For us to see how Coney Island provided such a release to its visitors we must take a look at the cultural norms of the Victorian era. "Beginning in the antebellum period a self-conscious elite of critics, ministers, educators, and reformers... had arisen to assume cultural leadership." This group of elite grown from the Protestant middle class "believed all activities both in work and

in leisure should be ultimately constructive." Even when people were spending time off from work, "Leisure...should be spent not in idleness but in edifying activities...poetry, fiction, the visual arts, and related pursuits were legitimized not '"for art's sake"' but for their moral and social utility." However at the turn of the century a new generation became distinctly noticeable, "this generation's leading minds hungered to immerse themselves in issues and experience outside the categories of genteel respectability." George Tilyou realized that Coney Islands greatest potential lie not in corruptly defying the genteel culture, but in satisfying the white-collar workers taste for sensory appeal and emotional release. Coney offered a fantasy world that let this new generation break free from it's limitations of the genteel culture.

Coney Island was the first place to offered release from this sort of strict Victorian routine, it offered p

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Approximate Word count = 642
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)