Barnum's Role in the Discriminatory Culture of the 19th Century - Assignment Example

Question: What was Barnums role in the discriminatory culture of the 19th century? Was he exploiting and profiting off the marginalized, and thus marginalizing them further, or rather offering them opportunities to thrive financially and challenge social expectations? Phineas T. Barnum was a showman and he gave the 19th Century cultures something to look forward to in his various exhibits. Although some people think that he was a con-man, he was a very intelligent man who knew how to entertain the masses. His role was to entertain, and to help people think about something other than what was going on economically and socially during his time. Barnum was a business man at heart and he wanted to find a way to do exhibitions instead of working in the stagnant position of a grocery store. He was tired of dead end jobs and wanted something more substantial (p. 3). The people in the United States were already used to seeing exhibits and these exhibits were part of pop culture. Barnum just saw an opportunity and he went with it. Everyone loves a good story and this is one of the reasons why Barnum was so successful. As an example, the Joice Heth exhibit was a very old woman that Barnum built a story around. He gave the public an understanding of this exhibit before he actually showed it and people became so curious about the exhibit that they had to go and see it. He took over the exhibit from some other people who were selling it; Barnum saw this as his opportunity and looked for ways to market her. Capitalizing on the "fact" that she was 161 years old and a slave of George Washington, (p. 6) Barnum was able to create a mystery around her and make people want to see her. Barnum was also smart because he changed Heths story for each of the towns he visited. He elaborated the story where necessary and he seemed to be able to "read" the crowd. This may have meant that he did research ahead of time on the area (maybe through newspapers) and then went into the town and gave the presentation. Although newspapers criticized him, he kept going. As an example of his genius, when he booked the Heth exhibit, it was at a time when Manhattan, and particularly Broadway was going through a "massive expansion of commercial entertainment" (p. 3). This allowed Barnum to easily fall into American pop culture and find a place that would last him for many years. People were already used to seeing "artful deceptions" and Barnum just created more of them. Besides his exhibits, Barnum developed a pseudonym to write -- Barnaby Diddleum and wrote what the author calls, "an outrageous satire of his behavior with the Heth exhibit. It was called, The Adventures of an Adventurer, Being Some Passages in the Life of Barnaby Diddleum. This was particularly important because he used this method to create written tricks (p. 99). Barnum used his literary voice to talk sarcastically about many issues; he even used it to "prove" the authenticity of the Feejee Mermaid (p. 100). This action showed that as a social writer, he was still able to entertain people. Barnum was a master of illusion and he understood what people wanted to see. He understood how to work with people and how to work crowds as well as how to keep people interested. Since the beginning of time people have loved to be tricked and during Barnums time it seemed that they loved it even more. The author points out that artful deception has always "excited, dazzled, teased, and even angered the crowd" (p. 12). Barnum fit right into this background and he fit into the position of being able to show create these artful deceptions easily. Entertainment like slight of hand, magic, and spectacular events were common during this time. Many people criticized Barnum by saying that he was out to cheat the public but in this writers opinion, he was just very successful at doing something that others had started. He was able to create great advertising for each of his "products" to make people curious enough to come to the exhibit. People were looking for the spectacular and Barnum provided his exhibits to help people take their minds off of what was going on in the world around them. One of the most controversial exhibits he created was the Feejee Mermaid. The author points out that Barnum had an "enormous skill" for "scripting his promotions according to the egalitarian ideals and rhetorics of the 1830s and 1840s" (p. 76). This was one of his strengths and why he was so good at entertaining. Barnums exhibits fit well in the current times because speculation was everywhere in what the author calls the "brave new economic world" (p. 78). The Feejee Mermaid would become the most talked about exhibit of Barnums American Museum because people debated whether it was real or a hoax. In reality this was an exhibit that was half fish and half monkey (p. 80) that Barnum had created. Barnum also created this exhibit at a time when "sea serpent" sightings were high (p. 106). The author points out that Barnums Mermaid actually had a very strong social meaning. Many people thought it was immoral for such an exhibit to exist. Others thought it was a hoax that was taking their money, but no one seemed to be able to prove that it was not real. The controversy became very heated once Barnum took the exhibit to Charleston, South Carolina where a minister was so taken aback by the absurdity of the exhibit, he wanted naturalists to look at it to prove the authenticity -- or not (p. 108). As the times changed and people were more concerned about temperance Barnum changed his exhibits. These new ones were to show "moral and reformatory entertainments" (p. 117) and Barnum created rules about "drinking, gambling, and prostitution" in his American Museum (p. 117). These changes kept Barnum up to date with the times and kept him from going bankrupt. It is clear that Barnum was a trickster of a sorts but he was involved in entertainment. He was one of the worlds first successful entrepreneurs because he understood how to market his products. One very important aspect of Barnums work was that he was able to create this exhibit so that people would talk about it and wonder what it really was; this created even more publicity for him. Read More