“The behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social group” is how Dictionary.com defines culture. The essence of Survivor is a sample of the American social group, or culture. The television show, Survivor, is a game show where contestants go to a remote place with basic necessities. Each tribe has a little amount of food, must construct their own shelter from local resources, and live with limited hygiene. They must focus on how they alone can become the last one standing, the lone survivor. Reality television shows make it seem that it is innate in the American culture to be narcissistic and self-centered, only focusing on personal gain, and the shows also display the worst of the society. On the television show Survivor, it portrays all American people to be aggressive, traitorous, and scheming.

Survivor can show the hostility in American people and their culture. A well known aggressive player on the show was Brandon Hantz, nephew of the infamous player Russell Hantz. Brandon was quick to anger and even faster to treacherous action. When he heard a rumor that he was about to get voted out, he decided to become physically aggressive and went on a rampage in which he dumped all of the rice and beans and the players food allowance onto the sands of the beach. Due to Brandon’s act of aggression, he was the first player to get voted out before a tribal council. His uncalled for, overly aggressive acts displayed poorly on how reality television defines Americans as a whole. It exhibited the bad trait of Americans being quick to violence when things do not go their way. Many people begin fights over small things that really carry little to no value, like winning the intangible valueless title of winning Survivor in this example. One aggressive business man, Donald Trump, said that “When somebody challenges you, fight back. Be brutal, be tough.” Even famous people like him will be aggressive over the smallest things because it is just American culture to be belligerent over material items, regardless of their intangible value. The society in America wants more and desires more tangible valuables like the newest video game, car, or house just to look better in the eyes of others.

Another player, Phillip, was known for being grandiloquent in a way that was antagonistic to everyone playing the game. He gave every player in his alliance a code name that was absolutely preposterous. Almost everyone thought he was crazy and unsympathetical to peoples thoughts and feelings. Any person who dared to question his ludicrous gameplay was attacked, emotionally and viciously, by Phillip and without any restraint. However, many people live their life on emotion rather than on reason, and not on thinking about what the right thing to do in this situation, or pleasant choice for others around them. Emotion can tend to quickly take a hold of and control people. Phillip was a perfect example of how some reality television shows can reflect society, in this case, an appeal to emotion. Philip aggressively played on the other players emotions in an attempt to cloud their judgment by drawing them into an emotional state. He cruelly preys on their character, their personalities. Owing to the fact that people in the American culture are tuned to fight for what they believe, Phillip used these emotions of theirs against them in the situations he created and presented to them in order to obscure their logical judgement.

Amanda Kimmel had her moment of fame on the reality television show, Survivor, when she lost her temper and gave way to her anger. She became very aggressive and started a fight with her fellow tribe member, Danielle DiLorenzo. What was the fight over? It was over a small clue for a hidden immunity idol. A hidden immunity idol protects the player from being voted out when they decide to use it at a tribal council. When Amanda snagged the hidden clue from Danielle’s hidden place, she caused the fight when Danielle tried to get it back. In the end, she gave the clue back. She started a small fight over something that was not even guaranteed to get her ahead, but just give her a chance. A fight started over an opportunity. The nation of the United States itself was built upon fighting for the lust of gaining a mere opportunity to become something. The culture of America is tuned to fight for what we want, even if it is against other exceptional men, rather than work together and achieve our goals together.

The reality show, Survivor, also presents American people in a treasonous light. Cochran, one of the nerdiest people to play the game, was a traitorous backstabbing player. He made a few alliances, and when it came near the end, he betrayed all his alliances except the one he knew would get him to the finals. All those people who thought they could trust him were brutally betrayed. In this case, Cochran turned on the very people that trusted him and his disloyal tactics successfully paid off when he won the game. He took advantage of their trust to gain something. The show, Survivor, portrays through Cochran how some Americans in our culture are traitorous and will turn on innocent, trustworthy people when it comes to money, power, or any other kind of tangible gain. This example of Cochran’s deviousness displays the traitorousness of American culture, one of the foul characteristics of the society.

Andrea was another example of the act of being a traitor on the show Survivor. She made a lot of alliances early, most of which she followed the reoccurring theme of the show by betraying them. The fact that Survivor shows betrayal as an ordinary theme tends to portray that as a usual theme amongst the people of the American culture. If betrayal is a recurring thing on a reality show, who is to say that it is not a frequent thing amongst the average American person? She was willing to betray the very people that trusted her for a a million dollars, and if she is an average American, that portrays the rest of us as a nation of people with poor character, ethics, and values. What would average people do to the very people who trusted them for one million dollars? This just shows the American culture to be willing to betray other innocent people for a small, usually worthless gain. Andrea is a prime example that the average American in this culture would play Judas and sabotage friendships for money, just to gain some material possessions.

Russell Hantz was the most notorious player in Survivor and even committed treasonous acts on his own tribe. In one instance, on his first season as a cast member, he decided to cause chaos in his own camp so that everyone would be upset and turn on each other by blaming one another. At night he burnt one of his team members socks, and he dumped his tribe mates canteens of water onto the ground. When his teammates discovered what had been done, anxiety developed around camp and amongst each other, but of course Russell was calm and peaceful because he knew exactly what happened due to the fact that he had caused it. He took this time of the others being in an emotional turmoil to start his plan and scheme of how to make it to the end. Russell was willing to turn on own his team members just to stir up trouble and scheme. Would the average American turn on his coworker to receive a promotion? Based off this example set by Russell, the answer is yes.

Reality television often displays American people to be crafty and sly. Boston Rob, another player on Survivor, was known for being very devious and calculating. He was a very smart guy who played a purely tricky game. He would put up a nice front to everyone’s face, but then he would double-cross and betray them the second they left his vicinity. Rob was very conniving in the way he played. His two-faced strategy actually helped him win one of the seasons he played. Being dishonest and scheming is part of American business culture. In Survivor, it depicts another example of how in the American society, the only way to become successful is to scheme, connive, and betray others.

Probably the most disgraceful and shocking player to play the game Survivor, Russell Hantz, was also known for betraying his many alliances. He always preyed on the young, naive, and innocent type of girls and did his best to use them to his advantage using his immoral talent of colluding. Russell Hantz’s goal was to scheme his way all the way to the final three. While his plan worked two out of the three times he played, he was seen by others as a terrible person. As many people take on the same strategy to achieve their goal to win the game, the strategy itself reflects poorly on the stereotypical American persona as we are viewed as greedy, scheming people and sometimes even convinces viewers that everyone around them is constantly using his cunning against them. The scheming in our reality television shows represents us as people, and as a culture.

Coach, one of the characters on the show who called himself the dragon slayer, wanted to see if he could win with integrity, honor, and honesty, but was blindsided by his tribe members. He did his best to be truthful and honest to all his teammates. Unfortunately, this did not work because his teammates schemed behind his back. His tribe members conniving presented them in a negative light as people, due to their scheming against an honest man for a chance at a small amount of money and a title that becomes worthless after providing only a little publicity for a few years after winning it. Due to the other cast members scheming, he was dealt the result of their lies and deceit, and eliminated. He went about the reality television game show the wrong way. He tried to fight scheming with honesty, and put simply, Coach’s strategy failed miserably. It is a reality television game and he did not play by the motto Survivor was built on, the motto being: “outwit, outplay, outlast.” He just tried to win with good morals, but the other conspiring people put him out. Just like people outside the game, in our culture, honesty never seems to pay off. In order to get ahead in a business, people always seem to have to scheme their way to get there. The American culture just functions on a dishonest system, just like the system in the game Survivor.

Reality television brings out and puts on display some of the poor characteristics of the American culture. Survivor, the reality television show based on the motto of “outwit, outplay, outlast”, is great at presenting examples of some of the below par attributes the American culture tends to have. These traits that reality television shows tend to have generally define the American culture as aggressive, scheming, and traitorous. Reality television shows are some of the reasons other cultures judge Americans as bad, greedy, and self-oriented people.