A.M.Holmes' Music For Torching, Seth MacFarlane's Family Guy, and Tony Kushner's Angels in America

American society today has been shaped by years past. After the Second World War, U.S. inhabitants dedicated their lives and time to shape and improve America’s culture to the way it is today. Through the decades of the 1950s and today, the society has changed through scientific and technological advances. On the other hand, aspects of the culture have not changed because its citizens have yet to advance in those areas.

When most people are taught about U.S. history, we think of mostly the bad times like the wars, the civil rights movements, President Kennedy’s and M. L. King Jr’s associations, just to name a few. In this paper I will discuss those and more going into the start of the 21st century. The previous five decades consisting of the 1950s into the millennium happened during the U.S. History equally turbulent, but exciting. There also were numerous transformations within social, governmental, plus technological sections, but the WWII era currently seems rather prehistoric. Since the 1950s America has experienced major cultural transformations, starting with four main

It can be said, but not denied, that the United States of America is one of the most powerful countries in the world today, and has been for arguably the last one hundred years. With its political agendas and military strength it shapes governments; with its social trends and values it shapes cultures. But what, exactly, shaped the United States? The various worldviews that have sprouted from Western philosophy is the most obvious answer, but, to be more specific, it is how those worldviews were adopted that were of the most significance. Whether it was the strict nature of the Puritans, who can be held responsible for the widely-held fear of sexuality, drug-use, and various other topics in America; or the revolutionary ideas of the

Currently, America has shaped into a country that has increased its understanding of acceptance. To explain, we now have gay marriage legalized and women dominating in

He describes the white flight from the inner cities to the suburbs, leaving neighborhoods with high concentrations of poor minorities behind. The Missing Class examines a similar theme of gentrification of neighborhoods, illuminated by the example of the Floyd family in the Clinton Hill neighborhood in north central Brooklyn. “Once in decline, the neighborhood is now on the upswing . . . various factories have shut their doors, the affordable housing has disappeared, and upscale apartments have sprouted.” (Newman & Chen, pg. 12). The Floyds lost their one financial asset, their home, when they were swindled by a contractor who promised to fix up the house, and allow them to pay their loan off over time. The Floyds lament about the influx of affluent white Yuppies in their neighborhood, a place where they know everyone and have lived for the past twenty years, wondering what it will mean for the neighborhood’s identity, wondering if it will still be a black neighborhood. According to another neighbor, despite the rising prices, most black residents won’t sell their homes. “Their family roots are in the South, where property carries with it both tradition and responsibility” (pg. 15). Clearly, the loss of a house or a neighborhood could deeply affect a person’s sense of self and a sense of pride, leaving someone grasping for their once stable identity.

American Literature has never ceased to reveal what this land has to offer and the idea that you get out of it what you put into it. The idea that you could have freedom, opportunity, and the ability to make money became known as the American dream. People wanted this dream to become their reality, no matter the cost or who stood in their way. On the other hand, it was obscure to those who had never experienced it before, including some within our own walls. Authors from decades past give us insight as to what both of those worlds look like.

America is constantly progressing, in the last one hundred and fifty years this country has been a land of segregation and hate speech, where only white straight men are deemed fit to run the country. The United States has evolved into a country of diversity and understanding. These changes have been made through the devotion of seemingly ordinary citizens yearning for a change, the supreme court getting cases associated with civil rights and laws that have been set in place to ensure the safety and security of all people who enter the country no matter the color of their skin, sexual orientation or gender. Though America still has many imperfections as does quite literally everything else in this world, anyone can attempt to adjust or fix

The United States of America that we know today is a colossal powerhouse. However, the forces and ideologies that went into securing it’s formidable status in the present day as one of the most influential nations in the world cannot be ignored. Towards the end of the 19th century through to the early 20th century, the US underwent so many radical changes in such a condensed period of time regarding it’s economy, technology, and social structure, that there can certainly be no question about the frequently dubbed “Progressive Era” of American society. The level of drastic progression in this time period is arguably attributed to it’s social reforming, industrialism, and imperialism.

Within two centuries, America advanced as the land resonating with freedom and home containing the brave. Yet many years prior to ideal freedom, women and other minority group faced an inability to bask in the glorious freedom. Society chained many people not under the classification: Dominant White Man. The patriarchal civilization made women unable to receive education or a job early in America’s development. Women followed a domestic lifestyle while minorities faced discrimination. Minorities fell face-first on society’s foundation, as sexuality and religion also encounter a societal norm - heterosexual or beliefs in God, society established anything else as disgraceful. However, through the last 150 years, American wars result in the most important social and political gains. War marched through the land bringing death, not only to American soldiers, but to other nation’s warriors as well. Wars reaped innocent

The years following the first World War were years of change for the United States. Not all the change was good – the decade began with a brief depression and was plagued with issues regarding civil rights, income inequality and unemployment. The latter two issues were underlying signs of the impending doom that would mark the end of the “roaring twenties”. But until then, the twenties did roar. The economy flourished and industry reshaped the way Americans lived, worked and thought. New art forms came into popularity and culture shifted away from many traditional values. Society changed in major ways, and gave birth to some of the ideas, beliefs and trends that still rule the country to this day.

Historians and academics offer definitions which underlie today?s humor. In 1937, Walter Blair, whose 60-year study of humor focused on the nineteenth century development of the genre, stated that American humor was neither produced only in America nor contained characteristics privy only to Americans. He offered instead that American humor meant ?humor which is American in that it has an emphatic ?native quality??a quality imparted by its subject matter and its technique? (92). H. R. Haweis, half a century earlier in 1882, had defined the technique of American humor as the three shocks of contrast: business and piety, Aboriginal and Yankee, and the bigness of American nature versus the smallness of

The changing values of American society in the 20’s was hardly unpredictable. After the Gilded Age, the Progressive Era, and WWI, how could many people’s beliefs and values remain the s ame? The response to the evolving world depended on the person, of course. One could either embrace the new developments and move forward with the youth and the future of the country, or one could cling to the traditions that America was “built on” and bury oneself into a past riddled with a rigid refusal of the unknown

For the people who don’t live in America, but wish to migrate and create a new life in America, their main motivation is the American dream. People describe the dream as being all US citizens have an equal opportunity to gain success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald illustrates the corruptness of the “American dream” through Jay Gatsby, a rich man with a more than shady background regarding how he came to be in the West Egg of New York. Consequently, the American dream during the 1920s, as Fitzgerald exemplifies, has turned into a competition among the people for status and wealth, with no such thought of gaining happiness in the process. Furthermore, Fitzgerald illustrates the corruptness of the

he American Dream, a world of endless opportunity. Everything is supposed to be easier. But why is it that so many people are struggling to find jobs and affordable housing. In “Camping for Their Lives” Scott Bransford explores the world beyond luxury housing into the heart of what are known as Tent Cities. Bransford’s negative outlook points to two major reasons of why people are living in tents instead of houses. He states that unaffordable housing and low wages, are causing people to turn to alternative solutions. Bransford sees both the light and the darkness in the new form of housing. Leaving the reader to see Bransford as remaining neutral in the argument. Confused, they then are left to choose a side, using the information

World War II sparked an evolutionary change within societal structure as women’s influence grew and they entered the workforce. Efforts on the homefront brought more job opportunities for women, but the role that they developed was challenged as soon as the men returned. American society expected everything to return to normal when the war finished, and men to return to the factories and women to return to housework. Contrary to popular belief, women took this opportunity to fight against social norms and gain the equality that they deserve. While fighting for what they believe in, feminists also unconsciously changed the accepted culture of American family life and styles of relationship. Many arguments can be made, but there are numerous pieces of evidence that point to feminism as an early cause of this evolutionary change. As time evolved, technology had a greater and more permanent impact on social interactions. No longer is man superior to woman, nor does solely man work for the benefit of their family. Marriage and family are no longer the main goal of a relationship. Social media, technology, and the casual nature of dating challenge the establishment of respect and faithfulness that once existed. The role of women after World War II caused an evolutionary change socially and economically as women’s rise in the workforce challenges chivalrous tendencies built into the roots of American culture, dating trends moved into younger generations sparking newfound social