Myths and heroes

Myths and heroes
I’m going to talk about the idea of « myths and heroes ». First of all, I’d like to give a definition of the notion. A myth is a traditionnal story concerning the early history of a people or explaining a natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events. In mythology and folklore, a hero is a person of superhuman qualities who is admired for his courage or outstanding achievements. In order to illustrate this notion, I have chosen some documents dealing with immigration to the USA. How can the American dream be assimilated to a myth, and immigrants to heroes, and is the American dream really for everyone ? First, we’ll show that immigrating to the US is a heroic experience, then we’ll see the struggles faced by many immigrants to achieve the American Dream, and in the end, we’ll see why American dream isn’t for everyone.
First of all, let’s talk about immigration to the USA as a heroic experience. As a matter of fact, there were many push and pull factors, that encouraged immigrants to cross the Atlantic. Push factors would be political and religious persecution, agrarian unrests, social repression. Pull factors were very numerous : the discovery of gold rush, better social expectations, new « religious havens », material plenty. Because of these factors, people wanted to go to the new land. Immigrants began their journey to America on foot, horseback, or train. Many trekked hundreds of miles across Europe to get to a seaport. When they arrived at the coast, they boarded a steamship. The trip across the Atlantic Ocean lasted one to two weeks. In a document dealing with the immigrant’s trip trough the Atlantic, we learned that the ships divided passengers by wealth and class. First and second-class passengers stayed in staterooms and cabins. But most people were in third class, called "steerage." Steerage was a large, open space at the bottom of the ship. Then, going through Ellis Island is also a heroic experience. We saw a video of a virtual trip of Ellis Island. The presentator made us imagine the great holl bustling with hundreds of people. Immigrants had to go through 6 stages : the baggage room, the stair case which was the first medical inspection, the registery room, the 6 second physical examination, the legal inspection where they were asked to tell their names, ages, etc, and the stairs of separation, where some of them were retained on Ellis Island for legal or medical reasons. In an extract of the « Godfather II », a little boy from Italy called Vito Corleone came alone to Ellis Island. He had to answer to several questions but he couldn’t because he didn’t speak English. He has been renamed by a controler who hadn’t understood his name.
Then, let’s talk about the struggles faced by many immigrants to achieve the American Dream. First, let’s imagine a typical 19th century immigrant. We heard an audio document dealing with the trip of the first immigrant through Ellis Island called Annie Moore. This women is like a symbol of all the immigrants going through Ellis Island. Like everyone, she propably pursued the American dream. The American dream is a subjective vision of America, which is viewed as a land of freedom and prosperity. Moreover, the melting pot is a metaphor for a heterogeneous  (xetroginious) society (sosaïety) becoming more homogeneous (xomoginious). In class, we saw a video dealing with the American melting pot : hyphonated people were supposed to bring their culture to America, but at the same time they had to become true American citizens. The melting pot is an idealised vision of integration. The termin of melting pot reminds of the salad bowl notion : it’s an idea according to which people from different cultural horizons come to America, but they continue to be foreigners. The salad bowl is a more realistic vision of integration, which isn’t as easy as it seems.
To finish with, let’s show that the American dream isn’t for everyone. First, to what extend are Native Americans included in the American Dream ? We saw a video in which Native American people shared their vision of Thanksgiving. They evocated lies, massacre and hypocrisy. It’s a very sad day during which Natives talk about their roots. Then it’s really difficult to be bilingual. In her poem Pat Mora highlited the difficulties of being Mexican American. She’s considered as an exotic person by American people, and a stranger by Mexicans. There are benefits of being bi-cultural but it makes people to decide what is their first culture. It’s the case of Anna, an American girl, whose parents are Chinese. She finally chose American culture so she illustrated the melting pot notion.
To conclude, we can say that the American dream is a great myth, and being an immigrant to the USA was surely a heroic experience. Sadly, the American dream isn’t for everyone. Some American people can’t achieve the American dream.