Decline Of The West

Much like the Bourgeoisie, the many purchases made by Mrs. Sommers perpetuated the illusion of economic stability in her community, but once her money ran out, the illusion faded. This solidifies the idea that a taste of wealth is a taste of power, as fifteen dollars transformed the protagonist of this narrative from proletariat to possessing the illusion and tendencies of the

This essay, The Myth of the Model American Family, is a discussion of the concept of an ideal family in the different perspective specifically social, cultural and economic. This is also an attempt to identify the structural changes in relation to the global development and the international economic crisis that immensely created impact on their lives. However, the discussion will limit itself on the different identifiable and observable transformations as manifested in the lifestyles, interrelationships and views of family members and will not seek to provide an assessment of their psycho-social and individual perceptions.

There’s an old saying that goes, “Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present”, by Alice Morse Earle. The world has become a place taken for granted. Humans are beginning to wish they could live in the past, while others just want to skip over to the future but what ever happened to living right now? Or living in the moment? In the story, “The American Family”, by Stephanie Coontz, she discusses why so many individuals believe American families are facing worse issues now than in the past. She discusses how in the previous years, it was far worse and explains why those people are wrong to assume they are facing worse problems now. In addition, Robert Kuttner and his text, “The politics of family”, supports Coontz’ argument about the dilemmas facing the turn-of-the-century American families and gives the resolutions to those problems; such as talking out problems, women having the right to walk out of unsatisfactory marriages, and lastly, the emancipation for women.

In American society, wealth has played a particularly significant role in shaping the culture and standards set for our country. With every dilemma that has occurred, money was been an underlying deciding factor in the end. John.F.Kennedy makes this very clear in his statement on lowering the prices of steel, all the way Jennifer Price's take on people being obsessed with a money, even Scott Russell’s article on the status quo Americans believe determines one's happiness and success. All of these passages tie together to show just how money influences our very own society.

The Great War, or World War I, ended in 1918 with the Treaty of Paris. It marked the beginning of a new era. During the war, there was a boom in the economy and employment was easy to find. The damage the war caused on the land in Europe was catastrophic; with the trenches and heavy artillery and machinery being used to destroy each other and take cities, it is amazing that there was anything left. Many people, soldiers and civilians, died during the war. After World War I, many countries gained their independence, and many countries suffered severe economic debt due to the expensive war reparations.

The West prior to and after the Civil War was largely unpopulated by the white man, the Indians, as a result, dominated the landscape mostly undisturbed. However, this separation came to a halt as legion of white pioneers invaded the great plains, displacing the Indians and “civilizing” the West. With tensions rising, the government attempted to make treaties that gave the Indians designated areas to live. What the government failed to realize was that there wasn’t a primary Indian hierarchy and that the people in charge of upholding these treaters were corrupt. Inability to control the nomadic people and growing anger amongst the Indian ranks lead to many bloody skirmishes between the Indians and the U.S. Army. The Indian’s had a short lived victory at the Battle of Little Big Horn, “Custer’s Last Stand.” Eventually, the U.S. Army forced the Indians to surrender and corralled them into reservations where they silently suffered for generations as the government attempted to assimilate them.

The expansion to the west was considered to be a dead topic in the world of history. However one historian published a novel bringing forward new thoughts and opinions on the subject. Since Turners thesis, published in 1893 not many historians tried to reevaluate the topic of the frontier until Gregory H. Noble. Noble currently a history professor at Georgia Tech University is a very accomplished historian in early American and environmental history. In his novel, American Frontiers: Cultural Encounters and Continental Conquest he embarks on evaluating the expansion of the west in a completely revolutionized approach. Noble was able to revitalize the subject of westward expansion through a non-Turnerian approach, which was looking at the frontier as a variety of multicultural encounters. This was entirely different compared to Turner who viewed the west as a merger between savagery and civilization. Noble appreciates and takes into consideration the encounters with women, children, Hispanics, and Native Americans. However, Noble realizes that the settlement of the west “must be understood as a story of often savage and duplicitous conquest rather than benign settlement.” This benign settlement was settled in a savage way but yet the United States government was unable to self-reflect and realize the true savages are themselves. Noble’s was one of the first historians to mention and defend the Native Americans as people not as undesirables. Although Nobles novel was

In a world that is coming apart, due significantly to the 1930’s Depression, family life deteriorates when jobs becomes lost as well as do those whose sense of worth is bound up in them. In both stories, the coping mechanism in males deprived by stress of job loss leads inevitably to a loss of dignity rendering them less able to function as heads of the family. It is at this juncture that women feel the threat to family life is endangered and instinctively cope with the situation, however they can. Lastly, hope, which was sustained, for a time, diminishes for both families, leading to the breaking apart of all that each envisioned. Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and Howard’s Cinderella Man demonstrate how quickly a family can disintegrate when its hopes are unrealized.

The Great Depression broke down security and belief in American society during the early 20th century and brought out hidden prejudices. The once optimistic mood during the Roaring 20’s turned to pain. The dire economic situation caused Americans to return to past social stigmas where certain groups of people were seen as inferior; as a result, the American Dream, where everyone could seek their ideal of success, was reduced to merely a dream. John Steinbeck observed these changes in social behavior and witnessed the plight of many Americans during the Great Depression. Like in his later work, The Grapes of Wrath, he was inspired by his environment to expose the lives of people during the Great Depression using Of Mice and Men. Steinbeck observed these changes in social behavior and witnessed the plight of many Americans during the Great Depression. Steinbeck demonstrates in Of Mice and Men through the characters that the American Dream was naturally discriminatory towards certain groups of people because of common perceptions held during that period.

Is money more important than family? Many families are broken because a somewhat loving guardian is so obsessed with work, or better yet, the money. From long, distress-filled tears to painful mornings and nights (and everything in between), this situation unfortunately faces thousands of kids daily. People with jobs and families should be against choosing their job over family because it allows for a closer bond to form, more family time, and everlasting love for eachother. The story “Contents of a Dead Man’s Pocket” and the TED Talk “Can we all ‘have it all?’” featuring Anne-Marie Slaughter will be represented in this essay.

In the early 19th century, while the rapidly-growing United States expanded into the lower South, white settlers faced what they considered an obstacle. This area was home to the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chicasaw and Seminole nations. These Indian nations, in the view of the settlers and many other white Americans, were standing in the way of progress. Eager for land to raise cotton, the settlers pressured the federal government to acquire Indian territory.

In the workplace, people are making money for the family, while in the mall, people are spending money for the family. “When we go out to work, it’s to put bread on the table for the family. When we shop at the mall, it’s often to buy a Christmas, birthday, or house present “for the family” (185). Hochschild identifies the pressure that bring by capitalism and the responsibility of taking care of families becomes a moral issue. The pressure brings by family is “many of us respond to these twin trends, however, not by turning away from family and community, but by actually elevating them in moral importance” (186). In order to take care of families and make them lives in better lives, people have to make money, which is the pressure that brings by Capitalism. “Working long hours and spending a lot of money-instead of spending time together-have increasingly become how we say “I love you” at home” (187). People start to believe that the more money they make and the more money they spend shows the more love to the family, instead of spending more time with the family, which is the way for people to lessen their moral pressure. Hochschild’s suggestions are realistic because in nowadays most people in the society are using the time for their jobs instead of spending time with

As with every turning point in any society, changes occur because of multiple dynamics that were occurring during a point in history. Through a chain reaction to many dynamics the Roman Empire divided and eventually the Western Empire collapsed. The collapse of the Western Empire allowed for one type of governing to developed in that region. And different form of authority, had been developing since Constantine had moved the Eastern empire capital into Byzantine. These two halves of the once Roman Empire held very different ideals on how authority should be viewed and how a government should be formed. These difference lead an increasing sharp tension between the East and West that to some regards can be seen in today’s society still.

The point of view of the story is in first person. The author himself has went through all of this and

The title “The Decline of the West” can be a directly reference to the western worlds economic problems. This theme is clear throughout the short story, where especially Mike thinks about his choice of lifestyle that he and many others have had through many years. He considers whether the financial crises can be the punishment for this: “Like many people, Mike had also worried whether the present catastrophe was punishment for years of extravagance and self-indulgence.” (p. 4, l. 86-87) Another thing to notice about the short story is how values like love, closeness and indulgence is nowhere to be found. And the title can therefore be related to moral degeneration, which Mike’s family is an example of. The title can be a critical comment on the western worlds excessive focus on money at the expense of more important thing like family and Mike is actually thinking about the Marxism prediction, which affects him personally: “Since capitalism was cracking under the weight of its contradictions as the Marxists has predicted … they would have to find a