Chasing the dawn's early light: manifest destiny and American identity from Rabbit, Run to Westworld

This thesis applies a manifest destiny reading to American literature, film, and television. Since its inception in 1845, the ideology of manifest destiny has influenced notions of American national identity, exceptionalism, desire, and frontier expansionism in the United States. The methodological foundation of this thesis is built upon the literary origins of manifest destiny, examining it as a powerful political, cultural, religious, and mythic ideology. The study also employs Frederick Jackson Turner’s thesis on the significance of the frontier in American history, and the work of Zygmunt Bauman and Charles Taylor on modern identity. 

Tracing the presence of manifest destiny through a range of modern and contemporary American narratives, this thesis argues that, historically, manifest destiny has operated as what Bauman and Taylor call a social frame or framework. This framework is a sociocultural lens through which American people understand both the world and their individual identity. According to both Bauman and Taylor, the loss of a framework usually prompts individuals to experience a crisis of identity. Consequently, this thesis examines how manifest destiny impacts depictions of American individual and national identity across various narratives. It contends that, due to the expiration of the frontier, manifest destiny ceases to operate as a framework that can properly deliver upon promises of national and individual identity, purpose, and meaning. Accordingly, it argues that when manifest destiny emerges in modern and contemporary narratives, characters in these texts are frequently depicted as individuals undergoing a crisis of identity in alignment with Bauman’s and Taylor’s theories. Such a crisis is particularly characterised by a fluidity of identity. Finally, it is argued that these characters navigate modern landscapes that are continually reminiscent of the old frontier environment. These landscapes, be they American urban or rural areas, foreign war zones, or even virtual spaces, serve to recreate notions of promise, progress, freedom, and even violence that were often associated with the American frontier.