American Identity

America is commonly characterized as the greatest country in the world, the glorious “land of the free and the home of the brave”, “indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”. This idealization of the American identity conveniently focuses on what people want to hear and blurs out most everything else. In reality, Americans do not live up to the dreamscape created by our views, and we never really have. America is no longer characterized by its freedom and democracy, nearly every first world country can afford that luxury. Nor are we set apart by the great opportunities given to our people, for those are far from universal. We aren’t equal, we aren’t unified, we aren’t kinder or smarter or richer than any other country across the board. It’s easy to find the shortcomings of American culture, all the things we aren’t, but the things we are have proven to be more elusive. First, let’s examine the nots.

As Michael Walzer essay’s introduction to “What Does It Mean to Be an America”, discusses American as an adjective and how easy it is being an American; then he discusses how these two factors lead to their political identity (Walzer). As mentioned above, the term American is relevant to all people that populate the North American territory. Walzer stated it as: “it is not

The American Identity, one that defines us all, would therefore be our courage and devotion among all other emotions to stand up for our rights, independence, and our freedom.

From the very birth of the nation, the “American Identity” has been here. It has changed as we grew as a nation, slowly starting to represent not only American born citizens, but to represent the immigrants who moved here with their own hopes and dreams. The American Identity can be defined as a fluid, ever changing idea that has changed over time to represent the ideals of immigrants, as well as people we perceive as different.

Immigrants have shaped American culture and identity by bringing their own home culture from other parts of the world. Furthermore, another kind of immigrants brought a different kind of beliefs in America. The way immigrants shaped Americans identity in America is by changing the way how people think of others because of their culture, race, and beliefs. The way it shaped America with cultures is because the variety of cultures that are a mix in America.

Since the time of the American Revolution, people always asking “What is an American?-Today, Americans tend to believe the religion and the politics of government have had the biggest impacted on American identity because it has introduced a new system structure nations, cultures, and the Enlightenment's ideas to form the United States.

America has many ideas, people, and values that it can attribute its greatness to. Every single person that has ever been born in this great country has impacted the United States in countless ways. Anyone who is fortunate enough to live the life that Americans get to live, are given the chance to create, change, or continue the legacy of America.

Throughout the life span of the United States, from its infancy after the Revolution to the present, people have asked, “What is an American?” This question goes far beyond asking who is a citizen or who resides in this land. No, it asks what the identity of an American is? Through popular, art, film, and literature, the American image is defined as being based on embracing our individual identities.

The history of America has always been pretty straightforward, but the same cannot be said about its identity. Overtime America has had three major time periods, the 1600’s-1700’s, 1700’s-1800’s, and 1900’s-present day. Each time period has dramatically changed the identity of America as we know it. The migration of people has helped create an American identity. During three periods of history significant changes happened that helped frame who Americans are.

America; the land of the free and the home of the brave. A liberal place that invites all to partake in the prosperous fruits of freedom and equality. One controversial amenity that America is known for is the American Dream. With the tools America provides its citizens, any of us can achieve the American Dream, and as long as 1 person is still able to achieve that dream, it will live on.

Americans have not only defined themselves by their religious, ethnic and racial identity, but also by their individual freedom and common values. America has become a nation where its people can fight for what they believe in. Our founding fathers have formed America to be “the land of the free and the home of the brave”. Being apart of the American culture and living on the land founded by our leaders specifies the meaning of the American Identity.

When I think of the word “cultural identity”, I think of myself, and what makes up who I am as a person. My cultural identity influences everything about me, from the moment I wake up, to the minute I rest my head on my pillow at night. My culture influences the way I eat, speak, worship, and interact with people. However, I am not only affected by my own culture, but others’ culture as well. I am fortunate to have an extremely rich heritage, and I couldn’t be prouder of my cultural identity.

The American Ideological Consensus is that “…the American people have shared much of the same ideals, the same basic principles, and the same patterns of belief” (McClenaghan 104). When America filled itself with ideologically homogenous people, their beliefs started to define our nation and became American identities. If asked what they think of America, peoples of other nations would say that the roads are made of glass, opportunity is in the air, and civil rights are plentiful. These accounts maybe accentuated; however, the underlying message is that the American people have more freedoms then the peoples of other nations do. The most widely known American identity is freedom, and even though that American identity has been tried and

American identity has been created by many events throughout the course of history. This country was founded on the clashing and mixing of many different cultures and lifestyles. One of the most important periods of time for this country was during the period of conflict between Americans and Native Americans over land rights. Americans had an idea of manifest destiny and that this land was theirs for the taking. The Americans were going to walk through anyone who opposed them in this quest for land. The treatment of the Indians during this time period was harsh, cruel, and violent to say the least. It is in this treatment that Americans came to view the Indians as a "racialized other" and where race began to matter. This early

While there is no guarantee to complete happiness there are some moments where america gives its citizens the opportunity to find happiness allowing them to express their personal identity. America gives the people an opportunity to express and celebrate their uniqueness. These celebrations helps feeds the personal identity this feeds in the idea of celebrating the people's uniqueness and how they belong in society. This can be seen in the first few lines of Walt Whitman’s poem “I Hear America Singing”, “I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear, Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong”,this quote states that the people express their own uniqueness. The reason it's important to the identity of a person is because a person needs to show that they are inherently different this shows how uniqueness is important and also shows that Americans are different from people of other nations. Another aspect of the personal identity is to travel and see different parts of america. Emison, in his essay the “American Scholar”, states that, “ The first in time and the first in importance of the influences upon the mind is that of nature. Every day, the sun; and, after sunset, night and her stars.” This shows the influence of nature to the human mind and the ability to have a difference to find a place in society. To