Popular Culture Review Vol. 8, No. 2, August 1997 | Page 62

58 _Pogular_^uUureRe|j^^ 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.