American Culture And Identity

In the novel Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the characters create a false identity in order to fulfill their predestined roles in relationships, families, and communities; ultimately revealing an individual’s need to conform to society’s expectations.

America is traditionally a country of immigrants. Very few people today have relatives who were Native Americans, many of them because of religious persecution, and others because of they were just looking to start a new life on the exciting untouched frontier. For instance, in Florida, the first arrivals were European, beginning with the Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon who explored the land in 1513, following French and Spanish settlement during the 16th century. From the past, America was seen as a country of opportunities. People from all over the world have moved here looking for better opportunities. There are a lot of reasons why immigrants should live in this country, but I would like to mention three of them.

This conversation is a brief dialogue I had with an eleven-year-old girl that I will call Reeda. When I asked what kind of doctor she wants to become, she looked dismal, shrugged, and replied, “I don’t know.” As a new student in fifth grade, Reeda’s application documents her race as Asian; her religious affiliation is Muslim; and she clearly shares that her family already determined her occupational goal. In search for a safe haven, Reeda and her siblings left another school due to bullying, and finds comfort at her new school. By observing and establishing a relationship with her, I noticed that she kindly gives away the school lunches with

Americans have identified themselves not by race, religion and ethnicity, but by common values and belief in individual freedom. That’s what Google says that American identity is, but people see American identity as many different things. People have different thoughts and different opinions on things especially in America where we have such a vast variety of people. The person next to you could have the total opposite opinion as you on something. The American identity is kinda confusing because it’s not just one specific thing it’s many things.

I have always been highly captivated by the notion of human behavior. Throughout my first three years of high school, I had always taken very general class courses, that is until this year. I wanted to take different courses to fully have a high school experience, and see what other choices there were to help me enhance my education. Never had I thought that taking one specific course would completely change my perspective on life. American Identity is a social science class focused on the main study of race, class, and identity. At the beginning of this course, our teacher told us to write a paper on our identity. At first I had no idea how to begin this assignment mainly because I didn't know for sure what my identity consisted of. I began with the

Based on course content, research, and interviews the American Identity can best be described using the words freedom, pride, and importance. When America formed, people immigrated to this country in search of freedom. America is built on the basic principle of freedom. One of the main reasons people immigrate to America from their home country is because of all the freedoms we have. America is thought of as the land of free. There is freedom of education, religion, expression, speech, and belief. Though we are built on the principle of freedom, that doesn’t mean it is all that true. We discriminate certain religions and races. With all the difficulties and hard times our country has faced people may wonder why we should be proud to be an

American identity to my knowledge is the fundamental fact of living in the land which was founded by both political and religious leaders in which creates us to become a part of the American culture. Our American identity began to adapt within the creation of representative for our governments which followed democratic principles throughout the resistance of the stamp act. The term “sons of liberty” was a generic term of having a sense of national pride in the eighteenth century for any colonist who felt that liberty was his birthright. The colonists had a highly developed sense of identity and unity as Americans by the verge of the revolution. The Sons of Liberty did what was possible in their hands to spread word of their actions throughout

American- |adjective| of, relating to, or characteristic of the United States or its inhabitants. This is the literal meaning of American, but isn’t there more? Most just look on a shallow level of what the United States were actually founded on. People will say that this country is based only on having rights which may be true, however we have many freedoms here that citizens of other countries cannot even begin to comprehend

One of the biggest questions an individual faces in their lifetime is, who am I? A question like that is not easily answered. A people's values, beliefs and traits give them their identity. So what is the American Identity? The United States is a fairly newer nation and thus it has had less time to develop its own identity. But with a vast majority of its people immigrating from all over the world, it‘s been shaped by the mixing of numerous cultures. The American people have long been acquainted with a positive, gritty, ambitious pioneers man but in reality, Americans have always had a lack of respect for nature and other people. This lack of respect being more so from a lack of understanding and a laziness to understand. The lack of understanding can be summed up in the trait of Ignorance which best describes the American identity. We can see evidence for this ignorance in pieces of literature such as, Indian Wisdom, The Last American Man, and Nature, in which we can read the author's view of the American people.

American identity can mean different things for different people. It depends on our age because I wasn’t around for the JFk or any event back then. Im my life span I have had some interesting things happen. We have had a president named Obama, a new president named Trump. I mean for as long as I have lived here, which is only fourteen years now there has been big scenarios. Another example is ISIS. They are most likely the worst terrorist group in the country. Honestly for my age, I believe that our identity is more now based off racism and anything that can ruin our country.

When the United States of America was created as an independent country at the end of the Revolutionary War against Great Britain, the roots of an entirely new American identity took hold. Though taking influence from its former parent country, the United States began its own system of representative government. Furthermore, the American identity (shaped in the early years of 1775 to 1830) incorporated the ideals of agrarian farming, laissez-faire economics, and capitalism. Religion, though not a primary influence on the government, also contributed to the shaping of this identity. While this largely benefited the American citizens, another group in the United States was affected in other ways. African slaves and their American-born children were ignored by the Constitution which, in its original form, only referred to slaves as “other persons”, but the contradictory nature of the new American identity both lead to greater freedom and more widespread bondage. Slaves and freedom alike suffered under, exploited, and coped with the aspects of agrarian farming and agriculture in general, capitalism, and Christianity in America.

America is very well known internationally for its cultural and social identity. What’s more American than going church on Sunday morning and then going home, watching a game of baseball, and eating burgers and apple pie? Granted, nations do tend to misunderstand and generalize these identifying features (such is the case with the ‘American’ pizza in Italy which is topped with hot dogs and macaroni and cheese) but in reference to foreign policy, it’s generally attributed with exceptionalism, expansionism, and isolationism or unilateralism. The origin of this foreign policy American identity can be followed back to the first leaders of the newly formed United States. While it can be explained how the three manage to work together, they create a tension between the values that America is supposed to hold dear of

Maya Angelou once said, “You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot - it’s all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive.” The surroundings show that a person is always trying new things by looking others. The idea of a society being able to influence a person just by their surroundings is prevalent. Influence happens when you are looking up to other people. You start to act like them by looking up to them. That is when we start to feel like we are changing ourselves. Many perspectives show the effect that society has on a person to prove that the culture

Since the dawn of mankind, society has proven subject to constant evolution, thus increasing the importance of the understanding of customs present worldwide, among such habits proving both the correlation and differentiation between each form of communication.

The American Identity is an extraordinary way to live, as it involves the personal identity of an individual and also allows people to come together in society. Sadly, however, this is not always how America is . To be an “American” is to have traits of freedom, the thing that the Founding Fathers counted on, to have the will to speak freely, to have the will of religion, and to have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This impacts and brings everyone from different places to help create a society that is free. The founding fathers also counted for the people to speak for what is right. This creates productive members of society. However, there are some drawbacks, like insecurities and in-acceptance, which can be seen clouding the true American Identity throughout history.