What Is An American Essay -- Definition Essys Expository Papers

Since this great country was first established many intuitive minds have tried to answer the question; "What is an American". This country is full of individuals of many backgrounds, and diversities and each person has a different opinion on this question. In my opinion, an American is someone who values freedom and equality and pursues the "American dream." Every American exercises these rights and these are great adjectives to describe our country. Each of the seven readings, and the one image I compiled help mold this broader definition into a more precise description of an American. Robert Creeley, an influential American writer and poet, lived the ideal American dream. He wrote about his struggles early in his life. He lost his father at an early age and went away to school at the age of fourteen. He overcame all adversity to work hard for a living and, in return, live the American dream. He also wrote that the United States is a place where all people want to go because it offers a chance at renewal and making their lives better (Creeley). This, in its essence, is the American Dream; A happy and successful life to which all may aspire. My image represents this through the picture of the big house and the expensive car. Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of America, in a letter to John Adams, wrote about the benefits of America. He wrote about people coming to America and pursuing any profession they wanted and they were protected by the law (Jefferson). At that time this was the American dream; hard work could lead to a better life. This led to having enough earnings to support a family and it transformed into something totally different. Henry James, a European, around the same time criticized this id... ...ction. Works Cited Adams, John. The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1988. Alvarez, Julia. The Woman I Kept to Myself. Algonquin Books, 2004. Creely, Robert. The Collected Essays of Robert Creely. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989. Hughes, Langston. The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. Vintage, 1995. James, Henry. Works of Henry James. Including The Portrait of a Lady, The Turn of the Screw, The Ambassadors, The Bostonians, The Europeans, The Wings of the Dove. MobileReference, 2009. Mayers, Florence. A Russian ABC: Featuring Masterpieces from the Hermitage, St. Petersburg (Mayers, Florence Cassen. ABC.). ABRAMS, 1992. Nye, Naomi. Fuel: Poems by Naomi Shihab Nye. BOA Editions Ltd., 1998.