14 By Scott Kruh Analysis

Andrea Roman tells her story, “We’re Not…,” to demonstrate how Bolivian culture has influenced her life. In her essay she informs the reader about the many things her mom, a native Bolivian, would scold her for. These atrocious acts included: borrowing sweaters, doing homework on Sundays and wanting to attend sleepovers. None of these things would be judged as wrong in America, they are American customs or traditions that Roman tried to follow. Roman followed these, unknowingly disrespecting her family’s Bolivian values. David Sedaris wrote “Remembering My Childhood on the Continent of Africa” to share his dissatisfaction of growing up in America after he heard about Hugh’s adventures of growing up on the continent of Africa. In his essay he shared the many adventures Hugh, his boyfriend, experienced while living his exciting life in Africa. In America many of Hugh’s adventures would have been harshly judged and considered as wrong. Hugh does many things that Sedaris can only dream of doing. David Sedaris’ “Remembering my Childhood on the Continent of Africa” and Andrea Roman’s “We’re Not…” are told with a similar style but the audience receives different messages from each of them.

Over the past few weeks of class, we have covered the first five chapters of our textbook, written by George Brown Tindell and David Emory Shi called, “America, A Narrative History.” Each chapter told the reader a narration of the history of America, as opposed to an expository version of America’s history. Each chapter had its own main idea over a portion of history, along with many details that cover the importance of the main idea. As a reader, one may obtain a deeper appreciation for the country 's history, prior to entering the class on the first day. The most important aspect of history, besides the battles that are fought, is the different cultures that make up today’s modern America.

After the American Revolution there were many of the American people who were lost as to whom they were now. There were two definite groups that had been created, those that were for the revolution and those that were against. At the same time, there were some that had just ridden along for the ride. When the revolution came to an end, there were people who were stuck in the middle confused as to who they were and what being an American specifically meant. Washington Irving shows this fear in his short story called “Rip Van Winkle”. In this short story, he brings to life the common fear and confusion that was among the people. Few were sure of who they were and who was considered their friends or their enemies. I want to show how George

Through the various primary sources, a theme of hypocrisy is introduced, revealing the constant contradiction of freedom in America during the 19th century. This theme is exemplified in “America”, a poem written by James Whitfield. The poem begins with the lines, “America, it is to thee, / Thou boasted land of liberty, - / It is to thee I raise my song, / Thou land of blood, and crime, and wrong” (Whitfield “America” 1- 4). Within the first four lines of the poem, Whitfield introduces the notion that America, albeit boasting of freedom, is truly a land of wrongdoing. This idea is further enhanced later in the poem, as it is mentioned, “Oh no; they fought, as they believed, / For the inherent rights of man; / But mark, how they have been deceived / By slavery’s accursed plan” (Whitfield “America” 37 -

It portrays America’s peerless zeal to defend its homeland and, in the course, its rights, its values, and its freedom that require such dear efforts to attain. Furthermore, it duly illustrates the many trials America is willing to face to create this new haven in which every person is free from persecution for following their perception of true freedom. However, the moral and humane laws of the Americans dictate the extension of freedom to others. Freedom, as the Americans come to believe, belongs to everyone. The most conspicuous example of America’s extending arms of compassion and equality is the Civil War. Of course, there is no obligation for America to fight a war against itself for the welfare of African Americans. Still, America is only abiding by its own set of ethical laws and the humanity that the Bible dictates. In comparison, the moral cause of this war is exceptionally similar to that in “The Star Spangled Banner”. Both of the conflicts involve America in an attempt to uphold its significant values and tenets through confiding in their religion. Both of the conflicts hail a future in which freedom shall govern this nation. Moreover, both of the conflicts prove America’s traditional values and faith apt to withstand wave after wave of bombardment without faltering. America is a separate little haven in which no limits exist to restrict the people’s religious faith or to hinder them from following their moral laws and values. “The Star

“We remember the kindness more than ever, knowing that our relatives who immigrated to this country after the Iranian Revolution did not encounter the same America.” This quote taken from “With a Little Help From My Friends,” written by Firoozeh Dumas, has many impacts on Dumas as a child, how Americans impacted her immediate family, and her family's relationship with the community in

In The Theory of Infantile Citizenship, Lauren Berlant classifies Washington DC as a domestic crossroads wherein the local meets the national. Berlant investigates in detail the secrete mechanism in which citizenship is created and multiplied in the intimate, and private, way but through the imagined public sphere. She addresses the question of how a person begins to understand the country they feel as though they belong to, and how one comes to comprehend themselves in relation to their country. This leads to the acknowledgement of the separation of how one perceives their nation, versus how it actually functions. In Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America, the novel illustrates how the left-liberal comprehension of fascism has changed

Chapter 25 discusses the United States and the Second World War from 1939-1945. The United States wanted to stay out of international affairs but the newly elected Roosevelt advocated for an active role in it. Though he wanted a role in this, his priority was to attack the domestic causes of the depression which appealed to many poor Americans who were suffering from the Great Depression and had just lost everything. During this time, fascist governments threatened military aggression and the rise of Hitler created a controversial and war-like atmosphere. Hitler had a goal to avenge the defeat of WW1 which lead to the accusations of Jews, and the eventual full-blown Holocaust. Neutrality acts were put into place during this time to prohibit the exchange of arms to nations during the war.

Following the First World War, the United States went in search of a, “return to normalcy,” which many agreed was exactly what it needed. However, to the dismay of many, all the United States could find was a significant amount of tension that had developed between, “Old America,” and, “New America.” All in all, this tension that arose between old and new traditions and ideas did so in the form of religion, conflicts within society, and cultural values.

Through out history there’s a ground breaking event that forces society to reform its beliefs. The Holocaust was one of these events, refugees were persecuted in a number of ways and society had a choice to help, become isolated, or to confirm any persecution as ok or right. In every choice our society has depicted that there's a right and a wrong decision to everything; it was wrong for U.S legislation to not give their best efforts to help refugees of the Holocaust it lead to future prejudices and the suffering of millions.

America is a nation that is often glorified in textbooks as a nation of freedom, yet history shows a different, more radical viewpoint. In Howard Zinn’s A People's History of the United States, we take a look at American history through a different lens, one that is not focused on over glorifying our history, but giving us history through the eyes of the people. “This is a nation of inconsistencies”, as so eloquently put by Mary Elizabeth Lease highlights a nation of people who exploited and sought to keep down those who they saw as inferior, reminding us of more than just one view on a nation’s history, especially from people and a gender who have not had an easy ride.

How do the authors characterize the American response to the Holocaust, and what explanation(s) do they give for that conduct?

In the essay “The Fourth of July,” renowned poet and novelist Audre Lorde exposes the flawed approach her parents practice in response to racism: to “protect their children from the realities of race in America and the fact of American racism by never giving them name, much less discussing their nature,” (240). To elucidate this controversial strategy, Lorde describes the time she and her family took a trip to Washington D.C., “the fabled and famous capital of our country,” (239) in 1947. Her firsthand account is used in order to portray the underlying irony of the trip, as well as to help the reader form a stronger, more personal connection to the text. In her writing, she implicitly addresses those who don’t realize the injustice ingrained in American culture with a shift in tone (and mind) from innocence to cynicism.

Life, liberty, freedom, equality, opportunity, and so many other words have been used to describe the United States of America. Every American child grows up with the words “the land of the free” pounded into their heads, and every morning schools declare America as a place of “liberty and justice for all.” Such inflated rhetoric presents America with large shoes to fill. Thus, America’s shortcomings should not be surprising. Langston Hughes and Upton Sinclair were two 20th Century writers, who saw past this idealistic talk and saw the jungle that the United States really was. Langston Hughes wrote in his poem “Let America be America Again”, “Let America be America again. –Let it be the dream it used to be. –Let it be the pioneer on the plain –Seeking a home where himself is free. –(America was never America to me) (1).” He highlights not only the experience of African Americans during the 1930s, but identifies with other oppressed groups including immigrants writing, “I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—And finding only the same old stupid plan –Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.” Likewise, Upton Sinclair conveyed his repulsion to immigrant oppression during the Industrial Revolution in his book The Jungle, emphasizing the gullibility behind trusting the grandiloquence of the American dream.

Currently America honors those murdered by the Nazis with museums, monuments, and even a remembrance day. However during the Holocaust, under the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt, America was reluctant to save the Jews from Europe. Six million Jews were systematically murdered through mass shootings, gas chambers, and in death marches. We might expect that as a model democracy, America would have made a great effort to rescue these Jews but that was sadly not what occurred. Due to America’s tradition of isolationism and a singular focus on achieving military victory, Roosevelt's attention to Jewish refugees in Europe during World War II can most accurately be characterized as a mix of missed opportunities and limited achievements.