Course: American Culture
Instructor: Prof.Yang Lin
Name: 郑巧
Student Number: 080689
Cla: 131805
Date: April 21, 201
1American Individualism in American Films
As we all know, films are produced by men and women from certain nations for consumption by target audiences who also belong to certain national groups.For this reason, they often respond on a thematic level to national concerns.They may do so by presenting characters who embody certain aspect of their“national character”, or by exploring the consequences of national values and attitudes.Thus, when we mention the Hollywood films or American films, what comes to our mind first are usually like Forrest Gump, Spiderman, the Pursuit of Happine, etc.From these films we can see the American characters like self-reliance, freedom, equality and independence.
The United States, like any other country, has its own national culture.All people born and raised in this country have been strongly conditioned by it.Individualism, the core of the American culture, is a moral, political, and social philosophy, emphasizing individual and the personal independence.It focuses on the satisfaction of one’s own desire and interests through self – reliance.The world individualism was first promoted by the French political reviewer Alexis de Tocqueville in his claical book Democracy in America published in 1835.In this book, Tocqueville expounded clearly the “individualism”.Individualism, as a social and political philosophy, emphasizes personal independence and creativity.It holds that personal value was the most lofty, attaching great importance to the nation of self–control and personal development without any form of intervention and obstruction against individual from absolutely power especially the tyranny in a nation’s history, the nation itself, society or any other external factors.
The origin of American individualism can be traced back to the beginning years of its history.The American Revolution was a pragmatic effort conducted in terms of certain general values.When first American immigrants came to the North American continent looking for better life and shaking off the yoke of European feudal tradition and the oppreion from all kinds of powerful claes, the colonists fought for independence in terms of British ideals of civil freedom and representative government.They rebelled against British rule eentially for British reasons.The ideals of American independence found expreion in the claical documents which accompanied the birth of the nation: the Declaration of independence.
Almost every American film shows that spirit more or le.Some of them draw attention on heroism; some of them focus on American Dream; and some of them seek for the individual idea.
Americans love heroes.They are powerful, self-fulfillment, independence.So there are many famous heroes are produced in the films.Superman and Spiderman are the typical
heroes.They are responsible for society, for human and save people out of the accident disasters.I want to tell more details about The Matrix (1999).Neo, as the savior, fights with artificial intelligence for mankind.The Neo’s heroism lies in his rebellious spirit, which chafes against the physical and mental limitations imposed by the Matrix.It is this hero spirit that provides the motivational basis for his rejection of his transformation from plain Thomas Anderson into superhero Neo.At highest level of interpretation, the film also presents individual idea through its theme -there is another poible.The Matrix stands for the limiting models and fixed patterns that the human mind depends upon to interpret and organize its experiences- a prison for your mind.Neo’s final speech confirms the importance of this mental liberation, “When I used to look out at this world, all I could see was its edges, its boundaries, its rules and controls, its leaders and its laws.But now I see another world.A different world where all things are poible.A world of hope.Of peace.If you can free your mind, you’ll find the way.
Besides, American people are always proud of the words of the Declaration of independence: we hold these truths to be self – evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happine.I consider it “individual ideas”.The film Philadelphia and One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest are the best example of those words.
The setting of the film Philadelphia, released in 1994, which concerns the struggle of an Aids sufferer to aert his legal rights in the face of prejudice, is symbolic.Andrew Beckett, a hot shot law graduate from Penn, has a promising career ahead of him when he discovers that he has Aids.Choosing not to tell his manager, he moves forward with his caseload as a senior
aociate, intending to fulfill his duties for as long as his handicap permits.However, he was fired.He charges the firm.Finally, Andrew died but he won the charge.The film indicates that every will be sick but you can’t deprive his rights aspirations of happine.
There is another famous film hold the same spirit.One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest.Mc.Murphy feigns insanity to get out of a jail sentence, and then proceeds to stir up mutiny in the asylum.He lived with other patients and inspires them to vote , guide them to fight for their democracy and individual free.The movie exists to show not only how corrupt and poorly-constructed society’s approach to the “mentally unstable” is, but it creates characters that we all wish we had fights for freedom of choice and basic human rights.
What’s more, the “myth of succe” was a constituent part of the individualism which also called “American dream.Everyone suggest that they could climb from extreme poverty to great wealth.In such environment, there was a moral obligation to “succeed”, and the individual was expected to be responsible for his own dream.The majority of American films expre the spirit.
The Pursuit of Happine, starring Will Smith, is the story of one man’s unwavering pursuit for a better life against long odds.It construes the self-fulfillment.Will Smith did a great job as the father trying to protect his son from their circumstances of becoming homele as much as he can while approach to succe.Someone ma think it is a typical of “American dream”.Indeed, we can also see the influence of individualism which develops his highest potentialities.Will struggles for his individual freedom, personal selection, and individual equality.When he succeeded, he got self-fulfillment at the same time.
Forrest Gump is one of the most charming-and one of the most disputed-films of recent
times.Although Gump’s is just 75, his mother strives to make him feel no different from others.During his life, Forrest achieves a lot more than normal people may dream of.For some, Gump was a hero of liberal America, demonstrating as the disabled son of a single mother and the loyal friend of a disadvantaged black man with an “innate goodne and studied anti-racism”.For others, Gump is the embodiment of a certain kind of American ideal: a virtuous innocence and a noble and honest simplicity.His mother always told him, “life is like a box of chocolates-you never know what you’re going to get.” Therefore, through the contrasting and interweaving stories of Gump and his sweetheart, the viewer is led to the film’s moral core, which is at one and the same time a version of the ideal American.
Last but not least, cowboys are the native creature of America.They fight for justice, fight against evil, and fight for freedom, both physical and spiritual conclusion.So we can feel individualism in the type of western film.For instance, Dances with Wolves which has been called a “revisionist western”.And High Moon which as being “culturally, historically significant, tried to ridicule the freedom movement in Poland as an invention of the “wild” west, especially the U.S.
To sum up, individualism which can regard as the key factor which contributed to the rapid development of the United States.In film their faith also has been in procees through plot, technology, style and type.We enjoy these films while we feel American individualism.
References:
王恩铭，American Culture and Society（上海：上海外语教育出版社，2003）
Andrew Lynn, Appreciating Cinema（北京：外语教学研究出版社，2005）
赵英男，English from the Silver Screen（北京：清华大学出版社，2版）
杨立民、梅仁毅，Contemporary College English Intensive Reading（北京：外语教学与研究出版社，2008）
