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To be an American is a big thing, a thing highly sought after from people of many other kinds and walks of life. But what does it mean to be an American, what does it take? Do you need to be a specific color, or from a specific nationality? Does your father have to be in the military or does your mother have to sit at home and knit? What exactly is America built on what ways does it make so many other wish they had it? And what has shaped us to what we amount to today? “Oscar handlin has said “Once I thought to write a history of the immigrants in America. Then I discovered that immigrants were American history.”(Kennedy 23). Thats a big statement but is it true? Well before you sit down and start to pull and pry on the history of the nation through brain rocking books of time, you first need to just answer this simple question, what's my heritage… What's my best friends heritage... . Through this process you will find a blend of Irish German Italian or Polish and many more other countries. That provides one answer to the question, you can be of any nationality skin tone or sexuality to be an American it makes us more diverse and accepting. “This nation is founded on a conundrum, what Mario Cuomo has characterized as “community added to individualism””.(Quindlen 14). That quote is …show more content…
in conflict of it's own words one might say or think, but in all reality it's the only true way to describe the american identity.
America has done what you would think to be impossible, like taking your beautiful like bunny and putting in a cage of hungry lions with
expectations to live. Yet we have taken the blacks and the whites and the irish and the jews and we have woven them together to form what many people would consider as one of the top nations in the world. So by taking each and everyone’s individualism and making communities from it you create the idea of America, and the great concept of the melting pot, and you form a nation that is brought closer and closer even threw the fighting and hatred that is seen many times too often. The crazy concept we don't even second guess or think about, the idea that we can make a beautiful and long lasting, beautiful display of life and community in the form of one great country. A country that never would have survived its early years had it not been for immigrants. A country that is like a stone found in a river bed smooth from the friction of conflict and fighting that has shaped the way our great country is today.
To be an American is to be proud of your flag and country, to be willing to suffer for America, and to never be willing to give up.
What does it take to be a true American? This question is something that is always in the back of people’s minds every day as they try to execute the right interpretation of one. Being an American is more than being a legalized citizen, it is about recognizing the accurate perception of different ideas of a better society and their benefits. Despite all the diversity of ethnicity, culture or religion, being a real American is about being able to be devoted to their country and to fight for their rights and freedoms.
What does it mean to be an American? To me, what it means to be American is to Pledge Allegiance to your country, to proudly boast that you live in a country that has a justification for existence, to be given opportunity. Although there are many definitions of what it means to be an American, does being an American really just mean being successful in society? The point of this essay is to describe the different meanings and my feelings of what it is to be “American”.
What is culture? Culture is the idea of what is wrong or right, the concept of what is acceptable within our society. Culture serves us as a guide, taking us to the "right way" and helping us to make sense of things that surrounds us. There are many different cultures around the world. A lot of them are similar in specific ways and others are just completely different, this difference explains why we think that people from different backgrounds are "weird".
To be an American is to be able to leave everything behind and form a new way of life, also a new way to view life. There are two literatures that explain the importance of being an American. Ambush by Tim O’Brien and Why Soldiers Won’t Talk by John Steinbeck. They both have personal experience in war.
What does it mean to be an American? Over the years the answer to this question has varied so much, depending on the culture and influences of that particular time. Yet, I believe that what makes us truly an American is something that never changes with the decades. It isn’t like a fad, or the type of music that is most popular, being an American has to do with something so much deeper than that. So what makes a person American? I think that in order to properly answer this question we have to break it up into smaller, more easy questions to answer. So, let’s merely start with defining the word, American. According to Oxford Dictionaries as an adjective,
The definition of an American, is someone who is a citizen of the United States. Many African Americans, and immigrants struggled to become actual Americans in their lifetimes, because others didn 't see them as actual people; and based it on the color of someone. In today 's world people who live in America consider themselves as Americans, but to me there is certain qualities that make a person an American. To me being a true American is not based off of what Country they were born in, or what race their parents are, or even if they were immigrated to the United States. People from all over the world would say that maybe people could base this off of someone 's family heritage, or where they were before they came to America. If you were asked what makes an American an American what would you base it off of? To me there are four specific characteristics that make a person a true American; those three things would be, freedom, individuality, belief in the country, and happiness.
We all have this vision of America and what Americans truly are. Most people go by what is displayed on television: children running and laughing, parents grilling outside conversing with other parents, and the American flag waving in the distant. As happy and peaceful as all that may seem the real question still remains unanswered; what is the real meaning of being American? Honestly, being American comes with its advantages and disadvantages. The main part of being an American is having freedom and endless opportunities offered to you.
Many people have asked the question, and many others have been asked, ‘What is the greatest country in the world?’ Or, if you live in America, ‘Why is America the greatest country in the world?’ Many people answer this by saying things such as freedom, education, diversity, etc., while others may say the people who live here, namely, Americans. Yet few are able to sufficiently answer the next question, ‘What makes a person an American?’ Many will say that living here makes you an American.
Being an American cannot simply be defined by skin color, culture, or religion. This nation cannot be defined in a simplistic manner like many other nations. For instance, other countries define themselves by their accent or by the types of food they consume. According to Sarah Song, “To be or to become an American, a person did not have to be any particular national, linguistic, religious, or ethnic background. All he had to do was to commit himself to the political ideology centered on the abstract ideals of liberty, equality, and republicanism” (31). Therefore, being American simply means having the same views about equality, liberty and republicanism as our American ancestors.
Being an American is more than just living in America, or being born in this country. Many people talk about being American’s and they aren't even in this country. Being an American is a way of life that people adapt into by seeing how we act. People all over the world eat the same things that we eat, so that can't really be a way of being an American. To me, being an American is embracing our ways of life, not fighting for the other guys, and loving our anthem and the flag.
America is built on the preconceived premise that all people have the right to work towards happiness. Americans over the years have tried to define what being an American truly means. An American can be defined as one with endless opportunities, pride in their country, and the chance for a future for oneself and their families.
I was born into a home, to parents who fostered a deep appreciation for culture, not just my own but all cultures. They taught me that every people and ethnicity contributes something beautiful to the human experience through their music, wisdom, humor, food, architecture, knowledge, and humanity. Perhaps their love of all cultures made me appreciate my own so profoundly. I am of Mexican-American heritage, and I carry with me the values of a proud, gentle, hard-working, passionate people.
My personal cultural identity is a lot different compared to the society I am surrounded by. I am considered an outsider in my society. I am an outsider living in a constantly changing environment where there are many different kinds of people and many different cultural identities. In my culture we know how to respect people and their belongings, know how to work hard, use what we have while being thankful for it at the same time, and last we know how to stay true to ourselves in this very fast pace world of ours. I am a cowboy.
My family and family history starts like most people’s. Two people fell in love, they had kids, their kids had kids and so on and so forth. But where we come from and who we are, is a completely different story. From our European roots, to the mixing of our blood once my family migrated to America, my family is quite complex but one that I am proud of and love greatly.