![]() ![]() The most significant connection between the two musicals and the basis for a postwar Paradise is the geopolitics of an expanding American frontier, paralleling the nation's evolution from a national to a global power in the years during and after World War II. Each of these elements links what would otherwise appear to be disparate narratives: the American West at the turn of the century and the South Seas during World War II. ![]() The components of this Paradise are examined in topical essays that consider such issues as Americanism, consumerism, tourism, racism, and optimism. This was a Paradise based upon the American Dream of rebirth and renewal acted out in a landscape of second chances. ![]() Specifically, the two musicals provided Americans with a prescription for a postwar Paradise. This study demonstrates their function as modern morality plays for their audiences. Doctoral Dissertation in Humanities Syracuse University 1996 Oklahoma! and South Pacific were Rodgers and Hammerstein's most successful and popular musicals of the 1940s. ![]()
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