Coney Island Symbolism

Coney Island, now often unnoticed by the public, was not only created for amusement but to make a major social change that had recently occurred easier. The famous amusement parks heyday coincided with a critical period in American History, when the nation came of age as an urban-industrial society. This new age came with major cultural, economic, and social changes that its citizens were having a hard time adjusting. Genteel reformers decided to attempt to control the growing population to spend leisure time in a way that reinforces these concepts of social order and public conduct in order for them to adjust better to the changing society. Although the public did gather to Coney Island, it was more of a way for people to escape the …show more content…
Originally designed like the others, to control behavior and social order, became a place people went to escape the genteel elite institutions and everyday life in general. “Carnivals and other seasonal feasts and festivals,” Kasson informs, “have served in a number of pre-industrial cultures as occasions in which customary roles are reversed, hierarchies overturned, and penalties suspended… By creating its own version of carnival, Coney Island tested and transformed accustomed social roles and values… and signaled the rise of a new mass culture no longer differential to genteel tastes and values, which demanded a democratic resort of its own” (Kasson 50). As a result Coney Island became an institution in which people could visit and participate in festive events, watch street performers, and enjoy amusement rides all while being free from the everyday social stresses. All of these activities and events featured at Coney Island came from the beginning three amusement parks that started it all. The first of the amusement parks was Steeplechase Park, which was designed to detach a visitor from their everyday burdens by putting them in a multitude of amusements. Steeplechase Park emphasized games of theatrically which encouraged participants to shed self-consciousness and surrender to a spirit of reckless, exuberant play. The next of the amusement parks, Luna Park, which was considered to be a dream city. “Everywhere was life – a pageant of happy people; and everywhere was color – a wide harmony of orange and white and gold… It was a world removed – shut away from the sordid clatter and turmoil of the streets” (Kasson 63). Clearly a place designed for people to escape the new American Life in this new urban-industrial society. Luna Park became so successful in just a year that it stimulated another rival, Dreamland. Dreamland