What Is an American Essay

Michael Walzer’s essay on “What Does It Mean to Be an American?” raises many points about the American citizen. Specifically, he discusses “American” as an adjective (Walzer). “American” is often associated with American citizens; while this is true, the term can also be applied to Canadians and Mexicans (Walzer). American is such an ambiguous adjective that it is applicable to all countries and individuals that are part of the North American continent. Like Mr. Walzer states, American is not a truly defined term and America is not a country (Walzer). Walzer goes on to introduce a Horace Kallen’s opinion on American’s as anonymous and their “unique” pluralism (Walzer). There are exceptions to all things; the positive to being an American is the fact that Americans can be whatever they choose to be. I feel to be an American one must believe in the American ideals, they must believe in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. American 's in general may be anonymous, however, upon further reflection they have left the definition of “American” open for each American to define the adjective for themselves.

What does it mean to be an American? Well think of it like this our generation has changed a lot throughout the years one big thing is technology we've went from just using paper and pencil to making documents and reading online. If you think about it we get new ways to learn and write stuff online and avoid paper and pencil we don't use it as often anymore, most things we use is on technology. We went from writing essays on paper to now doing most of it online we find it easier and faster and new ways to learn that aren't on paper and pencil.

If someone was asked the question “What is an American?”, how would he or she respond? Many might consider an American to be a person from the United States. However, some may discover a deeper meaning to this question and answer in a less literal way. The stories read in class from Unit One help the public to answer this puzzling question. Their description of American history gives insight about what the land was founded upon. Some impressions of the past are still seen in modern America. The common value of freedom by the Pilgrims, Olaudah Equiano, and fictional Rebecca Nurse in The Crucible and their need to fight for what they believe in, makes them very persistent people. When the Puritan Pilgrims and the slave Equiano came to America,

Americans are the stitches that held together Betsy Ross’s flag and continue to hold together the American flag. They are the tears and holes of the Constitution. They are the winds that flow freely in open fields; the waves that crash against the rocks. Americans are the salmon that are not afraid to swim upstream and go against the current. They are the bait that attract and lure other fish in the ocean to the fishing boat. Americans are a spring day with the sun shining down and warming one’s face, the sound of new life, new beginnings, and the smell of freshly cut grass and newly planted flowers. Americans are the sunrise we are guaranteed to see every morning, even after the darkest of nights.

To be American is to conform. While Ralph Waldo Emerson most certainly considered himself American, albeit a proud American, his beliefs and ideas were also inherently contradictory to American culture. After all, a born and bred, flag revering American citizen may be accused of being un-American simply because they admit that they do not like hot dogs. Yet even though Emerson’s ideas do not line up with what the American culture professes to be, they are also arguably what America needs to become the world super power and champion of free speech that it claims to be. Without the individualism that Emerson inspired, America would not be the melting pot of personality and thought that it is.

After the Revolutionary War, America was endeavoring to define itself as a country and to identify and describe itself as a people. In “Letters from an American Farmer,” by J. Hector St. John De Crevecoeur, Crevecoeur sets out to define what it means to be an “American” and how that differs or compares with Englishman and England. Crevecoeur sends a clear message that Americans are ambitious individuals willing to take a risk to start over in a new World, and uniquely distinct from their parent – England.

Venturing on to be an American means you have to of been a chunk of the melting pot. What this means is that our cultures have been leisurely vanishing and turning into something new. Like a new race of men. This new race of men would be called Americans. This new race is a new culture. This new culture is nothing like your old culture or your ancestors '. This new culture can lead to many good things. One of them is that a new culture will form, this would allow us to all come together and be as one(Millet Joyce paragraph 1).It is good by virtue of the new race of men can have more advantages in pretty much anything like

Crèvecoeur was a French writer who lived in the United States during the time of the revolution, who wrote, “What is an American,” an excerpt that highlights the ideals and foundations for the American identity during that time period. He talks about the poor European immigrant’s journey to this great country and what helps him succeed. The emigrant is tied by only “the knowledge of the language, the love of a few kindred as poor as himself”(Crèvecoeur 72) with his old country, so it is easy to sever previous ties as he heads towards a country with the same language and a bigger opportunity for wealth. The shared commonality of language helps unite the immigrants together. Without it the chances of a prospering nation are slim. The colonists would fall apart and be disunited. They would be dispersed like the Indians, the same Indians who could not cohesively unite together because of their different languages, which later led them to be expelled from the great land of America for failure to properly cultivate the

Systematic racial discrimination perhaps imbeds in any American institutions since the country was established by the founding fathers. The first obvious discrimination happened in earliest chapter of the U.S history, when the Constitution had set up the conceptual boundary for the nation. It is also known as the national identities with boundary described in the context of “Who is an American?” by Eric Foner as “... a state of mind, ‘an imagined political community’ with borders that are as much intellectual as geographic.” For America at the earliest time of its history, its identities were deserved for white male who were the immigrants from Europe continent. Virtually this early discrimination of the Europeans on their new land constructed a system of racial discrimination to all who are not white. The white immigrants in the system basically identified themselves as Americans and excluded many other groups of people residing in the same continent. The systematic racial discrimination undoubtedly has been one of the most provocative and baffled problem which sets up the boundary among all groups of people based on their differences and needed to be changed in the future, for the ideal of equality embraced by the Americans throughout their history.

America or rather the Unites States of America bears a richly diverse history that cannot be summarized even in a million books, slides or videos. The reason supporting this argument range from the broad diversity in culture encompassing so many tribes and ethnic groups to the variation in skin formations guiding the country. The story started when Columbus sailed to virgin territories and activated a massive migration schedule from European countries. What happened next was a scramble of the fertile lands that make the entire American continent from the Mexican south to the Canadian North. Migration is a functional term synonymous with the American tag since the process is taking place, up to date. The American Republic found shape in the

What is an American? How does literature create conceptions of the American experience and American identity? An American is someone who is born in America, a citizen of the United States of America, knows American culture, and knows the history of it. One becomes an American by either being born here automatically and becoming a citizen, or moving here from a different country and then becoming a legal citizen. Literature creates conceptions of the American experience and American identity by giving you an idea of what it is like by the things people write about. It also gives an idea of what our country might be like because our country can be so different from other countries especially third world countries. American literature as a whole

Throughout history, America has grown into a prosperous country inhabited by many native-born citizens as well as immigrants. As America advanced, its citizens developed an identity for themselves that in turn reveals itself in American literature. Through the portrayal of obstacles, experiences and common ideas, the writers Michel-Guillaume Jena de Creve Coeur and Thomas Paine explore and illustrate the American identity’s essence. These common ideas include the following: the need and desire for independence; the desire to work hard and smart; and the respect for oneself and others. Creve Coeur depicts the American identity in Letters to an American Farmer, and Paine illustrates his understanding of this identity in Common Sense.

Because of this new American identity, acclimation resulted in the denial of ethnic differences and cultural practices in order to Americanize people through conformity and further the idea of national American identity (50). The acculturation problems of the Native Americans and African Americans are unique and need special consideration because of their unfair treatment, but ethnic assimilation in the traditional metaphor was crucial for ethnic groups to form new national identities, governed by the principals and values shared by all. The view that America should not significantly change from the traditional melting pot of assimilation is supported in Letters from an American Farmer, written by Crevecoeur, where he talks about the making of the American as a man who “leaving behind him all ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds” (52). My thesis is centered on the rights of an individual adapting into American society rather than ethnic or social groups. My opinion is that those who assimilate to American culture by learning the English language, and immersing themselves in the social practices are more easily able to pursue individualism and independence. Yet there are still several main issues with assimilation. One of these issues is called “ghost-values,” and the term is used to describe the echoes of one’s past as it pertains to ethnic assimilation (51). These echoes of the past are referred to as “a certain residue, a kind of ash,” by author Peter Marin (51). Another is an example from the text that reflects a mixed view of ethnicity

The Civil War, gender difficulties and immigration matters are just a few of the things that transformed the characteristics of a true American but there are so many more circumstances that explain what an American truly means. Throughout history events like the new immigration quotas, the McLaren Walter Act, and the creators of several large companies have all influenced the way Americans think and view themselves. In the past the America identity has been molded by certain events, no one knows what future affairs will come to change the American identity in the years to come. The difference between an American and the rest of the world is a way of life that has to be experienced first-hand or else it is impossible to know the true joy of this beautiful

In the short story ¨What is an American?¨ the message that Michel-Guillaume Jeon De Crévecoeur introduces is, accepting all the changes you have to go through to give yourself an opportunity. The characteristics and actions of the people will consider if they are allowed to be considered an American or not.