Coney Island The New American Culture Analysis

As time and different ethnic groups pass by, America is transforming and shaping their definition of American culture. So far, America went through the change of becoming more urban and industrial. With society that’s focused on industries, leisure and fun was a rare thing to think about. Soon enough, Coney Island emerges to serve as an escapade from the strict genteel order. Kasson argues the fact that Coney Island was more than an amusement park, it was known as the visualization of the new American culture, straying away from the Victorian Genteel order, at the turn of the century. Of course, “the popular resort quickly became a symbol not only of fun and frolic but also of major changes in American manners and morals.” (13) As Coney Island becomes more popular with “strikingly heterogenous and diverse population with a variety of culture and subcultures” (8) it was a good mechanism “to provide cultural leadership for an urban-industrial society; to present a model of social order, cohesions, and tranquility for a fractious people.” (14) As Coney Island was becoming more popular and entertaining as the population grew, and “the genteel middle-class cultural order crumbled” (10) and in came the less modest and more free minded individual. Although many of the older people stayed with their genteel way of thinking, the new
It was a business that could bring in anyone and come together in enjoyment and leisure, he also “measured the cost not only in the most obvious “social failures”: the swelling ranks of criminals and prostitutes, of the alcoholic, insane, diseased, and the poor” (14). Being able to relax and escape from routine life is great to anyone, and transforming from a strict Victorian order to being able to express oneself more clearly because they are able to escape somewhere such as Coney Island and stimulate their mind other than school and