Americans and Individuality

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America is filled with people with diversities of ethnicities, occupations, and their idiosyncrasies. This also includes people their unique personality. In order to be individualistic, he must not conform to anyone and allow himself to make any decision he wants without any pressure or any persuasion.
Although Americans are diverse and unique, due to their moralistic values, they often contradict themselves into doing what they genuinely want instead of following their moral values. Their individuality affects their values; for example, protecting their nation, a form of patriotism, even though they want to follow their value, some just want to stay alive and not have to fight. Some Americans believe that they have their own right to do what they want, which they do, but because they have their own mindset between what they want and what they should or need to do, this contradicts their values. Other values that are also affected by individualism is the relationship between success and equality, and collective safety.
One American value is patriotism, a love for one’s country. When one has patriotism in their own country, they would want to protect their country by supporting it or take some type of action to benefit their nation. When individuality plays a part as a value, patriotism, not always, withers away. In a novel named The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, illustrates his experience in the Vietnam War. When he got a notification to be drafted and right after attempted to flee the country, he noted to himself, “I feared the war, yes, but I also feared exile” (O’Brien 42). Fighting for one’s country is a way to show that they love their own country, but O’Brien’s quote show that he still wants to be part of the nation b...

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O’Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company,
1990. Print.
Orwell, George. “Shooting an Elephant.” English Class. Distr. Mike Ried. Helix Charter High School,
La Mesa. 2014. Handout.
Reynolds, Glenn Harlan. “NSA Spying Undermines Separation of Powers.” USA TODAY. 11 Feb.
2014: SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 16 May. 2014.
Robinson, Edwin Arlington. “Richard Cory.” English Class. Distr. Mike Ried. Helix Charter High
School, La Mesa. 2014. Handout.
Tucker, Neely. “In Poll, the Public is Just Fine with Government Snooping in the Name of Counterterrorism.” The Washington Post Company. 2013 Jun 12: SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 29
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