Popular Culture Review Vol. 8, No. 2, August 1997 | Page 62
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slow-motion sequence. The remainder of the film focuses on his return
to the United States and his personal struggle with his role in the
war.
Value Systems of the American Public
An analysis of Born on the Fourth of July will illuminate the
narrative strategies which depict an example of the changing social
value structure of anti-war veterans. The social value model of
analysis developed by Rushing and Frentz provides the framework to
examine societal values: beginning with the symbolic conflict
between competing values which leads to value re-orientation, and
how film involves the audience in this value re-orientation.
Rushing and Frentz argue that the fundamental values which
guide society exist in "a fragile pattern of dialectical opposition--a
state of tension."^^ The delicate balance between two sets of values
normally remains stable until society faces a serious challenge to the
reigning belief system. When the prevailing myth or value cluster
fails to solve a social problem within a culture, a re-orientation of
values is inevitable. The situation facing Americans during the
Vietnam war presented just such a conflict. Americans widely
believed in the superiority of democracy over communism. However,
they were less sure about the U.S. role in forcing American-style
democracy on other nations.
Rushing and Frentz describe two types of value re-orientation
which occur due to these symbolic conflicts.^^ a dialectical
transformation may occur, which replaces one set of values with
another. Transformation is marked by competition between systems,
one of which ultimately wins out over the other. Although one
system is dominant in this type of change, the value system which
has been replaced remains in the background, ready to re-surface. A
second, less conunon alternative is the integration of new values into
the currently held set of values, known as dialectical synthesis.
Synthesis is a more complex process, which requires the individuals
or groups to preserve all elements of the existing value system.
Rather than privileging one value system over another, the values
are merged to form a new value system. By preserving the essential
elements of each system, neither value system is reject^ , thus, there
are no "losers" in dialectical synthesis.