美国个人主义完成稿.docVIP

Course: American Culture Instructor: Prof. Yang Lin Name: 郑巧 Student Number: 080689 Class: 131805 Date: April 21, 2011 American Individualism in American Films As we all know, films are produced by men and women from certain nations for consumption by target audiences who also belong to certain national groups. For this reason, they often respond on a thematic level to national concerns. They may do so by presenting characters who embody certain aspect of their搉ational character? or by exploring the consequences of national values and attitudes. Thus, when we mention the Hollywood films or American films, what comes to our mind first are usually like Forrest Gump, Spiderman, the Pursuit of Happiness, etc. From these films we can see the American characters like self-reliance, freedom, equality and independence. The United States, like any other country, has its own national culture. All people born and raised in this country have been strongly conditioned by it. Individualism, the core of the American culture, is a moral, political, and social philosophy, emphasizing individual and the personal independence. It focuses on the satisfaction of one’s own desire and interests through self – reliance. The world individualism was first promoted by the French political reviewer Alexis de Tocqueville in his classical book Democracy in America published in 1835. In this book, Tocqueville expounded clearly the “individualism”. Individualism, as a social and political philosophy, emphasizes personal independence and creativity. It holds that personal value was the most lofty, attaching great importance to the nation of self–control and personal development without any form of intervention and obstruction against individual from absolutely power especially the tyranny in a nation’s history, the nation itself, society or any other external factors. The origin of American individualism can be traced back to the beginning years of its history. The American Revolution was a pra