American Culture Thesis

1. How can an understanding of the complexities of culture help us make sense of the day-to-day world which we live? Give an example from your life to illustrate your answer.

American culture has been referred to as a “melting pot.” Different cultures have added their own distinct aspects to society, making America a diverse country. Despite the plethora of cultures, certain norms, mores, and folkways are evident in American society. These ideas are vital to the function and stability of America. They provide guidelines for what is acceptable and not. In virtually every society, there are people who engage in deviant behavior and do not abide by the values that the rest of society follows. Theorists have debated if people are socialized into acting this way and if it is a social or personal problem. The sociological study of culture focuses on norms, mores, and folkways.

“Well, it’s a bit of a foreign idea to me, really. The town I’m from, my school was 99% white. Literally, we had two black girls and a half-Peruvian guy in my class of 140. So the emphasis on diversity is interesting to me, more than anything. Because I can’t relate to it. I’ve never seen it in action, as it were.

Contemporary American culture is defined as common themes of political attitudes, religious beliefs and news events that lead trends during the present time. Today, we see contemporary American culture portrayed in many more ways than that. We see it through art, music, and literature. In literature, for example, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula Le Guin, contemporary American culture is portrayed throughout. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas represents contemporary American culture by portraying the exploitation of others, the symbolism of Americas political systems and oppression of the lower classes, and the lacking of moral responsibility.

Learning a new language seems to have only positive effects. However, for a Mexican American, accomplishing this goal brought him drawbacks in the interaction with his family. In his essay, ‘’Public and Private language,’’ Richard Rodriguez describes the difficulty in learning a new language and the sacrifice he makes to accomplish his goal. Richard Rodriguez shares the difficulty for older people, as they learn a new language; however, for younger generations is easier to learn a new language. Also, the new language creates a lack of communication for Richard Rodriguez.

There were many continuities and changes in cultural beliefs in the Americas during the time period 1450-present. Some changes were, when africans and natives were forced to learn christianity and syncretic religions started by mixing with native and christianity beliefs. Some continuities are, some native beliefs still survived and religion was still important to others.

“America was born as a nation of immigrants who have always contributed to its greatness”-Charles Rangel. In the essays written by Kennedy and Quindlen, American culture is being discussed. In Kennedy’s essay, he shares how immigrants have shaped our country in ways through industrialization and inventions. He also stated that each ethnic minority has helped strengthen the fabric of liberty in American life. In the other essay written by Quindlen, she states how we are a pluralistic country, meaning our country is made up of many different aspects. Her essay also expresses that diversity has kept our country interwoven, even through its greatest hostilities. As you can see, both essays clearly show that the differences are both the key and

Media is an artistic profession with a lot of positivity related to how the current events reach the mainstream public. With the introduction of social media and online news article, the public has constant access to the material presented by media outlets. During the last couple years there are many instances where media has helped develop an illusion of the American current society with the use of fallacies portraying a negative image of the cultural. Historically, media outlets report according to what the actual media makers and producers believe versus what the current public believes. This causes a mis-representation of American cultural, America’s racism, and statistics on crime.

The landscape of colonial America has dramatically changed beginning with the root of the North Eastern Indians and following the routes of the thirteen American English colonies. As American history progresses, we have to put ourselves in the mindset of the people of the past to learn about the past. Our values and beliefs are evidently different, yet similar as we build from our mistakes and acknowledge the accomplishments of America. Given the misunderstanding of the values and beliefs of the Northeastern Indians by early European settlers, stark differences occur like using property for its ecological use and avoiding the accumulation of wealth compared to colonial American English colonies’ use of property for cash crops and acquisition of wealth for political and social status, as well as similarities between the two in valuing time and social

Living as a Messianic Jew in America presents a threefold problem with culture. In many ways, I have my feet in three, dare one say four, differing cultures that are always fighting against each other. The first is an American culture which is moving more towards an atheistic culture and wants to bury its need for G-d under many differing ideas where a one person thinks they can make a difference by doing something of no value. The second culture is a Christian sub-culture. Christianity which has been the dominate religion for so long that many will think that being American makes one a Christian and thereby loses it value of meaning and salvation. Christianity second part of culture is the attempt to take over the culture and accepting it into the church service because many Christians feel a desperate need to be relevant. The third is a Jewish sub-culture. While Jews make up about 2% of the population and the religious jews make up less than a a fifth of Jews in America. Yet, the bonds to synagogue are closer to the Jewish

American culture is a nontraditional and individualism culture. Americans are open to new principles, ideas, and practices. Many Americans are also more concerned about themselves and their immediate family and friends. Music and television exhibit aspects of both the nontraditional and individualism culture. The focus of American culture is technology, consumers, capitalism, sports, and politics. Almost everything in America revolves around technology, such as cell phones, computers, TV, social media, video games, etc. Money seems to play a major role. Wealth is an achievement everyone wants to have, living the American dream is getting rich. Advertisements constantly convince consumers to buy products (even products they don’t necessarily

Stepping out of your comfort zone isn't always easy, especially in a foreign setting. In my life, traveling has not only been a means of seeing new places, but gathering exposure to cultures that have led to a greater understanding of different and opposing beliefs that exist throughout the world. On my recent trip to Europe, I acquired knowledge of cultures that I could not even begin to comprehend had I not experienced it first hand. Experiencing circumstances on foreign grounds taught me that the area in which we live in can truly cultivate us into who we are and what we believe.

Between 1790 and 1920 it was a tough time for the Indians. During that period Native Americans were forced to convert to the European-American Culture. Their whole life changed, the way of living, religion, and especially their children’s future. It was wrong of Americans to convert natives into a different society that they saw fit and not letting them express their own culture and treating them as an unworthy society.

American culture refers to the traditions and practices of the people of the United States. Culture comprises of the nature of buildings, religion, music language and marriage. The population of the United States is more than 320 million people making it the most culturally diverse country in the globe. Books such as Crabgrass Frontier, Manifest Destination and Muscular Christianity are important sources of information about American culture. This paper is a reflection on the methods that these books use in providing information about the evolution of the US culture. The paper examines the relationship between these three sources and ways they challenge or inform an understanding of the American society during the late 19th and early 20th century. There is an analysis of the efficiency of the issues tackled by these books in influencing the contemporary discourse surrounding American culture. The major argument of this paper is that Crabgrass Frontier, Manifest Destination and Muscular Christianity provide reliable information about the evolution of the US culture and they supplement each other through the use of relevant examples.

The United States of America being the third largest country in the world with more than 315 million inhabitants, consists of multicultural societies with ethnically diverse population. Since there are a lot of foreigners, the US culture has evolved in such a way accepting and tolerating other foreign cultures. US is very much influenced by protestant work ethics according to which people believe in themselves and their efforts to attain the goal of self-actualization and success. The rich diversity in the culture brought by foreigners, prevailing values of protestant ethics, hard work etc. have helped US to emerge as a superpower in the past years. Nearly every religion had its impact on US culture in one way or the other. The