had come to America in the eleventh century, and the Irish had made several trips to North America before them. But these discoveries were largely ignored. Medieval people were concerned with their own inner world and with heaven, the world above, not a new world like their present one. It took an inner change in Europe before the people could let themselves see and experience a new world. A new mythic world had first to be born; it was then time to discover a new outer world as well. We note that people’s myth is decisive, rather than barehistorical fact, in what they let themselves see and not see. It is not by its history that the mythology of a nation is determined, but, conversely, its history is determined by its mythology. * This reminds one of Virgil’s saying, “We make our destiny by our choice of the gods.”
To be able to discover and populate the New World required the Renaissance, with its great surge of humanistic change in Europe . The new burst of love for nature which is shown in Italian art, for example, supplanted the stiff mosaics of the Middle Ages. There was a new confidence in human possibilities, a new sense of adventure, a challenge on all sides to push beyond previous boundaries of geography and science. These new myths set the stage for Columbus to make his voyage. As is often the case, myth leads to fact rather than the reverse . The myth leads people to give their attention to one possibility rather than another, and hence to change the direction of their intentions and their dreams. Columbus proposed his expedition at the right time—the Kairos † —when people were ready to accept the discovery of the new world.
In people’s minds this discovery of America was due to God’s favor. It was part of His plan for a fresh beginning for mankind, in an age when almost everything was starting anew. The New World myth did not ignore older myths. The myths which filled the minds and souls of the people on the Mayflower were myths of Paradise, the Garden of Eden, the Golden Age. The people transformed these ancient myths into what was to become the great myth of America. ** Since myths are beyond time, they could all be formed into one glorious narrative. Stephen Vincent Benet wrote in 1943, in “Western Star,” that the myth was filled:
With something of the wonder and the awe
Those mutinous sailors saw …
Sleepy and cursing, damning drink and bread,
To see before them there,...
But thin with distance, thin but dead ahead,
The line of unimaginable coasts. *
THE MYTH OF THE FRONTIER
In his keen insights into the influence of the frontier on American society, Frederick Jackson Turner set the important myth for understanding the frontier. He saw the significance of what people were getting away from as well as what they were getting to . The free land on the frontier, drawing people away from Europe, enabled Americans to build a new frontier and a new culture, partially dependent upon Europe but with its own special characteristics. The frontier was thus the crucial myth; its special characteristics became distinctively American.
Turner pointed out that the restless energy in our new settlements and cities was combined with the individualism, the self-reliance, “the bounteousness and exhuberance which comes with freedom.” † The new country had distinctive characteristics which Turner believed were largely due to our leaving Europe behind and striking out for ourselves. He emphasized the impact of the wilderness on this transplanted existence. Although his penetrating analysis did not come until 1890, he described a new western spirit and a new way of thinking about American history. Within the United States, this viewpoint lifted local history from the confines of an tiquarianism into mythic meaning .
America was to become for the West a myth of the rebirth of humanity, without the sin or evil or poverty or injustice orpersecution which had characterized the Old World. Our Statue
To be able to discover and populate the New World required the Renaissance, with its great surge of humanistic change in Europe . The new burst of love for nature which is shown in Italian art, for example, supplanted the stiff mosaics of the Middle Ages. There was a new confidence in human possibilities, a new sense of adventure, a challenge on all sides to push beyond previous boundaries of geography and science. These new myths set the stage for Columbus to make his voyage. As is often the case, myth leads to fact rather than the reverse . The myth leads people to give their attention to one possibility rather than another, and hence to change the direction of their intentions and their dreams. Columbus proposed his expedition at the right time—the Kairos † —when people were ready to accept the discovery of the new world.
In people’s minds this discovery of America was due to God’s favor. It was part of His plan for a fresh beginning for mankind, in an age when almost everything was starting anew. The New World myth did not ignore older myths. The myths which filled the minds and souls of the people on the Mayflower were myths of Paradise, the Garden of Eden, the Golden Age. The people transformed these ancient myths into what was to become the great myth of America. ** Since myths are beyond time, they could all be formed into one glorious narrative. Stephen Vincent Benet wrote in 1943, in “Western Star,” that the myth was filled:
With something of the wonder and the awe
Those mutinous sailors saw …
Sleepy and cursing, damning drink and bread,
To see before them there,...
But thin with distance, thin but dead ahead,
The line of unimaginable coasts. *
THE MYTH OF THE FRONTIER
In his keen insights into the influence of the frontier on American society, Frederick Jackson Turner set the important myth for understanding the frontier. He saw the significance of what people were getting away from as well as what they were getting to . The free land on the frontier, drawing people away from Europe, enabled Americans to build a new frontier and a new culture, partially dependent upon Europe but with its own special characteristics. The frontier was thus the crucial myth; its special characteristics became distinctively American.
Turner pointed out that the restless energy in our new settlements and cities was combined with the individualism, the self-reliance, “the bounteousness and exhuberance which comes with freedom.” † The new country had distinctive characteristics which Turner believed were largely due to our leaving Europe behind and striking out for ourselves. He emphasized the impact of the wilderness on this transplanted existence. Although his penetrating analysis did not come until 1890, he described a new western spirit and a new way of thinking about American history. Within the United States, this viewpoint lifted local history from the confines of an tiquarianism into mythic meaning .
America was to become for the West a myth of the rebirth of humanity, without the sin or evil or poverty or injustice orpersecution which had characterized the Old World. Our Statue
Similar Books
