Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

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Rachel Bourne March 26, 2012 Seven Brides for Seven Brothers A musical comedy is a light play or movie with songs, dialogue, and dancing and is connected by a plot. In this type of play there are strong female and heroic male characters. In Seven Brides and Seven Brothers, a type of musical comedy, it is very easy to recognize the positivity and characteristics of the American characters. Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier hypothesis clearly states that the origin of the American character has been the American frontier experience. The frontier is often thought of as a place where people can go to remake themselves because of its supreme ability to change people. The frontier in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is the mountain. However, civilization ends this frontier because it introduces structure, religious practices, and law and order. When Milly marries Adam and comes into the mountains with him and his family, she brings civilization along with her. Milly is determined to teach the seven brothers manners and exactly how a proper society functions. When she takes them into the town they are also greatly affected by all of the women they dance with and eventually marry. For example, during the dance scene, the two groups of men represent city versus urban, or civilized versus free style. Even though the style of the Pontipee brothers is very laid back and unstructured, they still manage to work together to perform extraordinarily well. Adam can be classified as the “wild card” American character because he has many examples throughout the course of this film where he does not act as a true American at all but he manages to redeem himself in the end. He never once admits to civilization, being in love with Milly, or that Milly can actually change his brothers. Even after Gideon comes to visit him after the birth of his daughter, Hannah, Adam refuses

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