The West

What does the west represent to you? Freedom. Opportunity. Anti-conformity. Clean slate. But when we look really close at the ideal west for many immigrants, we see the west is none of this, because with freedom comes boundaries, laws, fights, and bondage. With opportunity comes failure. With anti-conformity comes conformity to new social norms created by the new westerners. Clean slate is accompanied by dirty pasts and hidden truths; new lives waiting to be dirtied. The west is just an ideal, but the west is no different than the east. The east is the west’s future, the west is the east’s past. When the east was first discovered, it too was the frontier. The west is now the last frontier only because we have not finished civilizing the area; we will not finish either because of federal laws protecting the lands. Therefore, the ideal west no longer exists, does it? It no longer is the true west because the true west is undiscovered and truly free. This west is bound and shackled by law to be free.