Crévecoeur's 'Letters from an American Farmer' & The Hills

http://www.mtv.co.uk/shows/the-hills

After thinking long and hard about what ideas I could link to Crévecoeur's ideas of America, I decided to focus on one of my favourite TV shows - MTV's 'The Hills'. It focuses on the 'real-life' drama of a group of friends set in Los Angeles over a period of 6 seasons. The main character in the first 5 seasons - Lauren Conrad, leaves Laguna Beach in hope of pursuing a career in fashion design and writing in Los Angeles. This is where my link to Crévecoeur begins, as he and/or his alter ego Farmer James, in a way leave France to discover farming oppurtunities abroad in the new land America. For both these characters, they are leaving what they know to discover new opportunities in a more exciting land. Both these characters are used to what is familiar, what they would call "home", and so both are surprised by the abundance of the new land, and what opportunites are in store for them.

In our seminar we discussed how Crévecoeur's writings were perhaps an early onset of the Hollywood era, where he is adopting the persona of his alter ego - Farmer James, rather than writing about himself. This can also be linked to The Hills, as there was a lot of controversy over the last episode in particular, as to whether the show was real-life, scripted or a bit of both. This can be applied to many of the reality shows aired on MTV, namely The Hills, The City, and Laguna Beach: The Real OC (which also followed Lauren Conrad's life).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8gyXYr1ZAM - The last ever episode of The Hills - the controversial ending.

I have chosen Letter III "What is an America?", as there are also some difference that are clear to point out about the two topics. Crévecoeur sees America as non discriminatory, where there is no space between the rich and the poor, drawn from a quote in the book; "those of the poor: here they rank as citizens" (Page 43). This is most definately not the case when referring to the Hills, as there is an abundance of wealth in the area of Los Angeles that the show is set in, and most definately a class divide is evident.The positivity of both is evident though, as Crévecoeur uses quotes such as "can change the world" (Page 44) - evident of the American Dream, which is also present in The Hills, pursuing their dreams; "smiling country" (Page 47) - this can be used to describe America on Crévecoeur's behalf or Los Angeles if the same were to apply to The Hills. The idea that they will succeed in what they want to do and be who they want to be is the underlying motto in both these mediums.



Is America still Exceptional?

The idea of America being a 'new' and 'exceptional' country is strongly conveyed by De Crevecoeur in "Letters from an American Farmer" when he contemplates how new European settlers must feel upon arriving in America for the first time in Letter 3 (p40)

"I wish I could be acquainted with the feelings and thoughts which must agitate the heart and present themselves to the mind of an enlightened Englishman, when he first lands on this continent."

He very clearly expresses his own pleasures of living in this new land, and feels that upon witnessing America for the first time, those arriving there for the first time get a sense of just how magnificent and opportunistic America is for them.
In fact he contrasts the differences between the new world and Europe itself:

"It is not composed, as in Europe, of great lords who possess every thing, and of a herd of people who have nothing."

De Crevecour is quite openly passionate that America is pure and perfect for creating and shaping a more ideal civilisation that is free of possessive hierarchy where everyone is treated equally.

This belief does appear to have stood the test of time. A quote from one particular website looking at how America can still be seen as "exceptional" reads:

"The United States remains exceptional in other important ways. It is still an outlier at one end of many international indicators of behavior and values. It is still much less statist and welfare-oriented, and its governments (federal and state) tax and spend much less in proportionate terms than European governments. It is the most religious country in Christendom, the only one still strongly influenced by the moralistic and individualistic ethos of Protestant sectarianism. It has higher rates of mobility into elite positions than any other nation. It combines exceptional levels of productivity, income, and wealth with exceptionally low levels of taxation and social spending and equally exceptional levels of income inequality and poverty." (http://www.hoover.org/publications/hoover-digest/article/6621)

From this quote we can see that America has kept government involvement at a lower level then in Europe by keeping taxes low, therefore allowing its citizens to earn a better living through their jobs and enjoy a better quality of life.
As well as this, social spending means that the country can prosper from not overspending on things that are not necessary.

Crevecouer's Idea of New and Exceptional America

In Letters from an American Farmer Crevecouer clearly shows his view that America is superior to any other country in the world. When searching for a website which agrees with this view, I came across www.goodcitizen.org which is a website that encourages people to do more to become good citizens. This website suggests that America is exceptional but only if everybody plays their part; then America can remain new and untarnished (the website says 'The lack of citizen involvement is a quiet epidemic and a threat to our future'). The tagline for the organisation is clearly shows this idea: 'The Responsibility Part of Freedom'.

Crevecouer says that America has 'the most perfect society now existing in the world' (p50) and he suggests that this is partly to do with the hard work of Americans like himself:

'We are all tillers of the earth, from Nova Scotia to West Florida. We are a people of cultivators...united by the silken bands of mild government, all respecting the laws, without dreading their power, because they are equittable. We are all animated with the spirit of an industry which is unfettered and unrestrained, because each person works for himself' (p49-50)

The website also reflects the ideal that through hard work America is made exceptional:

'Effective citizens do simple, yet powerful things on a daily basis that keeps our country strong and free. we call thes acts citizen actions'.

Another point which reminded me of Crevecouer when I looked at the website was the fact that the organization were especially interested in getting youth to get involved. This reminded me of this quote:

'I bless God for all the good he has given me; I envy no man's prosperity, and with no other portion of happiness that I may live to teach the same philosophy to my children; and give each of them a farm, show them how to cultivate it, and be like their father, good substantial independant American farmers' (p46-7)

Both explain the importance of children to work hard to maintain America's exceptionality for future generations.

Criticism of America

I have found an article on the independents website titled 'Hatred of America Unites the World'. The article gives different reasons as to why different countries may hate America, poll results of peoples opinions on America and Americas thoughts and reactions to other countries dislike for them.

The article says that "being hated is what happens to dominant empires", this being a main reason for why America is targeted with so much hate from all over the world. It also discusses how the countries that America thinks are it's biggest threats or enemies do not always reciprocate the hatred and that many of Americas so called allies look unfavourably towards them.

It shows the change in attitude Britain has towards America from 1999 where 83 percent of Brits had a positive opinion of America which falls to 56 percent only 7 years later in 2006. It also shows that Britain, as a whole, surprisingly favours both Japan and Germany over America as 69 and 75 percent favour the two countries.

As well as all of this it shows that some countries are quite suspicious of America with the example of Germany believing that during the situation with Sadam Hussain and the weapons of mass destruction 60 percent of Germans believed that it was actually to do with America wanting to control Middle Eastern Oil and 47 percent thought it was to do with America and world domination.

The article gives a lot of interesting facts about countries opinions towards America and I like the way that it compares several different countries opinions rather than focusing on just one.

An account of a French settler

I found an account of colonisation by Sieur Daniel Greysolon Duluth, I got this from www.americanjourneys.org.

Duluth was a Frenchman who in 1678 decided to go to a French colony in America and explore the Sioux country (and other tribes) in the North West.

Firstly he describes how everyone thought it would be impossible for him to explore the Sioux country ‘because of their distance, which is 800 leagues from our settlements, and because they are at war generally with all sorts of tribes’. He then says that he didn’t feel worried because they had already ‘assured [him] of their friendship’ and that the Sioux Indians, as proof, had given him 3 slaves. This section surprised me because it differs so much from Percy’s account of the Native Americans: in Percy’s account there seems to be severe mistrust between the colonists and the Indians; whereas in this account not only is Duluth certain of their friendship but the Indians show their trust in him by giving him 3 of their people. Duluth then states that he wants to bring peace between all the nations around Lake Superior; this shows that he wants to help them. Later on, he describes how this did happen. He then appears to change his view when describing how a reverend and two other Frenchmen had been kidnapped by the Indians; this contrasts with the earlier view on Indians and shows that things between colonists and Indians aren’t entirely friendly. After this point, he starts calling the Indians ‘savages’. After this he goes about letting the Indians know of his resentment against them. However he doesn’t seem to purely hate them, it seems that he’s more disappointed in them. Another thing which surprised me when I read this account was that he never seems to be amazed at what the Inidans are like and how they live (unlike other accounts) he seems to just view them as people (who are perhaps in his view slightly inferior and in need of help).

‘Having made with the Assenipoulaks and all the other nations of North America a rendezvous ... they all appeared there, where I had the good fortune to gain their esteem and their friendship, to bring them together, and in order that peace might last longer among them, I believed that I could not better cement it than buy causing marriages to be made mutually between the different nations. This I could not carry out without much expenditure. During the following winter I caused them to hold meeting in the forest, at which I was present, in order to hunt together, feast, and thus draw closer the bonds of friendship’.

This I feel is the most revealing section because it shows how influential Duluth, a colonist, was to the many Indian tribes living in the North West. Again, as I said earlier, this greatly contrasts to Percy’s account because in that account the settlers and the Indians were locked in constant conflict and (even at the start when they sometimes helped the colonists) they were never close to being friends. Yet here not only is Duluth a friend to them but he is instrumental in bringing all the tribes together in peace. The very thought of the Indians in Percy’s account listening to a colonist seems ridiculous, yet here it is shown to be possible.