Significance of the Frontier

Significance of the Frontier

Within “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” Frederick Jackson Turner says that "intellectual traits of profound importance" came from the conditions of frontier life. These traits assisted in the survival of the frontiersmen on the newly found frontier. Novels have assisted readers in seeing these traits from the views of Laura Ingalls Wilder's, Little House on the Prairie, and Michael Gold's, Jews Without Money. These two novels portray frontier life on the prairie and within the big city. The struggles the main characters in the novels must overcome are key to their survival which make their frontiers so great.

Turner's idea of a frontier is just as it is defined. A frontier is an area that has not been explored or exploited. Turner's thesis explains that exploring the frontiers gives Americans the rights to independence, self-confidence, individualism, and adaptation. Each of these new found rights allowed Americans to explore their inner self and territories that have not been discovered. Independence from cities, and governments gave people the idea that they should pack up and move away to an area where they could live off the land, and establish and new homestead for the family. This self-confidence that settlers had, led their lives to work out for them. Settlers felt that leaving their family, friends, and personal belongings behind would turn out to be a great decision in adapting to a new lifestyle where the father could rebuild, and provide for the family, while the mother cooked, took care of the house, and taught the children basic skills. A certain situation where this is seen, is when Pa Ingalls, from Little House on the Prairie, picks up all of the family's belongings, sells the house in Wisconsin, and moves the family to Kansas. The family is one of the only families in the area which gives the Ingalls their sense of individualism. The individualism they have is that they are there for their own...