American Culture

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Recommended: American identity theisis

America has been known to be a successful and free country. Through popular music, art, film and literature, we can discern that American identity is defined as being based on freedoms within the country, helping others and treating everyone as equals.

One means of experiencing American culture is, the movie, The Blind Side, shows what it means to be an American by telling a story of helping others and treating everyone as equals. The movie is about a seventeen year old African-American boy, named Michael Ohr, who is homeless and has drifted in and out of the school system for years. He is taken in by a southern Christian family, the Tuohys, and is given the chance to go to a very racist private school and basic things that he has never had such as a bed and a chance to get somewhere in life. He gets to play football at his school and turns out to be an amazing player. College coaches hear of his talent around the country and invite him to play for their teams, but to go to college he had to learn to stay in school and do his work with the help of his new family. In this movie, the Tuohys show Americanism by taking in Ohr and not judging him by his skin color. Everyone in his school judged him because he was the only black man in his white Christian private school. But the Tuohys helped him and took him in because he was in need of help and treated him like they would treat any other person.

Another form of expression, visual art, provides another perspective on American life. The photo of “Raising of the Flag at Iwo Jima” shows what it means to be an American. In the picture, a group of men lift the American flag at the top of a hill during the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II. With the men raising the flag, it shows ...

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...les of liberty, freedom, and equality which are demonstrated through our culture through art, music, and literature. They have been demonstrated throughout these cultural elements for years. As Americans today, we still value these principals today just as much as we did 250 years ago.

Works Cited

Hancock, John L. _The Blind Side_. Perf. Sandra Bullock. Alcon Entertainment, 2009.

Rosenthal, Joe. Raising of the Flag at Iwo Jima. 1945. Famous Pictures Magazine. Ed. John Bodkin.

King, Martin L. “I Have a Dream”. March on Washington. Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C. 28 August 1963.

Lincoln, Abraham. “Gettysburg Address”. American Civil War. Soldier’s National Cemetery, Gettysburg. 19 November 1863.

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1960.

West, Kanye. “Jesus Walks”. The College Dropout. Roc-A-Fella Records. 2004.

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