Myths in our Life
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It is necessary to clarify that when we talk about people who achieves the ideals of the “American dream”, we often mean ordinary people who wants something extremely small, small things that would not occur to well-known personalities because the whole “American dream” is the dream of a man in the street, striving for a quiet, prosperous, peaceful life, willing to live without any worries and anxieties.
You shouldn’t think that the “business above all” position which is prevalent among the majority of American youth, is a phenomenon of the 20th century. The beginning of everything was laid in the XIX century, when mass literature began to flourish in the United States. The authors of the textbook "History of Literature of the USA", published by the Institute of World Literature. A.M. Gorky, consider that the mass literature includes “works of a low aesthetic level, designed for a wide audience and reflecting the mentality of the middle strata of society” [Literature in the USA 2003: 836]. Necessary and inalienable features of mass literature as such – formula, clich'e, mythology – were noticeable in the first literary production of the colonial era (travel notes, religious sermons, political pamphlets, etc.). Puritan thinking has already created a number of national myths, even in the XVII century. The facts of American history – the creation of colonies in the New World, the development of a frontier, and the war with the Indians – were conceptualized in the formulas of heaven and hell, the building of the city of God, the struggle of angels and demons. In this literature were formed persistent concepts, ideas, images and techniques, which determined the face of all national literature, and in their simplified, elementary forms – the face of the modern mass American culture. The artistic heritage of the frontier spawned the national genre of westerns; Puritan literature became the source of a religious, and in many ways a romantic novel; “The American dream and personal success was embodied in the narratives about“ the man who created himself ”; the cult of the family and the hearth was reflected in the "family romance".
The center subject of mass literature became the myth of a simple American, a man of the people who, with the help of labor and virtue, could achieve the material wealth in his life. The ideal of “a man who created himself” became the formula of American success in a historical context. For example, during some time a special magazine “Success” (“Success”) was published, it promoted the book “Acre of Diamonds” in 1888, in which the author assured readers that the diamonds could be found everywhere, even in their own backyard. Next year, Andrew Carnegie's book, The Gospel of Wealth, was published. It in an instructive tone described his way to a millionth state.
The books of Horatio Alger, which served as a model of educational literature for boys, were also very popular. About 130 of his novels describe poor adolescents who, after a lot of vicissitudes in life, managed to succeed in business. The formula of Cinderella (or Zolika, as Levi-Strauss has onece called it) fairy-tale was transformed into American style and absorbed the national myths of “self-confidence,” “self-creation,” “American dream,” Franklin's commandments, and puritan virtues. On their basis, the ethics of a new middle class that appeared was formed and approved. The tytles of the Elger books are specific: “Work and win,” “Strive and succeed,” “Do and dare,” “Swim or drown.” Part of his writings Alger released in series ("Luck and Courage", "The Ragged Tom", etc.). There still exists the society of Horeyshio Alger, which annually presents prizes to people who succeeded on their own (one of them was Dwight Eisenhower, the future president of the United States of America).
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