Time Magazine Assignment

For this assignment, you can view the covers at:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/archives

As presented in our book The Presence of Others

Photo Essay:
American Myths and Images—from the Covers of Time

Recent events such as 9/11 and American interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq have led to wide-ranging reassessments of the role played by the United States on the world stage. Just as people from other nations have raised tough questions about the motives and ambitions of the world’s only military superpower, Americans themselves have taken a new interest in their national values and symbols. In this photo essay, we focus on some core American beliefs, attitudes, and myths to encourage just such an examination.
Each of the following images is a full cover from Time, a major news magazine published weekly in the United States since 1923. To make the cover of Time means something in American culture. Who or what appears within the famous red borders is often revealing of the national character.

Hollywood Dreams: Marilyn Monroe, May 14, 1956
The celluloid dreams sold by Hollywood’s filmmakers have reached around the world showcasing glamour, excitement, wealth, and violence.

(Look at Marilyn’s cover.)

1. How well does the Marilyn Monroe on this Time cover match your own image of the star? How is Marilyn understood today?
2. What five Hollywood films would you select as most representative of American values, myths, or both?
3. How does Hollywood shape attitudes toward women and/or sexuality?

Land of Equality: Martin Luther King Jr., February 18, 1957
While Martin Luther King Jr. symbolizes the American ideal of equality for all, the Montgomery buss boycott and many of his later campaigns helped reveal the flip side of that ideal, inequality.

(Look at the cover.)

1. What do the different parts of this image (the central figure of King, the people and buses in the lower left, the African American man at the bar in the upper right) say about different aspects of America as the land of equality?
2. How does the use of color in this image work to reinforce values of equality?
3. What other images come to your mind when you think of the American goal of equality? Which of these is most positive? Which is the most negative?



American Frontiers: Man on the Moon, July 25, 1969
Frontiers have always driven Americans, from the time of the first contact (and ultimate devastation) of the Native Americans to the building of the railroad across the country, and more recently to the far reaches of space and the ocean.

(Look at the cover)

1. How does this image of Neil Armstrong planting the American flag on the moon accord with other images you have of American frontiers? Make a brief list of songs (or films) that either celebrate or critique American frontier-seeking.
2. In addition to frontier-seeking, what other values does this Time cover represent?
3. How might this cover have been read by those living in other countries or cultures in 1969? What would this image have suggested to them about America and frontiers?

Rugged Individualism: John Wayne, August 8 1969
Many Americans prefer to think of themselves as people capable of making it on their own, tough as pioneers.

(Look at the cover)

1. List the elements of the sculpture that mark John Wayne as a figure of myth, larger than life.
2. How might cowboy images of this sort be read into the American character by people from other cultures or countries?
3. Speculate on the reasons Time might have chosen to show Wayne in a sculpture representing his role in True Grit (1969) rather than in a still from the movie itself?

Rebels: Protest! May 18, 1970
The United States began in revolutionary protest against an established order, and Americans today still celebrate the rebel who sees the world differently.

(Look at the cover.)

1. In a group, consider why protests so often involve college students. What subjects inspire protest today?
2. What messages does the Time cover convey, with its stark juxtaposition of a protestor and the White House? Study the visual elements carefully, and then research the history behind the cover. What was happening in May 1970?
3. Many iconic American rebels seem to be charismatic loners. Is there a contradiction in role between the rebel and the protestor?

Lady Liberty: Hail, Liberty! July 14, 1986
“Give me your tired, your poor,” words inscribed on the plaque at the base of Lady Liberty, have held out the ideal of liberty since the statue was given by France in celebration of the first U.S. centennial.

(Look at the cover.)

1. Why do you think Time may have decided to feature the Statue of Liberty on its cover for July 14, 1986—over a week after the July 4 “birthday”?
2. What other icons represent liberty to you? List as many as you can, and then compare them for the ways in which they represent differing ideals.
3. What do the fireworks add to this image? Do they in any way comment on the ideals usually attributed to the Statue of Liberty?

Rags To Riches: Napster’s Shawn Fanning, October 2, 2000
When nineteen-year-old Shawn Fanning hit the jackpot with Napster, it seemed as if the myth of “little guy (or gal) makes good” was true.

(Look at cover.)

1. How does Time’s representation of Fanning (the baseball cap, the headphones, the T-shirt, and so on) work to call up the “little guy makes good” myth?
2. Make a list of novels or films that have pursued this particular American myth. Which of your examples paints a rosy picture of the rags-to-riches myth and which ones present a darker view?
3. As you probably know, Napster started a war with the music industry over copyright protection, and that war is still raging. What is your opinion on this issue? In what ways might the “little guy makes good” myth, in general, raise questions of ethics?

Technology As Progress: Secrets of the New Matris, May 12, 2003
Science and technology promise Americans and the world affluence and progress though sometimes at a price.

(Look at the cover.)

1. In what ways does The Matrix trilogy parody or debunk contemporary faith in progress? In what ways does American culture depend on this faith?
2. Identify some films that express a range of contrary attitudes toward science and technology? Consider examining films (and TV shows) from particular eras or decades.
3. Besides a faith in technology, what other American myths are embodied in this cover?