American Character - Then and NowA notion that is still strong today, Fredrick Jackson Turner's idea of ​​the American character was based on essays and experiments . Unlike Crevecour, Turner believed that the American character was not simply the product of the English character transported to America, but rather another idea entirely (Faragher 63). He expressed this view best when he said, “In the crucible of the frontier, immigrants were Americanized, liberated, and coalesced into a mixed race, English neither in nationality nor in characteristics” (Faragher 64). How exactly was the American character formed and what defines it? Turner answered this question with Turner's thesis, using the concept of the pioneer and the immigrants who followed him to explain the western frontier and its expansion (Faragher 70). The following paragraphs will help describe how the American character has manifested itself in today's society by incorporating the ideas of Frederick Jackson Turner, Charles Wilson Peale, and the heroes depicted in different forms of entertainment during the rise and of the fall of the western frontier. In Rereading America's "The Meaning of the Frontier in American History," the ideas of an author of A New Guide for Immigrants (Mid-American Frontier) named Peck were used to further emphasize the importance of Turner's thesis in our world today (Peck 42). In his book, Peck identified three different stages or waves of Western civilization. The first stage is in some ways the embodiment of what is now recognized as the American character: the pioneer or farmer (Peck 43). He was a man who supported his family by depending on vegetation and hunting. He did not care whether the land he temporarily occupied belonged to him or not. When the area became too civilized, the pioneer set out to make new discoveries and left his land and home for the new wave of immigrants. Thus, we introduce the second stage of Western civilization. These immigrants purchased the pioneer lands and created a way of life described as frugal and simple, consisting of schools and mills (Peck 44). The third and final stage, called "the men of capital and enterprise", is where the small villages created by immigrants became...... middle of paper ......obstacle (in this case, the rocky hill), and we will stop at nothing to meet this challenge. This advertisement also shows the toughness and rugged individuality of the American character seen on the Western frontier. By transforming “…50 miles of the most resilient land on the planet into a benchmark”, the advertisement presents the American as being capable of anything. The Jeep itself is an important product in its own right, providing a feeling of power and sport in the open air, this is also seen in SUVs like the HummerH2: big and bad. (Cosmopolitan, 297) Whether it is an advertisement, an educational program, or a job interview, the air of the American character still resonates throughout America today. This may not be seen in the struggle to provide for one's family in today's society, but rather in the struggle of past immigrants who help give America an identity. Ultimately, the American character is not just one aspect of life, particularly the first Western frontier, but it is made up of many waves of that Western frontier, which ironically resulted in its demise. Thus, the closing of the Western border opened a new chapter in American life, the American character and the dream..