The Negative Impact of the American Frontier
Valentina Avanesova
English ESL 100D
April 6, 2014
Valentina Avanesova
Academic paper #2
The Negative Impact of the American Frontier
The Frontier Heritage is a big part of American history and a base of the country’s
development. According to the “American Ways” by Maryanne Kearny Datesman
frontiers were the first explorers and pioneers who gave impetus to the beginning of
American national culture.(80) The Frontier history began in fifteenth century. Since
that time Frontier Heritage became an important part of American lifestyle at that
particular time. Strong powerful man with cowboy hat, high boots and gun- all of that
is typical attributes of the Frontier. Over the years, people have changed the image of
the American Frontier. The reason of that phenomenon is that mass media and
different kinds of entertainments have created a new image of the Frontier that brings
people negative values. No doubt that the Frontier Heritage started to impact the
nation in a negative way and brought bad consequences such as aggressive behavior
and violence among teenagers. This is seen even more in the twenty-first century.
Wrong interpretation of Frontier history plays an important role in negative
impact of Frontiersman. Undoubtedly that human’s mind reacts on bright part of the
history, such as wars or fighting, more than just usual historical events. Fights and
wars, which shows on TV leave a big impression on the human mind, moreover it
forms it in particular way. It is very clear from these observations that if the person
will think about the Frontier Heritage history, the first thing that will come on mind is
the classic western image of the Frontier with the gun, who is always ready to use it.
Wrong interpretation of “Wild West heroes” in different kinds of entertainments is
the main cause of the negative impact of the American Frontiersmen. There is no
doubt that the American Frontiersmen has a great impact on American attitude and
behavior especially in a negative way. It is not a secret that mass media, television
programs and different kinds of computer games forms the human mind in particular
way. Free access to mass media nowadays allows watching lots of entertainments for
almost all age people. Young susceptible audience succumbed to the pressure most of
all by watching these kinds of programs since the childhood. The author of the book
“American Ways” Maryanne Kearny Datesman considers that: “ Americans worry
about the impact of these entertainment heroes on the lives and imagination of young
people.”(83) The image of Frontier period and “Wild West heroes” is a favorite topic
for a lot of movies such as for example according to www.multi-film-pro.ru “ The
Last Outlaw” or “The Way of the West”, also TV shows and of course video games.
Manifestation of violence and aggression among teenagers is one of the biggest
problems nowadays. Watching movies about “bad guys” and playing computer games
children and teenagers start to copy behavior from the screen and in consequence of
that they do it in real life. Moreover, teenagers start fighting in public places that
destroys peaceful atmosphere and also ruin society. For instance in 2013 five
teenagers were arrested in Memphis high school. Arrest was made because of the big
fight between teenagers. Fight in Memphis high school is a clear example of violence
among young people nowadays. Unfortunately there are many cases of aggression
and fights among teenagers caused by the impact of mass media.
“Wild West Heroes” image dominates in huge numbers of American entertainment
programs. That kind of idol became a role model for lots of Americans. Their image
makes people to demonstrate their strength through the physical violence. As it was
already mentioned one of the favorite teenager’s entertainments are video games for
instance such as “Call of Duty Black Ops 2”. In that particular video game player
have a mission to kill military people and citizens. “Call of Duty Black Ops 2” is
famous for its scenes of violence and bloody episodes. Weapons that the player use
are typical attributes of the Frontier- guns. Teenagers under the anger influence that
caused by these kinds of entertainment in their minds want to look like their favorite
heroes from the “cowboy” movies and video games, who are using the fight as a
solution of any problem.
The other serious negative impact of the American Frontier is propaganda of guns.
United States of America is the one of the few countries where is not so difficult to
get the access to guns. Guns are holding not only by the military or police, but also by
private citizens. It would be unfair not to mention the fact that Frontier Heritage
started guns history in U.S. For sure it is difficult to imagine Frontier man without his
most common attribute-gun. However, having a right to have guns nowadays went
out of the control. Datesman confirms that: “ In twenty-first century, guns became a
critical issue…”(83) Manifestation of that can be seen in nowadays life. In December
2012 twenty children died in Connecticut elementary school because of the mass
shooting. Unfortunately that terrible case is not the only one in American history. Day
by day people keep hearing shooting issues from the daily news. The main cause of
that problem is that it is too easy to get the gun and other weapons nowadays. While
some people making money on illegal selling of guns, others are inspired by their
“Wild West heroes” who is masterfully using guns and pushing themselves to do
hastiness things such as shootings under the affect of violence that present almost in
all American entertainments. People forgot about the real usage of the gun, they do
not use it in a proper way as a self-defense; they prefer to use guns to solve everyday
problems that make other people suffer.
The negative impact of the American Frontier operates more and more on people’s
minds in twenty-first century. It is difficult for people to keep control of themselves
when mass media and everything around them create a huge psychological pressure.
It is time to think about protection from violence and aggression that coming from
television and other media. From these facts, one may conclude that the best way to
get out of this problem is to protect impressionable children from watching these
kinds of programs about American Frontiersman. Also well knowing of the Frontier
Heritage history can change people’s opinions about the image of “Wild West
heroes”. This fact can also avoid a lot of nowadays problems. However, the image of
the American Frontiersman is still does not have a good value for American nation
and impact it in a negative way.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Datesman, Maryanne Kearny., Jo Ann. Crandall, and Edward N. Kearny.
“The Frontier Heritage.” American Ways: An Introduction to American Culture.
Dexpion-Project. (2012-2014). Best cowboy movies.
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