摘 要

美国个人主义作为美国的文化核心和主流价值观，在美国大众心理、社会生活甚至政治经济等领域都起着主导作用。个人主义作为一种显著的民族性格，在美国文化的各个方面都可以找到个人主义的痕迹。而集商业和文化两种属性于一身的好莱坞电影，充分体现了美国文化，特别是美国个人主义的不同的表现形式。

本论文在前人的研究成果基础上，先追溯个人主义的起源及美国个人主义的历史发展，然后阐述电影的文化属性，指出好莱坞电影是美国个人主义表达的载体。文章将结合美国个人主义的四种表现形式（自由平等、自我奋斗、拓荒精神以及个人英雄主义）以及经典好莱坞电影和现阶段的好莱坞电影，运用例证分析法，全面地阐述美国个人主义是如何在好莱坞电影中得以体现的。本研究的意义在于，通过分析好莱坞电影中美国个人主义的不同表现形式，帮助人们进一步了解和认识美国的核心价值观，更好地欣赏好莱坞电影。

关键词：美国； 个人主义； 好莱坞电影

Contents

Acknowledgements...................................................................................................................i

Abstract.....................................................................................................................................ii

摘要 iii

Contents iv

1. Introduction 1

2. Demonstration 2

2.1 American individualism 2

2.1.1 American Values 3

2.1.2 Individualism 4

2.1.3 American individualism 5

2.2 Hollywood movies 8

2.2.1 The dual attributes of movies 8

2.2.2 Hollywood movies and their ideological functions 9

2.3 American individualism embodied in movies 10

2.3.1 American individualism in the form of liberty and equality 10

2.3.2 American individualism in the form of self-reliance 12

2.3.3 American individualism in the form of pioneering spirits 15

2.3.4 American individualism in the form of Individual Heroism 16

3. Conclusion 19

Notes 20

Works Cited 21

Bibliography 22

A Study of American Individualism Embodied in Hollywood Movies

Introduction

In The American Mind, Nanmu (1988) writes: ‘Individualism is eventually synonymous with Americanism’, which suggests that American individualism is the core of American culture and value. American individualism plays a leading role in areas like public psychology, social life or even politics and economy. And as a significant national character, American individualism can be seen everywhere in American society. Hollywood movies, which are often the carriers of the ideas widely accepted by the public and rooted in the American history, can fully embody American values, especially the different forms of American individualism.

With the popularity of Hollywood movies, culture values embedded in Hollywood movies increasingly attract scholars’ attentions. For instance, after doing a culture interpretation of the movie Forrest Gump, Li Guoqing (2007) finds that culture values refracted from social development are in accordance with the middle class sense of cultural identity. Based on some movie texts and historical materials, Su Xingsha (2016) explains the function of Hollywood movies in shaping and spreading American values, and summarizes the successful experiences for Chinese film industry to use for reference.

Although there have had a lot of studies on American individualism, which include its history origins, its changes in meanings, its functions and its different expressing forms etc., most of the experts analyze them from the perspective of United States historical stage, or analyze a single Hollywood case to make a conclusion. For example, based on the United States history advancements, Fu Tingting (2006) makes comparisons of the different forms of American individualism in her doctor paper, from four historical stages: American colony and founding time, westward movement time, industrialization time and the great depression time. And she makes a conclusion that American individualism takes many forms which focus on different points at different time. However, movies in one history stage, or even one Hollywood case can show various forms of American individualism. For example, Chen Dan (2011) extracts three concepts from American individualism by analyzing the movie The Shawshank Redemption.

Based on the studies of predecessors, this paper offers a profound understanding of American individualism by tracing down its origins and dividing American individualism in four forms: liberty and equality, self-reliance, pioneering spirits and individual heroism. In addition, this paper analyzes the cultural attributes of Hollywood movies and points out that Hollywood movies are carriers for presenting American individualism. Based on exemplification, this paper explores how American individualism is embodied in Hollywood movies, which may help people to understand American core value further and thus enjoy Hollywood movies better.

Demonstration

This part will explain the concept of American individualism and the dual attributes of Hollywood movies to the embodiment of American individualism. The focus of this part is to analyze the four forms of American individualism embodied in Hollywood movies with examples.

2.1 American individualism

In American society, people advocate liberty and equality. They respect personal hard work because American history is established by thousands of individual efforts and heroic struggles. They believe that strong-willed person with strong desire for their goals will make dream come true. This kind of philosophy and values turned to be the backbone of Americans.

2.1.1 American Values

According to New Oxford English–Chinese Dictionary (2003), values are a person’s principles or standards of behavior; one’s judgment of what is important in life. As time goes by, a number of sociologists who study American society have expressed their opinions on American value by defining it. Robin Williams and Arthur Albert, American outstanding sociologists of the 20^thcentury, made a widely accepted concept of American value, which puts emphasis on the following items:

⑴. Freedom

⑵. Democracy

⑶. Equality