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Sample Student final exam answers 2016 (2016 final exam assignment) Part 1: Essays: dominant culture overview |
LITR 4340
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Austin Green
12/5/16
America’s Guide to Becoming Dominant
I never gave much thought to how the dominant culture had become the
dominant culture. White Europeans made their way to American, settled here, and
expanded. That was that. Even in its formation the dominant culture strives to
be invisible. Looking back over the course, I am glad we discussed the original
American immigrant settlers last. By doing this, we can see how their immigrant
experience matched, but also differed, from the immigrants that would come to
the country after them. Even though America is a country founded by immigrants,
the immigrant experience now differs greatly than that of the original settlers.
We are still adhering to the dominant culture that these few founders brought
with them or created. It is interesting to try and figure out how this has
happened.
When immigrants come to America, the dominant culture they are expected
to assimilate with is everywhere. It is so all encompassing that it has become,
like mention previously, invisible. It is just considered “normal” now. When you
see things from a different culture, most of the time you are able to point to
the distinct culture it came from. America’s hidden dominant culture doesn’t
allow you to do this. It is the same dominant culture that was created by White
Anglo-Saxon Protestants, or WASPs for shorthand, when Europeans first settled
the in the country. It’s plain. Whether it be in terms of dress, food or even
speaking, plainness is inherent. To dress nice is to wear plain slacks or
skirts, a plain dress shirt, and plain shoes. It does not draw attention to
itself and lets the wearer blend in. Food is meant as fuel. While it can taste
good, its main priority is to keep the person eating it sustained and healthy;
able to work and be full.
America’s first wave of immigrants that came between the 1620’s-30s were
the founders of this dominant culture. Every wave afterward simply assimilated
to it, and helped maintain it. The experience of these early Pilgrims can be
found in William Bradford’s “Of Plymouth Plantation.” The first line in our
selections shows that the Pilgrims initial experience leaving England and going
to the Netherlands is remarkably similar to the immigrant experience of coming
to America today: “Being thus constrained to leave their
native soil and country, their lands and livings, and all their friends and
familiar acquaintance, it was much; and thought marvelous by many. But to go
into a country they knew not but by hearsay, where they must learn a new
language and get their livings they knew not how...” These pilgrims were not
afraid to give up everything in order to start again somewhere new. The
difference here however, was that they were seeing some effects of assimilation
to their new home, which they wanted no part of. They viewed their children as
becoming “corrupt” for assimilating into this new culture. The pilgrims then
leave to America. This starts the formation of their culture becoming the
dominant culture of America.
The next wave of immigration was mostly done between 1640s and 1650s.
This wave saw settlements spread further south, and introduced slavery to the
United States. While the previous wave of settlers rejected the Native Americans
and their culture, these new immigrants assimilated themselves to the dominant
culture that the pilgrims had created before them. Instead of trying to enforce
their own will, they continued on with what had already been created. Tweaking
it here and there while maintaining the status quo. Immigrants from all over the
world were now coming to America, and all falling into line with this new
American culture. Crevecoeur described the people of this America as “whence
came all these people? they are mixture of English, Scotch, Irish, French,
Dutch, Germans, and Swedes. From this promiscuous breed, that race now called
Americans have arisen.” By all of these immigrants coming in and accepting the
dominant culture, it makes itself stronger and stronger, all the while becoming
more and more invisible. Each culture coming in and assimilating itself to the
dominant culture, becoming stronger by becoming a part of it.
The
1700s saw the last final wave of the dominant culture creating and maintaining
its authority with the arrival of the Scotch-Irish. While still assimilating
themselves to the dominant culture with the color of their skin and their
language, this group could also be looked at as a minority within this dominant
culture. They were assimilated enough to be considered part of the country, but
they had not fully assimilated. The dominant culture that had been created put
an emphasis on learning, while this group tended to not care much for education.
This attitude could be seen still today. In J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy, he
talks about the children’s education from his hometown:
“In
Middletown, 20 percent of the public high school’s entering freshmen won’t make
it to graduation. Most won’t graduate from college. Virtually no one will go to
college out of state. Students don’t expect much from themselves, because the
people around them don’t do very much. Many parents go along with this
phenomenon.” Time though, has shown how they have fully assimilated into the
dominant culture, in spite of their differences with it. No one today casually
thinks of a Scotch-Irish population as a minority in the country the way we do
of some of the true minorities discussed in class.
By the Pilgrims’ reluctance to assimilate themselves with the Native
American dominant culture that existed when they first arrived, and by the waves
of immigrants that followed the pilgrims following suit, we see the flip flop of
the two. The minority becomes the dominant culture, and the dominant culture
becomes the minority. Once immigrants coming in agreed to the new dominant
culture, whether subconsciously or not, that signaled that this new dominant
culture was here to stay. Eventually the populations of the two switched, and
the flip was complete.
What followed has been hundreds of years of immigrant’s coming to America, all being told to do exactly what the Pilgrims had refused to do. If you want to be a part of the country, this is how you have to act, how you have to think, what you have to do, who you have to be, now. Again though, this dominant culture now hides itself in plain sight. It is everywhere. Immigrants coming here are not told to act a certain way beyond “act normal.” Normal is the dominant culture. Normal is what the dominant culture strives for, and wants everyone, immigrant or not, to be a part of.
