kapitel 4

the impact of the american frontier

people in the united states are still fascinated by the heritage of the frontier even though in happened more than a century ago. they say they are interested in that time, because that was when the American culture was born. Ronald Reagan and Gorge Bush, during their presidential times, were taken pictures of riding a horse and wearing a cowboy hat. For many years, people found the frontier experience romantic, but they had forgotten that the Native Americans land was taken from them and had their culture destroyed. Today they are more aware of the darker side of that time. the heritage experience started in the 1600's when the first settlers came. After the settlers had traveled 2700 miles and swept the natives away it ended in 1890. The frontier provided many good examples of hard work, as the settlers raised large cities where there once were forests. Individualism is believed to have been valued that time because the settlers saw themselves as free people, probably because there was less control over the people that time

Self reliance and the rugged individualist.

Because the settlers lived on the frontier, they had to live without the treats the government had, so they had to be self-reliant and make their own houses at materials. They looked up upon the American hero of the wild west, who by his own skills was capable of during many things, could survive without any help. there stories where inspired by people like Jesse James and Wyatt Earp.

American macho heroes

since the wild west the American hero has always been a strong man who could demonstrate his strength with violence. this has been glorified by many, and today there are many film with a hero solve his problems by shooting people.

Today people are also getting worried of what impact that kind of idols will have on their community, since young people are starting to have gun. They have to go through metal detector when going to school because of the fear of school shootings. There are over 200 million guns in the US, with is enough to give every adult one. After the 9/11 the gun sale went up, so now 51% of every household has at least one gun. the NRA are opposing gun control since it is every Americans right to own a gun, so they are making it hard to get more gun control in the country.

inventiveness and the can do spirit

the need for self-reliance meant that the people had to solve many of their own problems, so they solved these problems with inventiveness. They invented new farm tools and other tools to make their life easier. Lord Bryce believed that it was the invention skills which made the pioneers able to solve these problems. the americans like to believe any task can be done. This is called the can-do spirit

equality of opportunity

they believed that all people on the frontier deserved another chance, and they were looked upon who he was abd not his families background. those from the east who have had failure in life usually moved to the west to begin a new life. on the frontier there were less diffrece between people when it came to wealth, and they started to dress like one another. the frontier has helped the american people to inspire them to grow strong, and made them believe in self-reliance and equality of opportunity.