Monday 18 January 2016

Buffalo Bill's Wild West Parade

http://www.loc.gov/item/00694397/


Adams suggests that the USA is losing their culture and gaining business. The parade in the video opposes Adams, the video shows African American and white children alongside each other both celebrating in unison. The parade also includes symbolic characters of a Western including cowboys and Native Americans, this is also a rich part of American history so to some extent supports Cullen as the Western genre of film and television has become a huge business and in some ways loses the culture of the time. Despite it being a representation of the Wild West the Parade is celebrating the entertainment aspect instead of the historical implications.Adams says "If one man built a house in the woods, the Indians would probably soon tomahawk him and his family, but if a dozen families settled in a group, there might be comparative safety."  Again this shows the prejudice of the New Americans as the immigrants were given more opportunities in terms of jobs and land that the original Native Americans have been forced to give up. It also shows that minority groups have always been racially insulted which is still present to this day. The idea that the Native Americans are the dangerous group is due to their animalistic and savage representation in the Western genre, in fact the Founding Fathers were probably the most brutal.

"And amid the greatest surge of immigration in our history, one that brings more people from more of the world than ever before, we don't always speak the same language." This quote by Cullens is describing the American Dream but can be applied to the parade because it does not matter whether you are male or female, the colour of your skin or where you are from or economic status, in these moments everyone has come together purely for entertainment. From a social stance everyone is united by the enjoyment of the parade and there are no limitations. However the expansion of the Western genre in Hollywood means that the parade is more of a business venture, to make money as well as entertain. This makes the American Dream more of an economic ideology instead of a social one because it is about making money and taking the opportunities that are provided. Yet during the 1930s when the term American Dream was introduced it was more mixed in terms of social and economic benefit. The newly arrived immigrants would stay with people from the same country or spoke the same language which helped them to achieve the goals of the American Dream.

Therefore historically the American Dream as suggested by Cullens and Adams can be interpreted in different ways. The parade is a symbol of culture, business and quality.

No comments:

Post a Comment