American Progress Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

American Progress - Term Paper Example It was a rationalization that growth and western movement was to help in spreading of Christianity. The advocates of Manifest Destiny were guided by the themes of virtue, mission and destiny. The American progress painting shows a translucently and unsteady dressed America floating westwards through the air with the star of empire on her brow. Behind her are the cities of the East, the wide Mississippi and her route is westward. On the right of the picture is a city, schools, steam trains and churches over which beams of illumination are streaming and lighting the air representing progress. The theme of the painting depicts general confusion. She carries a school book of her national enlightenment testimonial on her right hand while her left hand is used to trail slender wires of the telegraph for binding the nation. Her advance causes the fleeing of Indians, wild horses, buffaloes and bears disappearing in the tempest and waves of the pacific coastline. They are fleeing the amazing vision of the star is too much for them. The assumption is that they are of the same class thus dehumanizing the natives into animals which make their dislocation more pleasant. Everything in the east is arranged in order unlike the territory towards the Rockies is engulfed in black clouds of lack of knowledge and uncivilisation. Next to the forefront are homesteaders moving on plains, breaking the lawn and their backs in bringing an unfriendly terrain under nurturing. The picture portrays the whole splendid immigration of the savage waste by the development. It also hints at the past, lays out an unbelievable version of a developing present and the vision of the prospect. The painting is divided into four main parts which are: heaven above, the earth below, right and left and are divided into positive, superior, negative, weak, powerful, conscious. Spiritual light, undeveloped and primal darkness. The painting of the American history portrays the east as a place that was void of an y evils as it is brought out as a civilized place symbolized with clearness as compared with the west which was symbolized with darkness. John Gast’s painting of the American history omitted the coin history. With the civilization of America was to be determined by economic growth as it was the back bone of the developments in the whole world. The manifest Destiny led to the standards of living improving but this meant low wages, long working hours and poor working conditions as growth in the economy affected all aspects of the American structure. Latest developments and opportunities were always associated with new societal tribulations. The painter avoided highlighting the evils in the history of America which define the Americans. Racial terrorism engineered by the Ku Klux Klan who engaged in intimidation, physical violence, lynching, genocide and other forms of evils. The painting is called the magnificent destiny but there is the omission of God in the picture. The paint ing shows a woman carrying an extension of the telegraph from the east heading to the west. Though this shows civilization, the pony riders lost their jobs as they were replaced by the telegraphs. The picture of a half naked woman is symbolical in the sense that the woman has to some degree covered herself. This action of covering herself might mean that