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Elisabeth H                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

ENGLISH FILE

My presentation will deal with the theme Spaces and Exchanges.

To begin with, I’ld like to give a definition of the notion : an exchange is an act of giving  and  receiving  something  else  in  return.  It  can  also  be  seen  as  a continuous   movement   or   circulation.   There   are   differents   kinds   of  exchanges : media, people, trade...

Through 4 documents we will talk about the West of America.The first two documents deal with the conquest of the West,that is what we are going to see with the document of Lewis and Clark expedition and the chromolithography,American Progress.

And the two last are rather about the California dream.We will introduce that with the song California Dreamin' and the blog post Life in CA.

We may wonder,how these 4 documents are engaged in this notion. We will try to answer at the question what drives people to leave their country to go and live the West of America?

In a first time we will so, talk about the conquest of the West and in a second part,the Californian dream.

The first document I have chosen to present you is the Lewis and Clark expedition.    

We have a map which shows us the travel of Lewis and Clark who were two American explorers.They were sent by the president Thomas Jefferson to find new roads to the Pacific ocean. This travel came one year after the Louisiana Purchase (Sale in 1803 by France of more than 2144476km² of territory to the United States).Wich doubled the size of the USA.

Then,we have an audio document which explain this huge journey.It is "the most dangerous","a true life adventure","one of the greated expedition in history"and we learn that this journey "took over two years".

This document shows us well,the volonty to conquest the West,it is why they leave their country.I find this very courageous and good for the descovery and knowing.

To stay in this spirit of adventure,discovery,...We can switch to a second document,a chromolithograph.                                                                                    This work is called American Progress and were realised by John Gast in 1872.We can notice a women who look like an angel because she fly and she also wearing a white gown.We also see people who are all going to the same direction, toward the West.We guess that thanks to the mountains (The Rocky Mountains) and thanks to the animals as the buffalos and the bears.We see the wilderness. All the characters are in a hurry. To speak now about this characters,we have so,the the women in a white gown,but we also have farmers,who do hunting and picking.Then,some gold miners with rifles ,some Natives Americans shown as a savage people because they are naked and they have bows and arrows. They are shown as cowards.They look afraid and they don't want to face danger.The man in the back is looking at the angelic figure.And we have,finally,settlers who hope to settle permanently and have a better life,and become wealthy.

The West is represented in the left side,we so we have a representation of the East on the right side,by the trains, the railsroads.And we can perceive Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge.

This painting represented so, the white american who run away, flee the East to go to the West and settle permanently.

The "angelic figure" maybe embodies liberty.Because,first,the white color symbolises peace,purity,light.Second,because she is holding a book;it can be the Bible (mission: convert the Natives) or a school book (to represent education) or the Constitution (to represent the law; the First Ten Amendments).This angelic figure installing the telegraph by a wire,to have communication,technology,so,progress.The progress is in transportation by the West to the East.

John Gast was in fact commissioned to do this painting.This is in fact a sort of propaganda.The goal was to influence Easterners to leave a settle to the West.It is shown as if it was therir mission to civilized the West.Not only to the get rich but also to serve God. This philosophy is called Manifest Destiny.It was used as an excuse for the massacre of buffalos and the Native American genocide.

Now let's move on to the expression of the American Dream.

We will see that in two documents.The first I will going to talk is a song by the Mamas and the Papas which is entitled California Dreamin' published in 1966.

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