Pauline Chapman

The Enduring Dominant Culture

Most of this course has been spent reading and examining immigrant literature and through it learning about the immigrant experience.  Along the way there have been representations of the American culture the immigrants are entering, oftentimes the encounters are negative--harsh, unfeeling.  It has been humbling as an American to see one's culture depicted in this way.   Even the term "dominant culture" seems repugnant to us and we've struggled in class discussions to define it.  Some of our final texts have helped clarify the concept of the dominant culture and the origins, realization, and evolution of the American Dream.

It was helpful to read Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation to understand the roots of the dominant culture, the Pilgrims.  We then compare the Pilgrims' story to the Exodus story from the Bible because similarities seem to give legitimacy to the American culture they created.  Crevecoeur then describes early America as it begins to thrive on the same principles the Pilgrims espoused.  Finally, Raban's article shows that as capitalism attempts to change us faster than we're comfortable, old fashioned values put on the brakes.

The Pilgrims, being from England gave us their language, but also had characteristics in common with other Northern Europeans, including being fair skinned, and being cold, distant, or formal in social interactions.  They entered the country not as immigrants ready to adopt a new culture, but as a cohesive group who intended to transplant themselves and their religion, language, and other customs intact.  We already know from their contact with the Dutch that they had no desire to become part of another culture.  They left to go to the New World so there wouldn't be a developed culture in place in which they would lose their identity, the most important aspect of which was their religion.  The disinclination to intermarry with minorities, is a tradition begun with the Pilgrim's negative attitude towards intimate relations with the Indians. As was discussed in class, the Pilgrims brought their whole families with them to the New World, therefore there was less chance of forming intimate relationships with native women, unlike the Spanish, who came first as single male explorers rather than as families of settlers.  This could also be the beginning of the nuclear family as the focus of family life.  A practical feature of the nuclear family is its manageable size that is more suited to the mobile lifestyle of America than the Old World extended family.           

The Pilgrims' Protestant religion also had many influences in developing American culture.  One is their plain and simple style that began as a rejection of the Catholic Church and their ornate style.  Another is individualism since they believed individuals should be able to have direct contact with the word of God through the Bible, and not have the word interpreted through a distant, elevated authority.  Through the study of the Bible, they were promoting literacy, the ability to read and communicate with language.  This can be expanded to valuing education in general, as a more educated populace is better for society as a whole.  Of course, an important aspect of literacy is writing, which led to the importance of keeping written records.  One of the first things they wrote in the New World was the Mayflower Compact, which was their first legal document intended to help preserve order. 

Besides in the reading of the Bible, the emphasis on individual effort is seen in their work ethic and work practices.  In general the community was a cohesive unit who cared for each other and had common beliefs and goals.  However, they discovered it best served the common good for each person to receive what he or she worked for, instead of the communal system in which everyone received the same amount regardless of how much they contributed.  It is interesting that they so quickly saw the advantages of capitalism.  Bradford also shows the Pilgrims beginning to trade with corn, furs, and wampum, the Indian's shell currency.

As vital as the Pilgrims were to the founding of the country and the establishment of culture, the fact that their story was recorded and has similarities to the Biblical Exodus story has transformed it into a mythic narrative, which has enormous power over the attitudes of succeeding generations. Both the Pilgrims and the Jews went in search of a new home because of persecution.  Both groups believed that God blessed their enterprise and assisted them in their journey and in establishing their new homes.  Both cultures valued writing, particularly the word of God.  Moses recorded the ten commandments as God's laws, and the Pilgrims wrote the Mayflower Compact.  Overall the important point is that Americans see themselves as a people with a mission.  They may not always call it by these words, but their actions and attitudes project the image of a "chosen people," who believe their country to be "the promised land." This translates into boundless confidence and idealism and a belief in the American Dream.

The image of America and the American people that Crevecoeur describes is the image of the American Dream that immigrants are drawn to.  In this quote we see the importance of literacy and education, the work ethic, as well as praise for their general behavior:  "I respect them for what they have done; for the accuracy and wisdom with which they have settled their territory; for the decency of their manners; for their early love of letters; their ancient college, the first in this hemisphere; for their industry; which to me who am but a farmer, is the criterion of everything."  Capitalism continues to be a successful and logical system as he reports: "Here the rewards of his industry follow with equal steps the progress of his labour; his labour is founded on the basis of nature, self-interest; can it want a stronger allurement?" Crevecoer also recognizes another one of the foundations of American culture, the law:  "The laws, the indulgent laws, protect them as they arrive, stamping on them the symbol of adoption;" Finally, he confirms that the new culture must be assimilated to, the immigrant must change to achieve the American Dream:  "He is an American, who leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds." 

English author Jonathan Raban searches for the American Dream two hundred years later in New York City in "Hunting for Mr. Heartbreak."  This was probably the most disturbing to me of all the readings of the course.  The American Dream gone wrong, apocalyptic.  The type of over-consumerism portrayed here is one of my ongoing "soapbox" issues.  I struggled to find the silver lining in this story; a true American would be able to find it.  So, in the midst of aggressive Capitalism, technological advancement, and global social change, the dominant culture in this story still cling to old values to keep them balanced.  The nostalgia and antiques are attempts to slow the changes, to hold on to part of the past before it goes flying by.  In contrast to Macy's advertising chaos, overabundance, and overstimulation, there is the "lightly furnished" apartment, an oasis of simplicity and peace away from both the street and the store.  "There were some framed photographs of her family on the walls, two small paintings, both by friends, a typewriter on a table, a single spray of flowers." (352)  The objects themselves indicate her priorities: family and writing. In practical American fashion she uses available technology to procure the best of the immigrant products to add to her apartment melting pot.  Raban and his English friend Alice speak of Americans' dreams as delusions, but we see them more as possibilities, after all, we have our history to show us that dreams come true.  Finally, the dominant culture is still promoting opportunity and choices to immigrants, only now it is the opportunity to be accepted through shopping, to buy the right look, to choose Italian loafers and plain white shirts.

It's easy to have a love/hate relationship with the dominant culture.  On one hand it gives us stability, education and literacy, a versatile, but enduring language, foundation in law, a work ethic that has helped us achieve, a religion that encourages us to be moral and helpful to our fellow citizens, and an economic system that motivates and rewards.  On the other hand, more recent literature in particular shows that the religion can be overly repressive, the bureaucracy slow and complicated, the attitudes towards difference prejudiced, and capitalism can be excessively aggressive, short sighted and superficial.  I wondered through most of the course why we were studying contemporary literature before early American literature.  It seemed like putting the cart before the horse.  Now I see that putting immigrant literature first enabled us to see the dominant culture through the eyes of the outsider--as unfeeling, bureaucratic, prejudiced, unyielding.  If we hadn't done it that way, it would have been easier to think of the immigrants as the "other," and have less understanding and compassion for their positions.  Knowing the reasons and customs behind some of the dominant culture's actions doesn't necessarily excuse them, but makes them more human, understandable and less menacing.