Allegory In The Town Of Dogville

Von Trier presents the town of Dogville in a crummy, campy yet eye opening setting giving the sense of something bigger than itself. Despite being located in the Rocky Mountains near
Georgetown, Dogville could be anywhere in the United States, but is a place defined by the gold rush of barely a couple years before, in the timeline of the film, and is a strong allegory to the state of the United States at the time of the films conception. The issues with the United States are apparent in the hypocritical scenes that Von Trier definetly picks apart and reveals the extremely political views of a country Von Trier has never even been to. And these views essentially cover the three basic points of political Enlightenment: Equality, Fraternity
Grace's freedom is first restricted, but eventually is gone all together until she is nothing more than an sexual slave to the men and women of dogville, In this way the moral code of Fraternity, based in democracy used in the united states and around the modern world, can seem flawed when compared to the actions of the participating citizens of the town of dogville. The ideals of the perfect community takes on a very obvious and appropriate American tone here, and these ideals are related to the political writings of John Locke, whose basic thoughts on the matters of government were that communities were only important and properly functioning if property owning men came together to protect their individual interests as a self-serving group, that must accept that in order to function something must be given up, in Graces case she gave up her freedom for the betterment of the community. As such the purpose of grace was solely for the enjoyment of the
Hodge 3 town folk of dogville; the only legitimate political power in dogville were the men who used grace the most to serve this end, using their democratic system to decide who gets her next.
What at first seems to be the workings of a well-oiled democratic machine in the town is actually nothing more than the ruse of a community that praises an individual’s rights, if that individual character is in a position of strength amongst the community like Tom. “In
Dogville's situation, this only relates to the people who were born and raised there; everyone else is an outsider and therefore powerless” (skemster). This can also be radially seen in western countries like the United States of America where immigration is a big concern to many. Illegal alien workers are put up with for the most part as long as they keep under the radar and preform the jobs and tasks most Americans don't want to do, for example how grace is used to do all the tasks the people of dogville no longer want to do themselves. The film dogville has a majorly skewed view of America's view on liberty and natural rights. The view around the world compared to America accepts the fact that one’s individual liberty is only a small part of the political world that holds a country together, that one’s personal liberty cannot be held over the wellbeing of the country as a whole. But to Americans this is un-acceptable in most cases, we