The american frontier

Francisco Serra Alcaraz (Exchange Student)
The Literature of the American Dream. 02211.

Tutor: Dr. Edward A. Abramson.

The Frontier in the American Fiction and the Dream.



The migratory movement westwards in North America during the end of the eighteenth century and the nineteenth century means, not only one of the most important movements of people towardsunsettled territories in the recent history; besides, it is one of the main American cultural elements projected to the rest of the world through different cultural manifestations as literature or films.


This migratory movement seems to grasp a large number of different people, from people fostered in the United States to people from Europe. The ways that different people with differentcultural backgrounds are going to face the frontier are ver different. I would like to explore these different ways of facing the conquest of unsettled territories in North America, and how it is shown in several literary genres.
All these genres are going to share one fact: the frontier, the rest of elements are going to be sometimes very different, as well as the reactions and perceptions aboutthis new reality.





The first question that must be answered is what is the frontier. Normally, it is considered to be in American history the borderland between settled and unsettled territories. But this frontier acquires new meanings if it is confronted with the notion of the American dream. Then, the frontier became the source of different hopes for people. Living in touch with thewild and untamed nature was impossible in Europe, and this new kind of life would bring a new social context.
The American Dream means the chance for everyone for betterment, and the unsettled territories seemed to bring that possibility. Ray Allen Billington points out several economic and social aspects that became almost compulsory in this new environment: hard work, innovation andexperimentation in order to face situations without any kind of help, classless society and the idea of democracy as a gift.1 Then, the frontier seems to became the most proper place for the achievement. The lack of physical or social boundaries let people from everywhere to re-build themselves again.
However, at the same time, the frontier shapes the pioneer, Frederick Jackson Turner on his essay TheSignificance of the Frontier in American History wrote: “the frontier is the line of most rapid and effective Americanization. The wilderness masters the colonist.”2 The same process of loosing some cultural aspects that belong to the roots of people coming to North America means the acquisition of others. That is, the new values of a new society. Thus, the loss of former values could work in order toprepare individuals to form new ones and homogenise society. The frontier will make equal everybody.

The economic implications of the frontier are going to be the most important aspect for immigrants, but how it is going to be represented in literature? First, it could be useful to consider the literary tastes of the pioneers. Billington shows how the main sold genres in the period 1800-1815were literary classics, practical books and western dime novels.3 Perhaps, the practical spirit of the frontier lead readers to pay attention to practical books and try to follow European literary roots as a way of creating an own tradition, or just to remember their former culture.

Then, the first genuine American literary genre related to the frontier could be the dime novel. Itsprotagonists are gold seekers, law-enforcers, pioneers, hunters, and criminals. These written forms were published in the story papers and in the so-called dime novels, cheap paperbacks. The basic formula in all these works is the confrontation between civilisation and the wilderness, but often with violent sensationalistic elements or sometimes with humorous topics.
Besides, Billington also...