Films About the Colonial Period

Paper Summary:

The paper looks at a few films that take place during the colonial period, such as "Sally Hemmings: An American Scandal" and Arthur Miller's "The Crucible". The writer compares these fictional works to documentaries and non-fiction literature of the same period to prove that the vision of the fictional works is often not a true vision of what actually took place. The paper specifically looks at the Salem witch trials and early settlers as they encountered Native Americans.

From the Paper:

"A theme that recurs in all these works in some form is a theme that helped shape the nation and the American culture, the theme of the frontier. The frontier stands in American history as both a reality and a concept, a locale--one that moved, it is true, but still a locale--and as an idea, an attitude that helped shape the American character. The idea of Manifest Destiny told Americans that they would inevitably extend their domain from the Atlantic to the Pacific, which meant that the frontier would have to cease being the frontier and be civilized by settlers. The frontier became, then, a place to which settlers went, and the goal in American life was to battle the frontier and to bring it into the American fold. Frederick Jackson Turner noted that the further West we moved, the more American the frontier became because it was farther from Europe. Turner showed how the frontier was pushed back by settlers over successive generations and how each region was settled in its own way, with its own economic structure, agricultural produce, and mode of life (Turner 121)."

More papers on Films About the Colonial Period:

• Analytical Essay # 135950 : "Latin-American Women in the Colonial Period"
• Analytical Essay # 119895 : "Indian Wars of the Colonial Period"
• Analytical Essay # 150199 : "Freedom and Slavery in the Colonial Period"

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