Notion terminale L Mythe et Héros

Anglais :

Synthèse dossier « Myths and Heroes »

        First I would like to talk about the notion myths and heroes.

Briefly a myth, it’s a story about gods or heroes who can be a popular belief, a tradition or a false notion. A hero can be a mythological figure. It’s a person admired for his or her achievements. So, mythology includes the legends of history or religion.

How the Myths of American way of life was in contradiction with today?

For explain that I have chosen 3 documents which are the painting The first Thanksgiving 1621 by Jean Leon FERRIS, the cartoon by Jeff PARKER, and a news report which is:  Third world USA: a change is needed.

First, we can talk about the glorious myth of Pilgrims with the Natives tribes and the situation of first American in United States nowadays.

        Today, many people conceive story like legends, myths, to imagine fabulous and fantastic stories, because the population prefers to flee the reality with these problems. This aspect works whatever periods.

To explain this sentence we can see the myth of Pilgrims during Thanksgiving illustrate by Jean Leon Gerome FERRIS in 1915. This painting is named The First Thanksgiving 1621. This scene represents English settlers meeting Native Americans. The title suggests being the first thanksgivings for thanks natives for helping them to survive.

This painting conveys an atmosphere of conviviality between both communities. That represents myth because Indians and Europeans were united and equal. There several differences between the two groups. The position in general of the Settlers is more impressive with weapons than Natives who sitting on the floor with animals like the dogs. Then, the aspect of the number shown differences because the Natives are few than the Settlers. So, the implicitly shows that they don’t have the same statue and we can say the Settlers are here for conquer the territory not for being kind. Contrary to the myth, Pilgrims eradicate with extreme violence Natives tribes and doing steel of their lands and kill their culture.

         The second document deal with the idea of steeling culture mentioned with the first document. The cartoon drawn by Jeff Parker for a daily newspaper, Florida today, in 2006 evokes the decision by George W. Bush to build the Mexico-United-States Barrier. We can see this aspect with the woods wall building by the Natives to prevent the Settlers from interring the country. We can make a comparison with actually between the arrivals of immigrants in the United-States. Then we can see, in the center of the drawing, ‘Plymouth Rock’ on the shore which has been a legendary boulder since 1620 when the First Settlers arrived in Northern America. We can see next to Plymouth Rock an Indian stands with his arms folded like an unwelcoming attitude and disapproving expression on his face

This cartoon makes an ironic comparison between the arrival of Pilgrims and the present situation of immigrant in United- States. In fact, many immigrants and ‘First Americans’   assimilate the Pilgrims’ culture and rules. In today’s society, Americans built an enormous wall and spend millions dollars every year to keep immigrants out of their land. Nevertheless, most of the immigrants today come for the same reasons as the Pilgrims, that is to say: freedom, peace, and a better life.

The author debunks the most famous founding myth of American nation: The arrival of the Pilgrims Fathers and harmony relationship with natives like in the first document.

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