Wednesday 7 October 2009

Map of America


Although this map only shows part of the US and concentrates mostly on the UK and Europe I chose it because it labels America as 'A Land of Opportunity'.

This reminds me of the final chapter of F Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby when he says 'I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes—a fresh, green breast of the new world.' The new settlers of America would have seen a fresh start, a land of opportunity which is why it is so often described with similarities to the biblical garden of eden. However, The Great Gatsby finishes with 'So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past' which reminds us that even though they had this new land where people could escape to and restart their lives they didn't maximise this chance and started making historical mistakes such as the American slave trade and becoming notorious for obesity, global warming and other critical social issues in the world.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.