Popular culture has become a tool of “Americanization” for teaching immigrants and other groups “American” values in a variety of ways through out the years. While popular culture has tremendously impacted the “Americanization” of all types of immigrants and other groups, two movies, which we have viewed in class this semester have instilled “American” values in these groups as well. Both The Jazz Singer and Tarzan have displayed tremendous examples of “Americanization,” and they have paved ways as to how humans both now and in the past perceive what it means to be “American.” Popular culture allowed immigrants like Al Jolson’s character in The Jazz Singer to “Americanize,” because past traditions and ways of life were erased, as new world …show more content…
The change from Victorian culture to a modern day culture came from a new outlook on everyday traditions and ways of being. As Anglo-Saxon Victorians used popular culture to advertise the new “American” values, new habits and beliefs were formed to those who listened. While work and production were predominant in Victorian culture, leisure and consumption became a way of life in the modern culture. When self-sacrifice and self-denial were practiced by the Anglo-Saxon Victorians, they were preaching self-fulfillment and self-pleasure instead. Moreover, the new teachings of values began to transform human beings in a dramatic way. As human’s self-beliefs were changing and re-forming, their outlooks on other ideals alternated completely. Victorian culture originally mocked “black” culture, believed in both motherhood and a housewife lifestyle, and taught gentleman to respect others wishes. While these new “American” values were being shown, people in this modern culture began to celebrate “black” culture, they started to present women with opportunities to be self-dependent, and men were raised to be “Alpha-Males.” (Powerful, dominant, …show more content…
First, there is a saying that I have been told my entire life, which pertains to the changes popular culture provided for the modern culture; you reap what you sow. If you sow a thought, you reap an act. When you sow an act, you reap a habit. Lastly, when you sow a habit, you reap a character. As the Anglo-Saxon Victorians preached and presented how to act in a modern culture, they fabricated a new way of being, which transformed this generation’s way of life. It has been said that if you desire something hard enough, it can come true. Well, the Victorians sought to change other group’s values, so they would inevitably “be like them.” In the end, the Anglo-Saxon Victorians found tremendous success doing that over time. Furthermore, popular culture allowed these other groups an opportunity to challenge and change the “American” values because once they adapted to the new principles, processes of socialization may have naturally taken place. While socialization is a key factor in the process of personality and belief formation, much of human personality is already pre-determined through previous values. The socialization process was formed in certain manners, as the Anglo-Saxon Victorians emphasized attitudes and specific beliefs through their own personal experiences. While doing this, popular