Paradoxes In Americ The True American By Robert Pogue Harrison

In Edward L. Hudgins article, What is an American?, Hudgins defines an American in ways I had not thought of before. Hudgins stated all these ideas about Americans being driven to do their best and meeting challenges head-on. I would like to think that being an American means everything Hudgins stated, however I think Hudgins is giving the optimistic answer of what being an American means. What Hudgins explains as being an American is what I believe most Americans were like when the country was first founded. The idea of taking risks and working until the risks paid off is one that most Americans do not believe because the possibility of actually achieve one’s dream is extremely less likely today than it was when the country was first established.

In Ralph Ellison's "What America Would Be Like Without Blacks" The author describes and analyzes the idea of “purging” African Americans from north America. To support this the author describes how they became deeply ingrained in “white “American culture in a short period of time. They began to influence aspects of society such as speech, music and dance. These changes to society where readily adopted without true origin being noticed. The authors work can be described as opinionated description, because it lacks the objectivism of most expository writing. the author fully describes the idea and he gives support information, but within his word choice it’s clear to the reader that the other has a very strong opinion on the black purge.

Mikayla has been bullied since she was young. She got punched by a second grader at her first day of kindergarten. Her school life became worse and worse, and she was called “Big Fat Loser” because she was fatter than other students. It was difficult for her to accept the abuses, and she attempted to hurt herself. Bullying is someone uses threats, coercion or force to maltreat or humiliate others. The harmful effect of bullying is it can destroy a person’s life, or even make a person die. In the book, “The Book of Unknown Americans” we see that how Garrett abused Mayor and Maribel and the different views and ways of dealing with the problem of bullying by their parents, and I think the way their parents used to solve the problem is not effective.

The first is that humans needs and natures needs are two separate issues. The idea that they're not irrevocably intertwined is inane, because we want the environment to thrive so that we can continue to exploit it. The second misconception is our reliance on technological advances that may or may not happen to save the environment. This diamond implies is a foolish thing to do, as many monumental issues are all waiting to be fixed with technology that isn't coming, or that if it does ever come, it won't be an instantaneous thing. Third and finally, is the perception that those who fear for the environment are fear-mongers, doom-sayers, and rabble rousers. Their cries of warning falling on deaf ears because the effects of environmental damage has yet to reach the public. While the citizens of America may not feel the effects, there's a great many third world countries that do and are. Places where overpopulation and famine are rampant are prime spots for wars, terrorism, and emigration which then spreads the very same problems to other

In the years leading up to the revolutionary war, there was much conflict over the rights and wrongs of the British Empire towards the colonists. There were a few important factors and a few more minor factors that influenced patriots’ decisions to turn against their homeland and beloved monarch back in England. Thomas Paine’s childhood in England left a strong impact on him and influenced his mindset when he turned against the British. The unfairness of political and societal norms made him desire a new society that disregards social classes and allows more people to vote. Again, much of his decision to turn patriot, and his writings convincing most others to turn patriot was caused by life circumstances of being on the bottom rung of society and suffering the injustices of the government towards the common folk.

This environmentally friendly objective is quite the opposite of Americans’ scouring past to use up all the resources on the continent. Today, Americans know that they must create a sustainable future so that their descendants can survive on this planet for generations to come. To understand this current American ideal, one must look at the past and the damage that has been done through

"Writing with a Difference" in Chapter 1 of Mirror on America emphasizes on getting started in writing (14). Writing is a big task for many of us and starting to write is probably the hardest part. They explain a few methods in order to get moving and start writing, such as brainstorming, which includes doing outlines and clustering or webbing. These methods can help us put our thoughts together and narrow down topics giving us an advantage when writing. "Considering Purpose, Audience, and Attitude" are very important concepts to consider before beginning a paper (16). They break the paper into steps explaining and giving examples of each: hooking the reader, identifying a thesis, supporting the thesis, organizing the content,

In the novel, The Book of Unknown Americans, Chirstina Heriauvez uses the characterization of Alma to depict an immigrant's´ journey in America to unravel the truth about the dark side of assimilating. The novels demonstrates that immigrants´ are filled with hope at the prospect of starting someplace new which often blinds them to believing that their new place will be better than their current situation. It can easily be impacted by racism, intolerance and the mistreatment of others.

Lake Erie is vary imported to but yet we keep messing it up. We messing by putting pollution in Lake Erie and if it's a hot day algae can bloom and could mess up the water system and make fish swim away and you won't be able drink water or take a bath and a lot of animals the that use Lake Erie as a ecosystem. Lake Erie is dead with no fish because the pollution is so bad that the fish swam away from Lake Erie and the water is unsafe to drink.

United States of America, year 1931 James Truslow Adam wrote the book The Epic of America, were he coined the most well known phrase of all times, the following is a excerpt straight from his book " the American dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement" (Truslow, 214). The phrase was well known before 1931, many say that it all started with the colonizers when they arrived, because they believed in the ideology of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. And if stratify all the history and the study of Truslow, is how the term American Dream was born, the meaningful statement of this writer and historian changed the world. Many people define the American dream differently, but at the end it’s the same for every person living in the USA; it is the belief that each American has the freedom to pursue a better life. The country has gone through many adversities such as the Great Depression, World War II, Civil Rights Movement, Cold War etc... All of them shaped the United States one way or another. In the 1940s for many the American dream, was waiting anxiously for the war to end, the hope for peace, and receiving their family members back from Europe or Japan. The dark and sad moments lived in those years, did not allow people to think in material possessions. What many Americans dreamt about was, to see their brother, son, cousin, or husband enters through

To address a problem, a solution of adequate scale is imperative. When there is scale mismatch, it is very difficult to overcome the problem. This is when the scale of the solution does not match the scale of the problem, which is what is currently happening with environmental problem solving. Americans as a whole are more individualistic and consequently, so are most of the environmental programs. This means that people prefer to do a task that does not disrupt their normal day to day, and go back to living their lives. Some of these programs and tasks include city wide recycling, city trash clean up, and buying a prius instead of a hummer.

Home to humans, plants, and animals, Earth is the only planet able to sustain life.  This world provides land, water, and air.  Nature evolves and is constantly remodeling by itself.  However, majority of change comes from humans which can sometimes benefit the environment, but normally most change is damaging and corruptive (Hunter, 2001, p. 1).   As the parasites humans are, they take and take without giving much back.  Forests are cut for lumber and paper, coal is dug from the ground for energy, and oil is constantly being burned by automotives.  What do Americans replace all these resources with?  They return trash, chemicals, and waste.  Because the lack of care or action,

Many people care about their lake. It’s where they can go to swim and hang out with friends. Residents care about the pollution issue that is going on because more and more people are deciding to live by the lake full time which increases lake pollution. Another aspect that is being affected with the pollution are the animals in the water. The e. coli levels in the area are shifting because of the pollution issues. When the sewage is released into the lake it most definitely does not help with keeping the lake clean. As more pollution problems come up, they need to be fixed by the public living there. The residents surrounding the lake need to pay more attention of what is being thrown into the lake and the status of their sewage tanks to insure they are not leaking or damaged. If those tasks are fixed little by little

I was born and raised right here in the beautiful state of Michigan. Michigan is a unique place because it is two separate peninsulas connected by a bridge and separated by the Mackinac Straits. In short, us Michigan natives have grown up surrounded by water. Michigan has about 58,000 sq. miles of land and 38,000 miles of water. The majority of the water that makes up Michigan is formed from the Great Lakes: No point in Michigan is more than 6 miles away from one of the Great Lakes. It is clear that water is a big part of the composition of this state.

Human societies have always altered their physical environments, such as, used fire, cleared forests, tilled the soil, etc. Since the 1950’s, the pace and magnitude of the negative environmental impacts of human activities have magnified and intensified. (p. 80) The Earth has always gone through climate change, but not until recently have we as a human society sped up this process. The way we have sped up these processes is most significantly with the high demand of fossil fuels, deforestation of rain forests, pumping of greenhouse gases into the air, pollution of water by fertilizers, use of pesticides, animal wastes, emission of toxic chemicals, and rapid erosion of top soil. In addition, until recently people were unconcerned with conservation because they seemed to be so vast a storehouse of resources that waste was not considered a problem. (p. 97). This may explain the tendency to be wasteful, but it is only a partial answer. The underlying sources of our present environmental problems can be located in the culture and structure of U.S. society. A strong tie to capitalism has allowed large corporations to do whatever is profitable while ignoring conservation of natural resources. This dominant ideology has tended to legitimize or at least account for all the wastefulness of Americans and their acceptance of pollution.