The United States and cultural myths pertaining to this country have been a topic of discussion for many years. Stephanie Coontz’s “The Way We Wish We Were”, David Brooks’ “One Nation Slightly Divisible” and Margaret Atwood’s “A Letter to America” are all essays about different American cultural myths. Each author focuses on a different cultural myth that pertains to the United States. They explain how these myths are thwarting a realistic view of America. As well as changing the perception of the country as a whole. The major cultural myths of America among the texts are about “ideal families”, “ideal lifestyles, and a “ideal country.” Many couples in the United States idealize the myth of a “tradition family”. The idea that a woman can spend quality time with her child while maintaining an effective sexual life with her partner seemed to have caused a lot of stress during the 1950s. Coontz’s says “this hybrid idea drove thousands of women to therapists, tranquilizers, or alcohol when they tried to live up to it.” (Coontz, 569). Which explains that it is merely impossible to try to mold a family to be “ideal.” Many families still strive for a traditional life, which they define as life “back in the day.” They need to forget the past and start living in the 21st century. “Two-thirds of respondents to one national poll said they wanted more traditional standards of family life.”(Coontz, 582). Which goes to show that many families want to change to what once used to be perceived as an “ideal family” but “the same percentage of people rejected the idea that women should return to their traditional role.”(Coontz, 582). Families want to take bits and pieces from what used to be “traditional families” over time and create their own i... ... middle of paper ... ...United States once had amongst the world has lessened, which is also why seeing America as an ideal country would be thwarting a realistic view of the country. If the United States just takes a step back from trying to be the most dominant country, it can regain its status among other nations. Stephanie Coontz’s, David Brook’s, and Margaret Atwood all discuss American cultural myths in their respective essays “The Way We Wish We Were,” “One Nation, Slightly Divisible,” and “A Letter to America.” All three authors elaborate on specific cultural myths, whether it is about an ideal family, an ideal lifestyle, or an ideal country as a whole. As a result of analyzing the three texts, it is clear that the authors critique Americas image in their own was. As well as elaborate on why the realistic view of the United States is being squelched by major cultural myths.
Boyer, Paul S. The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People. D.C. Heath and Company, Mass. © 1990
Brinkley, Alan. The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. Print.
In each of the authors essays in this book, is the truth of the smut and other things of the American ideal. You could say it is a liitle bit Weber's Protestant Ethic meets Larry Flynt. In each scenario, whether through agricultural facility and personal liberties, in the case of marijuana criminalization; immigrants in search of a better life, in the case of stigmatized farm workers; or punishing a successful businessman because of his lack of morals, Eric Schlosser returns to the unpleasant image of America as a bundle of hypocrisies.
The United States was a recently forged nation state in the early 1800’s. Recently formed, this nation state was very fragile and relied on the loyalty of its citizens to all work collectively toward the establishment and advancement of the nation states. Many members of the nation state gave great sacrifices, often their lives, to see that the united states was a successful and democratic. However, the United States, was fundamentally a mixing pot of all foreign people (excluding marginalized Native Americans). This early 1800 's flow of new “Americans” continued as people sought new opportunities and escaped religious or political persecution and famine. One notable
The term “America” does not have one but many definitions that various people have come up with through out the centuries. Some believe America is everything they could hope for and some have believed that it is not what it seems. Frederick Douglas’ What to the Slave is the Fourth of July and Michael Rogin’s text Political Repression in the United States are two pieces of historic evidence that show what each individual imagined America as. Although both pieces have similarities, they have differences as well not only in their ideas but their writing style and content as well.
Whether it is an ad, an educational program, or a job interview, the air of American character still echoes throughout America today. It may not be seen in the struggling to provide for one’s family in today’s society, but rather the struggling of immigrants from the past helps give America an identity. In the end, American character is not just one aspect of life, particularly the first western frontier, but it consists of many waves of this western frontier, which ironically resulted in its disappearance. Thus, the close of the western frontier opened a new chapter in American life, American character, and the American dream.
The United States has a unique character shaped by its history and culture that sets it apart from any other nation in the world. America’s character is incomparable to other nations because it is shaped by the ideals of freedom, social mobility through hard work and the opportunity of achievement and success. There are many defining moments in America history that represent American Character.
Marcus Garvey once said, “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” Cultural aspects and beliefs of a nation’s people are often shown through stories of that specific people. This is displayed heavily in stories such as Bloody Mary, How the World Was Made, Coyote and the Origin of Death, Jack and the Varmints, and the tale of Devil’s Tramping Ground. From these stories, pieces of the American culture is illustrated through value of beauty/youth, desire for a sense of community, the way some Americans speak, and interests in mystery.
America was widely known as a “melting pot” of sorts for many generations. The country earned its title by accepting immigrants of various cultures and molding, or melting, them into the American lifestyle. However, the “melting pot” idea of America is starting to dissipate. According to a Newsweek Poll on the public, “only 20 percent still think America is a melting pot” (Morganthau and Wolfberg, par.4). As more Americans push away immigrants and create stereotypes against said immigrants, America continues to lose its title as a “melting pot.” There is ethnic friction in America and people have begun to have a hard time assimilating (Morganthau and Wolfberg, par.18). .America is beginning to place a negative outlook on its culture. Authors Jack Shaheen, Richard Rodriguez, Peter Marin and Zora Neale Hurtson all shape American culture in a detrimental way.
Huntington, Samuel. 2004. “Who Are We? The Challenges to America’s National Identity”, New York: Simon & Schuster.
Thernstrom, Stephan. A History of the American People. Vol. 1. San Diego: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1989. Print. ***
Americans strive to obtain the American dream, but they fail to realize that it is our own dissatisfaction and anger that get in our way of keeping the American dream alive. John Steinbeck’s, “Paradox and Dream”, describes these paradoxes that linger in almost all Americans lives. Steinbeck shows how Americans believe in these things, but they contradict them by the actions they take or the words we say. He describes how Americans are dissatisfied, angry and intemperate. John Steinbeck portrayed a negative attitude towards Americans and their ideals by displaying how most are dissatisfied and angry, intemperate and opinionated, and believe in these certain things about ourselves that are not always true.
Imagine yourself immigrating from a different country. Many things you are looking for is the American dream, such as stability. The idea of the American, aspirational concept, that has as its theme shared values, a sense of community, and shared prosperity was probably best captured in president Franklin Roosevelt's Four Freedoms Speech. In the speech, President Roosevelt spoke of the quintessential American values of: Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Speech, Freedom from Want, and Freedom of Fear. While surely the freedoms of speech and religion are bedrock American values, this essay will focus on how the Freedom from Want, and the Norman Rockwell portrait titled, “Freedom from Want”. This painting is based off President Roosevelt's Four
America is a very prominent country that has many values and characteristics that define our society. Two of the main factors that is associated with the core American values are individualism and self-reliance. The United States is known to be a country of freedom where it is easy to express personal beliefs and strives for independence. The Distant Mirrors book displays the origins and ideals of the individualism perceived in America.
Since the beginning of time, people had the need to explain and understand all the mysteries of the Universe. They didn’t have the same science as we do now, but they still created stories -Myths- to help them understand the unknown. All around the world, there are many cultures with different beliefs, languages and race; which lets us have several different myths. The Colombian and Korean cultures are very different but they both have myths about the sun and the moon. They may be different but they let people understand the origin of these two celestial objects.