Extra Credit: John Gasts painted American Progress in 1872 portraying the idea of manifest destiny. In American progress it’s kind of like the opposite, the light is coming from where they are leaving, but there is an angel that is leading them in the right direction. When there is an angel around and especially when the angel is leading you in a direction it is meant to be like destiny what you're supposed to do. By using the light and an angel as symbols in the paintings it shows that Americans were meant to go West, it was their destiny.
they reflect Manifest Destiny as a godly movement. By showing an angel Gast really makes his thoughts clear. Angel’s obviously symbolize when something is heavenly or godly.Angel symbolizes a viewers point.Likewise, Gast shows an angel, a symbol of pureness and heaven, guiding the frontiersmen in “American Progress” because he is illustrating pretty openly his viewpoint that expansion is literally “ordained by God
In the painting American Progress By Gast, the Angel lights up the darkened continent.
But if you notice in the dark that the Native Americans and the buffalos are running into the darkness, as if they are afraid of the easterners. So Gast might not fully agree with the western movement, but in his painting there are more symbols supporting westernization then bad. The angel in the picture supports the idea that god wants people to travel west. And also in the angels hand is a book, which is aslo another symbol that might have come from god. This supports the idea that god want people to westernize the west. If you also notice in her hand she carries wire, which is a symbol of connection. The wire is the idea of bringing together or connecting the nation.The Railroads can be represendted as a metaphore which representing the driving force in technology.But the angel representy the idea of americas expansion, and the displacement of indian tribes and buffalos.
American Progress by John Gast shows that he believed in Manifest Destiny. The darkness of the sky in the west shows that things are in need of help. Migraters are following an angel, which reprensents the divineness of their mission. In the background there are trains and boats...it even looks as though the angel is carrying a telephone pole, which represents how civilized and/or advanced the American people believed they were. The migrators and animals who are following the angel look eager to go into the darkness, they believe that it is God's calling for them to bring God's light into the darkness. 