Student Essay on Frontier, Garden, and Machine

Frontier, Garden, and Machine

Summary:   In the movies "Our Town," "Grapes of Wrath," and "October Sky," many differences and similarities can be observed. All of these movies depict the different changes the United States have experienced throughout the years, and how those changes impacted families, communities, and American society.

Frontier, Garden, and Machine

In the movies "Our Town," "Grapes of Wrath," and "October Sky," many differences and similarities can be observed. All of these movies depict the different changes the United States have experienced throughout the years, and how those changes impacted families, communities, and American society. The nineteenth-century cultural construct which we have labeled "frontier, garden, and machine" are all present in these movies in subtle and some obvious ways. These cultural constructs were sustained, modified, or transformed in reaction to milestone events in American history.

In each of these movies, the plot was built around a family and the changes each family experienced. The people of "Our Town" were very concerned with the feelings of the people in the family. When the father confronted his son about his lack of diligence in his chores, his father mentioned that his mother had to work harder to make up for this slack. When this was brought to the attention of the boy, he was in tears at the realization that his mother had to work so hard. The societies in these communities were very focused on preservation of the family and communities. Everyone felt a sense of community that was tied to their homes and town. Each person felt they belonged to their town and that the town belonged to them. Although this is true for the people of "Our Town" and "October Sky," the people of "The Grapes of Wrath" experienced the feeling of community differently. The Joads had a harder time establishing this feeling outside of "their land" because they had lived all of their lives identifying themselves with their home. Once they were put out and forced to live in the camps, they had to re-establish themselves into new communities constantly. The families in these movies also had a very strong hold on togetherness and family support. Even though the families faced hardships and obstacles, in the end of these movies, the audience can see the depths of these family bonds, even though some of the families may break apart.

Each society has rules about appropriate behavior and roles, and the towns of these movies had particular ones. In "Grapes of Wrath" and "October Sky," toughness and masculinity were traits very important to the males of those times. In "Grapes of Wrath," it was absolutely necessary to be tough in order to survive. Everyone had to rely on their own physical labor because there were no other ways to make a living. When Connie left the family, he was considered to be a coward and shameful because he was not tough enough to stay with his wife and unborn child and work for his family. When Tom came home from jail, everyone asked him if he had broken out, and the grandpa said "You can't keep a Joad in jail!" because there was an expectancy of toughness.

The people of these movies relied heavily on the head male figure to provide for the family and be the head of the household, but with the Depression, Papa Joad was no longer able to keep up with the role of the provider. In "October Sky," Homer's family lived in a town of coal miners that valued physical ability over intellect because the physical ability was what would earn a man's living in that town. In the movie "Our Town", there was not much pressure for the boys to be extremely tough and masculine. It was expected of them to do well in studies and when the son cried when being lectured about keeping up with his chores, he was not reprimanded but handed a handkerchief.

In "Grapes of Wrath," the people view each other differently than in "October Sky" or "Our Town." Even though the pastor had "fallen away" and was a drinker, he was still considered to be a noble and honorable person. When Grandpa Joad died, he was even asked to say a few uplifting words in a short eulogy. Although the pastor declined at first, the Joads thought of him as respectable enough to ask him to do this service. Even though Tom had killed a man, he was still accepted into the family and by society without scrutiny. Throughout the movie, the audience begins to understand that to the people, Tom's crime was committed out of toughness and self-defense which is suffice to reconcile his actions.

Homer in "October Sky," Tom in "Grapes of Wrath," and the daughter in "Our Town," were all challenging the role expected of them. Homer and the daughter were very concerned with learning and intellect, even though they knew that they were expected to do otherwise. Their parents were constantly trying to keep them in check to deter them from straying from their assumed roles and paths in life. Tom was constantly defying authority and doing things on his own terms. Even though he was told not to leave the camp, he let his curiosity and defiance rule him and left anyways. In "October Sky," there were several institutions that sustained the idea of "stay in your place." The school seemed to always put a hamper on Homer and his friends' intellectual advances and confirmed the idea that he needed to stay in his place and quit trying to succeed in science. But there were also others such as his teacher, the machinist, and his friends, who challenged Homer to transform his views and his own culture by encouraging him to keep exploring the community of science.

The concept of the frontier, garden and machine influence is prevalent in these movies. The small town of "Our Town" was a garden community. They were in contact with a sufficiently tamed nature that they were not too far from the frontier, where they had enough access to culture, and were beginning to be influenced by technological advances. In "Grapes of Wrath," the Joads are constantly venturing to the frontier in camps, because they were driven out from their land to be replaced by gardening machines. In "October Sky," Homer's town was a garden community that was heavily influenced by the machine component. They were people that were reliant on technology in their every day lives, yet while maintaining a small town life. All of these cultural constructs were factored into the lives of these people in response to events in American history like World War 2 and the Depression.