Citizen USA: A 50 State Road Trip

Living in America is often taken for granted, but many would risk their lives just to live in this free country. My parents risked their lives escaping from Laos after the Vietnam War in order to reach America hoping for a better life. My dad’s struggles in life has inspired me to pursue higher education in order to create a brighter future for myself. Being the first generation children born in America has given me the opportunity of free education. In America education

Present at least 3 events, ideas, people, artifacts, or combination of three of these from the film in terms of representing American values. The first idea would be Pan American International High School in Queens, New York, where school lets the Latino students to study. I think it is American values the people who organizes this kid of organization like school are very kind and generous. It is values that some American citizens not only think about themselves, but about other ethnicities as well.

On April 3rd, 2017, I called my neighbor, Frank, to talk about the story of his family’s immigration. Frank had ancestors who moved to the United States from Germany more than 100 years ago that kept a journal that has been with his family ever since it was recorded. He told me that a long time ago, George and Jean, both residents of Germany, fell in love and got married to each other. After spending some time together in Germany, they decided that they were going to immigrate to the United States. “Living in the United States to them meant all that freedom implied. A land where they found a home where they could raise their children in a land of the free and the brave.”

The year is 1776. In an act of defiance of the oppressive rule of the powerful nation of Great Britain, the political leaders of the British-American colonies sign into existence the United States of America. Even before this inception of the United States, North America had been seen as a place where one could move to start a new life and reap the full rewards for one’s work. These opportunities combined with the new United States government founded on the ideals of freedom and equity have attracted countless families from all over the world, making the United States truly a country of immigrants. Immigrants from European nations coming to America both assimilated and helped

American culture is known around the world for many things, but two of the most influential values in my life have been developing a strong work ethic along with the competitive spirit that can be found in virtually every aspect of American life. Whether it is creating a quality product or just completing a hard day’s work, as Americans we are taught that we have accomplished something to feel good about if we have given maximum effort. This belief was largely in contrast to previous cultures who had regarded hard work as a curse (Hill, 1996). In American culture, the desire to pursue your dreams meant that you also had the ability to attain them if you were willing to make the necessary sacrifices. That motivation compelled people to work

With that, came the American dream. The dream that each person should achieve prosperity through strenuous work and dedication. There has been several works of literature that denounced the American dream as a false prophecy, as only coming true for a undoubted narrow majority of the nation. That is true that the American dream does not come by often. Although when it does, people cherish this nation and call it “ The land of the free and the home of the brave”. American history showed that in this nation, nothing is impossible, resembling what Einstein said “ Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is

We as Americans tend to get stuck in our everyday routines. We get up, eat, go to work or school, and come home, all so that we can do the same thing again the next day. Doing the same thing is a dangerous and unhealthy habit, much like not being in your natural habit. We take the same worn down roads, read the same ancient words, and do not get to really fully experience what else is out there for us because in America we are confined. Many people just do not think that there is really anything else out there for them to see so the make the claim and stick with the mantra that America is the greatest country. We go to work to get paid so that we can feed ourselves and families, and we go to college to get a well-paying job to provide for our future families. Americans’ are trapped in the system because these days we do not know any other way, and we have to do these things to keep acting as providers. “Down the ages too men have been impressed by the

To achieve the American Dream, one must work hard and have the dedication to be successful. There are myths relating to this dream leaving lower class members to wonder if the dream exists for them. People in lower class are told if they want to be successful they must put in hard work and true effort. Once they do, they see that they are remaining in the same position they started in. In “Class of America-2012,” Gregory Mantsios states the ideas of class in the US and explains them. One myth addressed in this selection is, “Everyone has an equal chance to succeed. Success in the United States requires no more than hard work, sacrifice, and perseverance: ‘In America, anyone can become a billionaire; it’s just a matter of being in the right

This shows us their side of this time. We can see and relate to how hard an average day of their live is. They wake up really early get their kids ready for the day, then they catch the bus to work, wake up and get the children of the white people ready for the day. Then they clean, do all the chores for them and just about anything else they tell them to do. Then after putting the white children to sleep they finally go home and put their own children to sleep. After they put their own children to sleep they clean and get their own house in order. They worked so hard and through this movie we go to see it in a different

However, we must remember an important fact: our generation of American faces the same wall of hopelessness that stood before those who lived through the Great Depression – and they overcame it. What we can take from them, is that we can succeed if we accept the simple fact that we must do what must be done, even if it isn’t desirable. If we graduate with a degree in fashion marketing and fail to secure employment, we work at a retail store in order to pay rent and get the bills paid. Running around for hours to work in a store takes grit; being underemployed takes gut; learning from experience and applying it to one’s life creates character. And one day, we grow. That in my belief is “the Dream.” For too many versions of “the Dream” equate prosperity to happiness, happiness I feel is not so simple. This makes it seem that the American Dream may always remain tantalizingly out of reach for some Americans, making the dream more like a cruel joke rather than a genuine dream. Perhaps, what our generation needs is to

From waging war on our mother country, to similarly fighting hard to get the promotion. Americans have it in their blood. As Americans, there is the ‘American Dream’ where one has the perfect house, job, and family life, but there wouldn’t be an ‘American Dream’ without the determination to the determination and persistence it took to get there. Our Sports teams, local business owners, students, and politicians didn’t get to where they are now without it, we wouldn’t even actually be a country without a separate country from England without it; but we are. One of the biggest parts of America is that one can go from a nothing to a something, not like in other countries when one is born into poverty they can’t do anything about it.

Relating back to the idea that by American’s believing they are exceptional and attempting to remain that way, they forge their own path for success, propelling the nation forwards. Different countries competing to be the best push each other to become exceptional. Later, President Obama went on to say, “This dynamic, evolving, pressing, expanding, self-critical experiment… An America that’s chronically dissatisfied with itself, because embedded into our DNA is this striving, aspirational quality to be even better… That's what has driven progress for everybody,” (Article 3). Touching on the primal human instinct for competition and our inability to settle when we know we can do better, he explains how this competition is a basic part of our nature. We are all simply striving for what we believe to be the best and in the process we find competition and take pride in our accomplishments, thus resulting in the aspect of not only American exceptionalism but the exceptionalism of various

Film’s unique visual and narrative properties in “The Immigrant” aid in critiquing the popularly held “American Dream”. The dream stated that anyone, even foreigners, could achieve financial/personal success in America if they worked hard, but Chaplin believes this is not completely true. Narrative qualities of film in “The Immigrant” present concrete stories and characters that visually demonstrate the hardships, mistreatment, and luck involved in the misunderstood “American Dream”. The exaggerated rockiness of the ship and the implied death of the female character’s mother showed viewers that traveling to America is not as glamorous as the American Dream makes it out to be. When immigrants finally

Finally, I have a lot of motivation to get myself through my American experience. If you have not noticed. I have shown or you could point out that I am very determined. And of course, you don’t have to be so determined, but in my case. I am even though I am lazy. I want to be able to see myself living really well in the future. Or you could say that I want to have a good amount of money. But I am not selfish person, just as most of America, like Claude Fisher’s research said in “Sweet Land of… Conformity” is that “Americans also believe that once individuals are members of the group, they must be loyal”. I that is true for the most part because what I translate that to say. Is that you must love that group (family) that you were born into, or to love that family that you have put together. So it motivates me to work hard for those people, so that one day I can repay them.

Crevecoeur’s text “What is an American” sheds light upon how the opportunity America offers is why many Europeans migrate there. One thing he brings up is how in Europe unlike America, people were usually in a static society in which if they were poor, they would be unlikely to become successful through hard work as the people who were already rich had lots of power. Ultimately, Crevecoeur writes this letter to emphasize how in America, people are able to work hard and get rewarded for and to also highlight the factors that as a whole, make America a better society to live in than Europe. One characteristic about Americans that Crevecoeur praises is how they are hard working and determined to become successful. Over the course of this text,