On the American Values from the West Cowboy

On the American Values from the West Cowboy

As one of the most powerful countries in the world, America always has the capacity to attract world's focus, especially its economy. However, its culture and spirits are left with less attention to care for than the Chinese and English ones. Although America is a young country with only a history of more than two hundred years, the culture values behind it brings more significances to us which drove the United States to the head of the modern society. Thus, the role and the value of West cowboys appeared in 18,19th century which has formed a very important of the American culture is full of worth to explore and understand.

After the industrial civilization, cowboys and their mythology began to decline and be away from American's modern life. However, as its unique charms always exist in American culture, a lot of scholars have studied in it to reveal its myth. In my opinion, I will divide my essay into two parts, one focusing on deep research on the cowboy and the other on the analysis of the American culture.

Since the cowboy culture has influenced the America a lot, an incisive look on its charm seems to be necessary. According to Chenhua's essay The Mythology and Reality of the American Cowboy, as continuous literature works, Western movies, TV program have built a brave and kind-hearted cowboy image rooted in the hearts of the people, cowboy's myth and real life began to attract the American (L2-3). As far as I am concerned, although the descriptions on the cowboy and the reason of cowboy myth coming into being are detailed and suitable, it doesn't give enough attention to the cowboy's contribution and influence to American cultural values. Another book also well embodying the cowboy's value, The cowboy: representations of labor in an American work culture, written by Blake Allmendinger. The author holds that cowboys "are self-represented in culture by poems, prose, and art that all reveal cowboys to be men who are culturally unified by engaging in labor routines that they think of as cowboy work" (3). From cowboy's work introduces the detailed influences on American work culture, which is a very important part of the American values, though I can only recognize one part of the cowboy values.

In the following sections of my essay, I will analyze the American values reflected by the West cowboy. The west cowboy represents a lot of spirits influencing the American generation- individualism, progress, diligence and courage, and so on, which mainly form the value system. In Zhu Yongtao's book, The American Values- Research by a Chinese Scholar, he put many words on individualism which is famous all over the world. He cites the contents in Robert Bella's book, Habits of the Heart, that individualism is the core of the American culture...we believe in the dignity of