A Man's Right to Land- An Academic Review of "Far and Away"

 

A Man’s Right to Land

At first glance, one does not immediately identify Ron Howard’s film “Far and Away” (a tale of an Irish immigrant’s hilarious and sometimes heart wrenching journey into American culture in the late 1800’s) as a significant cornerstone of American agriculture in film. In fact, many still remember the film only for Tom Cruise’s shirtless boxing matches when it should be renowned for its accurate depiction of the effect this time period had on America’s Agricultural industry. Despite the story’s origins beginning in rural Ireland and having a very distracting Tom Cruise as its main character, “Far and Away” creates an almost exact parallel to the historical impacts the “American Dream” had on American agriculture, which includes; ideology of Manifest Destiny with its cultural impacts, the surge in the agricultural working force made up of immigrants, and The Great Oklahoma Land Race of 1893.

The story’s main character, a hard working Irish potato farmer named Joseph Donnelly, fell victim to (as many Irishman did at the time) his landlord’s greed after a couple of failed seasons, which led to the death of his father. While on his death bed, Joseph’s father implanted a thought in his son’s mind that would later spawn into Joseph’s own contribution towards the Manifest Destiny movement in America. Frederick Merk, professor emeritus of American history at Harvard University compares Manifest Destiny to a Mission, and as Alexander DeConde writes in his review of Merk’s writings, he says, “This ideal of Mission, meaning that America was the light of liberty for Europe, indeed for the world, was meant as a divine growth both culturally and economically for the benefit of the nation.” (DeConde) Joseph saw this light in the final moments of his father’s life, and instilled in him this inspiring thought; “Without land, man is nothing.” This saying inspired Joseph to leave Ireland and go to America, seeking the American dream, which also inspired many others to seek out their own land and destiny in America, to farm and begin a new life.

While entering America, Joseph, along-side thousands of other Irish men and women, were quickly lost in translation and taken advantage of. What seemed like a very obtainable dream quickly became a nearly insurmountable challenge. “Nearly 12 million immigrants arrived in the United States between 1870 and 1900, the vast majority of these people were from Germany, Ireland, and England.” (Immigration to the United States, 1851-1900) Many of these people had to sell what little posessions they had simply to make the trip across the Atlantic, leaving them with nothing upon their arrival to the states. Jobs were plentiful at the time, however, the conditions of factories (where most immigrants worked during this time) were the worst the states had seen in the nation’s brief history. Wages were low and working conditions were dangerous. While most immigrants worked in factories in the city, others worked in more rural parts of the nation farming in the mid-west. In search of land of their own, many immigrants were in no better condition working for land owners in the states than they were in their home land working for landlords. Thousands of Irish Immigrants alone entered the U.S. and worked in agricultural areas:

 

“The figures for this period show a dramatic increase in Irish people arriving in the United States and working in agriculture: 92,484 in 1846, 196,224 in 1847, 173,744 in 1848, 204,771 in 1849, and 206,041 in 1850. By the end of 1854 nearly two million people - about a quarter of the population - had emigrated to the United States in ten years” (Simkin).

 

With this fantastic influx of workers and the continuation of American expansion in the west, there was also an increased population of farmers in the nation as well. Joseph worked in factories as well as building railroads, saving money enough for his own land and continuing his father’s divine inspiration for him to seek out his own land.

            After saving enough money, Joseph traveled west to Oklahoma. Thousands of covered wagons gathered in the territory, waiting for the embargo to lift off the territory where the American government would give away the land for free. The sound of a military bugle would begin the largest land rush in American History:

 

“At the time fixed, thousands of hungry home-seekers, who had gathered from all parts of the country, and particularly from Kansas and Missouri, were arranged in line along the border, ready to lash their horses into furious speed in the race for fertile spots in the beautiful land before them” (Howard 1).

 

Joseph was, in the end, able to obtain the land he needed with the 100 square acreage plots predetermined by the government. He was able to fulfill his and his father’s wishes and began his life farming in America.

            While Ron Howard’s depiction of these historic events were by no means perfect, he did illustrate in “Far and Away” the paramount impact immigration had on American culture and agriculture. He also illustrated the reasons why immigrants came to America to escape their landlords in their homelands and to obtain land to for their own, also depicting in the expansion of the states for the purpose of farming in the Oklahoma territory. In conclusion, while most people watch “Far and Away” for its entertaining value, it also educates its viewers with history as rich as the soil this great nation was built upon.

 

 

Works Cited

DeConde, Alexander. "Manifest Destiny and Mission in American History: A Reinterpretation." Indiana Magazine of History. Indiana University, 2015. Web. 13 Mar. 2016.

Howard, William Willard. "The Rush to Oklahoma." Urban Planning. Cornell Library. Web. 13 Mar. 2016.

N.a. "Immigration to the United States - American Memory Timeline- Classroom Presentation | Teacher Resources - Library of Congress." Rise of Industrial America, 1851-1900. Library of Congress. Web. 13 Mar. 2016.

Simkin, John. "Immigration 1800-1900." Spartacus Educational. Spartacus Education Publishers. Web. 13 Mar. 2016.