He projects the Constitution as a mirror with the help of which each generation transform their believes, prejudices and attitudes into the sanctimonious law of the land.
In fact he goes so far as to unveil the mythical character of the Constitution serving to substantiate and justify believes of each generation. This book deserves to be graded with an A because this book helped me to form a clear idea about the role of the Constitution, the sacred document of a nation, in contextualizing its jargons to impart some its sanctity to the laws that is constructed from it by each generation. So, Black brings home to his readers the true nature of the constitution, a document contextualized by every generation to serve their believes and preferences. (Black)
Robert Blaisdell & Bob Blaisdell, (ed.), Great Speeches by Native Americans. New York: Courier Dover Publication, 2000.
In this book Blaisdell gives translated versions of the speeches and statements made by the aborigines or the native Americans. At different historical stages the natives of the land has had an important role to play in shaping the course of history. However, until recently they have either been kept “hidden from history” (Rowbotham) or have been negatively portrayed by the historical narrative of the conquerors. If we go by the standard of historical narratives so far written and recorded then it will become history of the victorious and not of the vanquished.
The voice of the subordinate is however essential to our analysis of the true nature of historical evolution. This particular book can be graded as B because it gives us a peek into the lives of the hitherto unheard of. The book accrues to the standard western narrative pattern in describing the ‘Other’ subordinate group. Nevertheless, this book has helped me immensely to understand the anathema of duality or binary opposites deeply entrenched in our present society, which is responsible for creating the deep-seated tensions within the society, especially those related to racism and ethno-cultural divides. (Robert Blaisdell)
David Brooks. On Paradise Drive. London: Simon & Schuster, 2004.
In a satiric humor, this book exposes the reader to a whirlwind world of America where everybody is still moving westward, towards the frontier and is intent on re-inventing themselves out of the sheer hope of adventure that the frontier promises to hold in their imagination. The movement of the story is superb and gripping as it gradually onion peels the nature of each American locality, the urban, the sub urban and the inner-ring immigrant enclaves. It becomes the drive of a nation and its lot of citizens driving or striving towards the hope of a paradise by the sheer force and nature of their identity, the American identity.
Measured in this scale the book certainly deserves to be graded with an A. This book has helped me to contextualize the present situation, robust materialism garnered by the desired to conquer newer frontiers, in historical perspective. In fact, this book has assisted me in understanding the delicate intricacies of the American culture, more importantly American identity that has been shaped by the frontier and now serves to shape the American future by pushing it to go beyond the frontier, to build new frontiers. The frontier continues to be made and re-made and along with it American identity is redefined to move along the road to paradise. (Brooks)
Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni, William E. Justice, James Quay. California Uncovered Stories for the 21st Century. Berkeley: Heyday Books, 2005.
In this excellent collection of stories, the editors bring together a remarkable range of short stories and poems, which explore the hidden side of the American dream. In various poems and short stories brought together in this section reveals a completely new world to the readers, a world not of the Americans (the ones possessing the typical American robustness) but of the ethno-cultural populace of the country trying to align and re-articulate their fate in relation to an alien frontier.
The myth of the American Dream and the darker side of it is dealt with in this book. It explores the world of the immigrants who come to America enticed by the American Dream and have their hopes shattered by the stark reality of ‘Otherness’ imposed on them because they lack the frontier related hope, that sets the American apart and binds them into the folds of nationhood. As a community (and a nation) imagined and felt by the force of movement of the ‘frontier’ the Americans leaves no space for people lacking this very spirit. These people ultimately become one of the many voices who remain “hidden from history”.
I would grade this book with an A because its contribution to my understanding the grave situation the immigrants presently are in America is paramount. The frontier not being an integral part of their nationalist imagination the immigrants have never been able to develop an American identity. Therefore, though they reside in America they continue to be considered as alien to the land, as they lack the very spirit, which marks an American from the rest of the world. (Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni)
Daniel R. Katz (Ed.). “Why Freedom Matters: Celebrating the Declaration of Independence in Two Centuries of Prose, Poetry and Song”. New York: Workman Publishing Company, 2003.
Thomas Jefferson believed freedom was worth pledging one’s life for it. This book celebrates such pledges made in the name of freedom by great men and women. The very essence of the poems, songs, and prose brought together in this collection reminds one of the importance and value of freedom in the life of every American.
I would grade the book C because it has helped me to get a clear view of the discourses of the nation; discourses that has spun the nation into one whole. However, the discourses also reveal that the nation so built is based on the potentiality of the frontier to progress, because it is the very expansibility of the frontier that American identity hinged on. (Katz)
Andrew Carol (Ed.). Letters of a Nation. Portland: Broadway Books, 1999.
An extraordinary collection of letters spanning over two centuries giving us a glimpse into the minds of people who shaped America as we know it today. The headings in the Table of Contents, like Letters of Arrival, Expansion, & Exploration, Letters of a New Nation, Letters of Slavery & the Civil War, Letters of War, Letters of Social Concern, Struggle, & Contempt, Letters of Humor & Personal Contempt, Letters of Love & Friendship, Letters of Family, Letters on Death & Dying, Letters of Faith & Hope, are self-evident of the nature of the documents and letters that have been used in this anthology.
A clear picture is held before our eyes of the pioneers of the nation who came to create and concretize the spirit, the indomitable spirit of America that continues to shape the future of the nation. I would grade this book with a B because it has helped me to identify the trends of different ages and how such trends of thinking has been justified in every age by taking recourse to the sanctimonious spirit that ever-dominates the American life. These letters, which has been given in a collected form in this book, tells the narrative spun in each age using the rhetoric of American adventurism and material robustness. (Carol)
Patricia Nelson Limerick and Richard White, The Frontier in American Culture. California: University of California Press, 1994.
A remarkable historical work, which highlights the role played by the frontier in shaping the identity and culture of the nation, as we know it today. But how could a frontier have shaped an entire nation and its culture? This is the prime question around which the analysis of the entire book revolves. The different essays try to address this very question and interpret it in varying manner. Opinions though varying only contribute towards enriching the ongoing debate on the sanctity of the frontier concept in the American history and how over the years it has come to epitomize the American spirit.
This book definitely deserves to be graded an A because it has been an immense help to me to better understand the nature of the main force, the ‘Velcro’ frontier, the myth that has come to enshroud it through different narratives, and the role it has played in bringing a whole new nation. The same values and especially the same spirit that governed the course of history of America in the past continue to animate it even today. The rogue adventurism and robust materialism with an uncanny inclination towards the unknown the spirit of Odysseus in America continues to march towards the vanishing horizon, epitomized in the frontier. (Limerick)
Carey McWilliams. Southern California: Island on the Land. Utah: Gibbs Smith, 1973.
The essays in this book analyses various folklores and images associated with the frontier or the western lands, which were constructed through various discourses in the minds of the Americans. The images that came to epitomize the frontier or the western lands became folklores that continue to grip the imagination of the nation. The book shows how the frontier, particularly Southern California, came to be colored in the imagination of the masses as a land of exotic climate, with rich pastures, and a land of savagery of wilderness that enticed the northerners into winning over the unknown. Myths spun around a land, a frontier moved the entire nation. They flocked to the frontier, to claim it, to civilize it, and re-invested the myth with prolonged sustenance.
This book deserves to be graded a C because it has helped me to understand the process by which culture can influence not just the course of history but also of climate, topography and the entire humanity. It was the myth about the frontier that pushed the Americans towards the unknown and in the process invested their identity with a permanent robustness and pushing-to-the-extreme quality. This quality has been continued even to this day if not by the Americans themselves but by the discourses that continue to take recourse to the myth to ignite the Americans to the cause of the nation, which was composed of the frontier, for the frontier, and by the frontier. (McWilliams)
Claudine Chiawei O’Hearn (Ed.). Half+Half: Writers on Growing Up Biracial and Bicultural. New York: Pantheon Books, 1998.
One definitely wonders while looking at the culture that America has come to house how it came to be so. The anthology of essays in this book gives us a clear picture of the phenomenon of racism that implicitly governs most of the cultures of the Western world, especially that of America. There is an attempt in this work to expose the truth behind the color fetishization that has come to dominate the American life. In the very act of identifying ones Americanness the nation has deprived many into the oblivion of ‘Otherness’ where they become simply a race or an ethic group. Such absurdity associated with constant identification with color, race, language frustrates the very being of the person who has to deal with it. The book demonstrates how this constant dealing with your constructed otherness splits your inner world into two cultural halves.
I would grade this book A because it has made me realize how the oneness I enjoy in my land through the different discourses would be subject to abject otherness in a foreign land, making my world split into two cultural halves. It is interesting to note that the present situation facing America with their Global War on Terrorism the stance that has been adopted against the Asian populace of the country has led their inner world to be fragmented into two distinct cultural identities.
Faced with the threat of being marked as an anti-social element in the world they have grown up into the new generation of Asians in America have developed two distinct identities- one of an American (an identity they come to adopt) and the other of their ancestors. Torn between these two identities, as the book clearly points out, has definitely made them bi-cultural. In addressing and understanding this particular problem and contextualizing it in the grains of history. (O’Hearn)
Anna Deavere Smith, Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992. New York: Dramatists Play Service, 2003.
Documentary theater has been one of the specialties of Smith, which has won her several accolades in the past. This present work under review is another of her excellent works, which adds another feather to her hat of success. This documentary theatre is a first person narration of the atrocities associated with the riot, which took place in Los Angeles in 1992 after the verdict on Rodney King case, was passed. Smith interviewed more than 200 people, who were directly affected by the riot, and tries to depict their experiences in the plot of the narrative. I would grade this book an A because it brings us face to face with the stark reality of America. it brings home the reality that even after Reconstruction and abolition of slavery racist mentality continue to color the opinion of the people of America. Decisions are still taken based on such myriad considerations.
As she aptly points out in the introduction to the printed version of this drama, that the living condition of the Latinos and the Blacks has not improved in any way and they continue to be the butt of various acts of humiliation, indignation, and atrocities.
Coming face to face with the reality the question that is forced onto our existence is that why did things come to such a pass? The answer hits back rather forcefully and forces us to look to the frontier, once again for understanding the root cause of this problem. The frontier, as we have already discussed extensively, was the force behind the Americanness that continues to shape American character and identities.
Moreover, we have discussed that the very process of creation of this Americanness calls forth the construction of ‘Otherness’ of the minority. This constructed ‘Otherness’ is often asserted rather vituperatively whenever the oneness of the American identity comes under threat. Therefore, I owe much to this book for making me realize the forces that has shaped and to an extent distorted the American spirit as it stands today. (Smith)
References
Beauvoir, Simone de. The Second Sex. London: Vintage Classics, 1997.
Lim, Shirley Geok–Lin. “Riding Into California.” Chitra Bannerjee Davkarnuni, Jmaes Quay, William E. Justice ed. California Uncovered: Stories for the 21st Century. Heydey Books, 2005.
Rowbotham, Sheila. Hidden from history: 300 years of women’s oppression and the fight against it. London: Pluto Press, 1977.