The American flag is one of the biggest cultural artifacts ever created in the United States. Thirteen red and white stripes along with fifty white stars on a blue field, to represent independence and history. However, there are numerous other symbols represented by the American flag that may not be instantaneously noticed. Many historic moments with the American flag have been photographed. Within these photos the American flag represents cultural and social values that can be depicted in several ways.
America’s flag has developed both visibly and symbolically over the past hundreds of years. The flag literally represents the history of America itself. Many songs, holidays, artworks, and literature pieces have been created based off of the American flag. The flag is intended to represent the American people and their values.
Physical context is one of the components that the American flag contains. There are thirteen stripes to represent the original thirteen colonies and each star represents a state. There are three colors on the American flag; red, white, and blue. The white stars and stripes represent cleanliness and innocence. The red stripes symbolize courage and bravery. The third color, blue, represents justice and dedication (PBS news). Furthermore, the colors of the flag symbolize American values.
A couple symbols that the American flag represents is pride and dignity. Most Americans value bravery and honor our soldiers for going into battle. For every war victory, as seen in the image of the men raising the flag at Iwo Jima, the soldiers raise the American flag to show a sign of honor. Even in a time of crisis, as seen in the image of the men raising the flag at Ground Zero, New York after 9/11, our people still raise the flag with honor, showing Americans will always move forward with determination. Furthermore, in both images the soldiers are physically raising the flag and its not already put up. This shows that whether it be a victory or a time of crisis, American soldiers are willing to put in the work of raising their national flag with dignity and to represent a sense of hope for the future. Again, this shows how Americans socially use their flag to represent pride and justice. This is one phenomenal conception because it shows how strongly the American flag impacts our culture. Although everyone shares different beliefs and opinions, one thing that makes everyone alike is that they’re American. Therefore, one certainly good element of the American flag is that it brings our nation together as a whole, which makes the nation stronger and more powerful.
However, when one really digs below the surface for the meaning of the American flag and how it impacts our culture they find a much more complex answer. The social context represented by the American flag is much more complicated than the physical context. This is because as the American flag evolved physically, America evolved socially as well. At the beginning of it’s time the American flag did a much better job at representing American people as a whole because there were fewer people, therefore everyone had much more in common. It once was socially defined specifically with independence and the pursuit of happiness, as seen in the Iwo Jima and Ground Zero image. However, as the years have gone by, the American flag is now socially associated with different meanings.
As represented by the third image with the commentary written on the front of it, some people believe that what the American flag originally represented is no longer the case. As seen in the image, the flag is being held by hands and not held up upon a flag pole. This goes to show that some people don’t take the traditions of the U.S. flag seriously anymore. Rather, they now view it as a symbol of corporate greed with a government that no longer represents the majority, but instead a select few. In their article “Culture”, Nealon and Giroux wrote, “it seems that there is no coherent cultural context that will include “everyone”” (pg. 57). Furthermore, many citizens now say that our society has become the have and the have nots. Some people feel that the modern government represents the haves and not the have nots. Therefore, this is why this image so boldly presents the fact that the American flag no longer represents the values and freedoms that it was founded on. Many people would argue that this photo is extremely disrespectful. This is because people strongly value the American flag and think it’s tremendously deviant to use the American flag when critiquing social norms.
Overall, the cultural meaning of the American flag has changed remarkably over the past hundreds of years. While the physical context changed so did the social context with it. The flag was originally intended to symbolize life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. However, numerous Americans argue that this is no longer the case and that instead the American flag represents big corporations rather than the culture as a whole.
Bibliography:
Nealson, Jeffery and Giroux, Susan. “Culture.” The Theory Toolbox: Critical Concepts for the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences Rowman & Littlefield publishers. Second edition (2012): pg. 56. Print.
“The History of the American Flag.” PBS, http://www.pbs.org/a-capitol-fourth/history/old-glory/.