Cultural and Ethnic Studies

After the World War II, the U.S. has advanced rapidly in both culture and science. People in general felt optimistic about the future. However, they also had the fear that they might lose the good things they had (hard-headed realism), especially under the threat of communism in the cold war. The contrast between the fear and the optimism formed the unique American culture that is often expressed in the popular culture. For example, the film noir expressed the fear in the mind, while some comedy and TV (or movie) romance expressed the optimism. The classic duos expressed the conflict into humors.

The optimism and fear also expressed in social and political aspect of the American culture. The people who are obsessed with fear wanted Vietnam War, and they also want to control the culture. Unfortunately, our pop culture is filled with so much social engineering manipulation from those people. The TV romance is often not real. The content of the TV shows is used to influence our mind so we do not care about what is really happen. However, there is still hope, since there is the root of the optimism in the original American culture.

This paper is comparing and contrasting Hard-Headed Realism in American popular culture with Comedy Romance, and Classic Duos that also predominate in American popular culture.