Opportunity for All in the American West

Paper Summary:

This paper introduces, discusses and analyzes the topic of the American West in fiction and history. Specifically it discusses to what extent the U.S. West has been a place of opportunity for all. The paper concludes that in reality, the American West was a land of opportunity for many, but for others, it was simply a place of hard work, little gain, oblivion, and despair.

From the Paper:

"In conclusion, many emigrants found exactly what they were looking for when they headed west. They found wealth, opportunity, and a new life. Even those who did not discover gold often found success in the West in the form of business, industry, and innovation that helped them become pillars of the community. Eventually, families were reunited and the West became settled, citified, and "home." For others, they only found despair, defeat, and suffering in the West. Some died without ever seeing their families again, others attempted to farm fallow land, and still others never found the gold and the pot at the end of the rainbow they were so desperately seeking. The West was not the same for everyone who traveled there, but it is still so romanticized in fiction and history that it still retains some of that rainbow-glow in the minds of many Americans. As Johnson states at the end of her narrative, "There is so much that we have not yet learned from the Gold Rush. If we can remember it differently, perhaps we can use that memory to different ends" (Johnson 344)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Alexie, Sherman. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. New York: Harper Perennial, 1994.
• Cather, Willa. O Pioneers! Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913.
• Johnson, Susan Lee. Roaring Camp: The Social World of the California Gold Rush. New York: W.W. Norton, 2000.
• Stegner, Wallace. The Big Rock Candy Mountain. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1943.
• Worster, Donald. Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.

More papers on Opportunity for All in the American West:

• Essay # 49794 : "Role of American Women"
• Analytical Essay # 35062 : "The American West as Living Space"
• Essay # 54925 : "Female Artists in the American West"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: