Indiana Jones: A Modern American Hero

During the late 1970’s a time of national trouble that stemmed from the Vietnam War, the American-Iranian Hostage crisis and domestic economically strife, undermined long-held American cultural principles embodied in heroines such as “superman” as a representation of masculinity, America as the “good guys” and the American Dream. As a result these Idealistic dreams of were torn out of American hearts and replaced by more practical, logical “modern” principles reflected in the 1980’s which embraced the modern principles of materialism, consumerism, blockbuster movies and cable TV as an essential part of contemporary American culture. This era of change with heroines being replaced by their logical, “modern” counterparts, anti-heroes as relatable characters that appeal to the American economical dissention while keeping in toe with the principles of the American Dream.
Indiana Jones, “part-time” renowned archeologist during the day and a treasure hunter at night. Indiana Jones duality represents underlining the inner struggle within a person to become a hero yet remain existent in the social norms, while maintaining characteristic of modern American social ideals such as stereotypes and identifying American as the “good guy”. While Indiana Jones is shaped around the “anti-hero” ideal that has become prominent in modern American culture, it sustains the early change found in the era of the modern anti-hero while maintaining some of the foundational American elements exhibited in heroes of the