Essay on The Quiet American by Graham Greene

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.

The poem America by Claude McKay is on its surface a poem combining what America should be and what this country stands for, with what it actually is, and the attitude it projects amongst the people. Mckay uses the form of poetry to express how he, as a Jamaican immigrant, feels about America. He characterizes the bittersweet relationship between striving for the American dream, and being denied that dream due to racism. While the America we are meant to see is a beautiful land of opportunity, McKay see’s as an ugly, flawed, system that crushes the hopes and dreams of the African-American people.

The 1980’s is one of the most interesting decades that was experienced in the United States. Dealing with the stock market, the coming up of new inventions, all the way to the types of music people listened to. During the 1980s, the only thing that made Americans be “Americans” was because of the things they were provided with. Many Americans had fun throughout the 1980s with materialistic, glamorous, and technological life styles; therefore there were different economical problems that Americans faced.

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.

The President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Secretary of the Interior, Harold Ickes, presented his speech “What Is An American” while attending an I Am an American Day gathering in Central Park, New York City. At that time Germany completed multiple invasions throughout the European countries and was furiously attacking Britain. The American people were overall branched with the involvement of the U.S. in the war. One side believed in passivity, though others presumed even if Great Britain was conquered by Germany, the United States would remain in desolation. Harold’s Speech was directed to the Americans doubting involving the U.S. with the war against the Germans. His goal was to show that Americans are fighters and have always helped their

The book The Ugly American clearly demonstrates several of the established Special Operations Force (SOF) imperatives outlined in ADRP 6-22. As a Special Forces soldier I can relate these imperatives to stories illustrated in the book and apply them to real life situations that I have experienced in the field. The Ugly American is a goldmine of wisdom and a handbook for special warfare. All Special Operations soldiers should read it.

In author Cristina Henriquez’s novel The Book of Unknown Americans, the characterization of Alma Rivera is used to convey how grief and misery is magnified when all that a person had ever known has been taken away for some reason out of their control; it is only when they learn to give up control and forgive themselves, that they overcome the feelings of grief and guilt.

What insights into the American Dream are offered through the novella Of Mice and Men and the film American Beauty? In your essay you must consider the influences of context and the importance of techniques in shaping meaning.

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.

Edited by Bernard Edelman, “Dear America” is a collection of letters written by soldiers during the Vietnam War. Their letters are written to love ones back home such as parents, siblings, and spouses but they are a great depiction of the Vietnam War. The soldiers would write these letters to help keep hope alive and to keep sane. Throughout the book the letters are categorize into those who are barely arriving into the war to those who have been there a long time. The stress and anxiety grows more and more as the letters continue and the soldiers begin to contemplate their situation. I’ve learned a lot of factual things about the Vietnam War throughout my life such as how it began and what the outcome was but reading this book was the

The article "Why in America" by Nathan Rosenberg, we learn how manufacturing was important impact on America during the nineteenth century. America was primarily borrowed the European technology and the rate of technical change increased. There were three major reasons why american manufacturing has increased rapidly. The three reasons of rapid increase of American industries were the increase of population growth, larger amount of natural resources, and specialized machines.

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

Phuong is treated like an object to be won by the men in The Quiet American. Both Fowler and Pyle fight for her affections, without truly understanding her. Pyle sees Phuong as being an innocent, delicate victim that needs to be saved from Fowler who he believes is taking her for granted. “That night I woke from one of those short deep opium sleeps, ten minutes long, that seem a whole night’s rest, and found my hand where it had always lain at night, between her legs. She was asleep and I

A mother drives her three kids to soccer practice in a Ford minivan while her husband stays at the office, rushing to finish a report. Meanwhile, a young woman prays her son makes his way home from the local grocery without getting held up at knife point by the local gang. Nearby, an immigrant finishes another 14-hour shift at the auto parts factory, trying to provide for his wife and child, struggling to make way in a new land. Later, a city girl hails a cab to meet her girlfriends at their favorite club to celebrate her new promotion over cosmopolitans. These people – the suburban soccer mom, the tired immigrant, the worried mother from the hood, and the successful city girl – each represent the

The article “American Short Fiction and World Story” by Alan Cheuse compares the old tales to the modern short story. To start the article he talks about the old type of stories by famous writer Homer. Here talks about how these books are written by the culture of the time. With that being said, he makes the assumption that the old time tales are only applicable to the time in history they were written. This is pretty obvious because in today’s world we rarely see the events that happened in such ages. Next after talking about the period before modernism he starts to contemplate the creation of the modern short story. Here he makes a surprising claim, where he says that the modern story actually started in the United States with the famous poet Edgar Allen Poe. This is surprising to many because in the literature world most people associate modernism with European writers such as Chekov and Flaubert. He actually states the this modern sense of writing started in North America, then went to Europe and finally arrived to the res of the world including North America again. So we are left to ask, what is the modern short story like? Well, Alan Cheuse compares the modern short story to the art story. He says the perfectionists of it such as Hemmingway; owe their credit to writers like Poe because he in fact started it. The art story is a story that is written and can be applicable to any situation within real life. That is Alan Cheuse argument, and main ide of the whole article.