Spaces and Exchanges
First of all I would like to give a definition of «Exchange». It’s a continuous movement or circulation. It includes all type of exchanges : people, trade or media. A society can be approached from the point of
Spaces and Exchanges
First of all I would like to give a definition of «Exchange». It’s a continuous movement or circulation. It includes all type of exchanges : people, trade or media. A society can be approached from the point of view of its cohesion and openness, which raises questions about its place in the world. The geography of commercial channels and networks of influence, but also the discovery and conquest of new land constitute new cultural areas which often transcend the borders of a States. The border which limit two spaces will sometimes seen as a protection against the other or otherwise the opening to a larger space. The space can evolve and take different forms. However, we decided to focus our work on the United States. The concept «Spaces and Exchanges» illustrates the theme of the discovery of new space so it implies the discovery of new territories, the major waves of immigration, the fact of transgressing the frontier and finally the travel which involves the search of new experiences or a sense of community. Today we see that despite a very uneven level of development, the world has never been such integrated. We are witnessing exchanges of all kinds are in culture, arts, science, philosophy, religion, and more generally in everyday use. It is a way to unify people.
– Problématique –
To my mind, the documents thats seems to best illustrate the notion is a drawing by Jeff Parker, a song from Bruce Springsteen called American land, an extract from a speech of Barack Obama and finally, an extract of The Flat World by Thomas Friedman.
– The first document is a cartoon by the cartoonist, Jeff Parker. It deals with the Pilgrims. It’s the name commonly applied to early settlers of the Plymouth Colony in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts. In this drawing, we can see Indians or Native Americans who are building up a high fence so as to prevent pilgrims or settlers to land and to settle down in the USA. The first European settlers arrived in 1620 on board the May Flower. The caption is full of sarcasm and irony : historically the Indians did not prevent the Pilgrims from setting down in the USA. They even helped them. In the end, Indians lost their lands, their culture and traditions. The point of view given in this caption is a modern point of view. The autor denounces the modern American point of view about immigration.Times have changed but the same problems remain because history repeats itself, even today.
We can make a link between the document and the notion because it focuses on a major issue which is the transmission of knowledge, culture made between American and Indian. Moreover it raises the problem of immigration in American nowadays.
I like this document because the author exposes his point of view with humor and I think it’s a efficient way to make people understand, especially in this case because it is a touchy subject.
-The second document is a song from Bruce Springsteen called American Land. Through this song, he evokes the thoughts and aspirations of a young immigrant who sees America as a land of home. The narrator is a young adult who have a girlfriend. His aim for the future is to settle down in the United States.
Moreover, he wants to live the American dream. And for him, every American can live in luxury, abundance and wealth. We can notice it : «Over their all the woman wear silk and satin to their knee». According to the author, the United States is a paradise for workers, a kind of Eldorado. He thinks it’s a land of opportunity. We can see it in line 28 : «There’s treasure for the taking, for any hard working man». The narrator says that America welcomes everyone, regardless of religion, nationality, or social class. He come from a small village and arrived in New York city. So he feels amazement, surprise and fascination towards this city and this country that seems to be perfect. The reason why people emigrating is that they thinks that America is an open society where everybody is on an equal footing. For them, overnight, they can climb the social ladder and become rich even if at the begining they were poor because United Stated is a country without social barrier. They think they can start from scratch and afford expensive materials, something that