Americans have many defining traits. These characteristics are shown in the development of the American Dream to the “melting pot”. The traits of Americans are explored in works by J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, Senator John McCain, Emma Lazarus, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Elizabeth Blair. Their works all include descriptions of characteristics of Americans, with the pieces going back from the 1700s to the present day. Americans are hardworking, optimistic, and multicultural. A core trait of Americans is that they are hard workers. In. J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur’s “What is an American?” from Letters from an American Farmer, “[Americans’] labour is founded on the basis of nature, self-interest…From involuntary idleness,
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In “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus, she writes, “’Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…’” (Lazarus 9). The “huddled masses” are drawn to America because of the optimism that they have that life will be better than in their homelands. The Statue of Liberty itself, the main focus of the poem, symbolizes hope as well. In addition, the same theme is shown in a speech by Franklin Delano Roosevelt commemorating the Statue of Liberty’s gifting to the U.S. He says that many of the new immigrants greeted by Lady Liberty were poor, but had great hopes for the future. He then flashes forward to when the speech was given, saying that Americans should preserve their faith in the future. FDR gave this speech in the midst of the Great Depression, when hope could have been lost, but the people of the United States continued to look up—just as their ancestors had …show more content…
In it, Blair states that Americans have a “fractured culture”, or that Americans all have a variety of interests instead of one shared culture, and uses examples of popular music and television shows. She also states that people have the ability to share in all of them, supporting America as a multicultural, diverse nation, but still keeping unity. Americans are part of different cultures and are from different backgrounds—but are united as Americans. Americans have many core features. In the first body paragraph, Americans are shown to be hard workers and are given opportunities in America, because of their love of labor and appreciativeness of good opportunities in the works of de Crevecoeur and McCain. In the second, Americans possess optimism, shown by FDR’s speech and Emma Lazarus’s poem. In the last body paragraph, Americans are marked by being multicultural because of the melting pot in “What is an American” and Blair’s article. Therefore, Americans possess traits of ambition, hope, and
In “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus, she writes, “’Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…’” (Lazarus 9). The “huddled masses” are drawn to America because of the optimism that they have that life will be better than in their homelands. The Statue of Liberty itself, the main focus of the poem, symbolizes hope as well. In addition, the same theme is shown in a speech by Franklin Delano Roosevelt commemorating the Statue of Liberty’s gifting to the U.S. He says that many of the new immigrants greeted by Lady Liberty were poor, but had great hopes for the future. He then flashes forward to when the speech was given, saying that Americans should preserve their faith in the future. FDR gave this speech in the midst of the Great Depression, when hope could have been lost, but the people of the United States continued to look up—just as their ancestors had …show more content…
In it, Blair states that Americans have a “fractured culture”, or that Americans all have a variety of interests instead of one shared culture, and uses examples of popular music and television shows. She also states that people have the ability to share in all of them, supporting America as a multicultural, diverse nation, but still keeping unity. Americans are part of different cultures and are from different backgrounds—but are united as Americans. Americans have many core features. In the first body paragraph, Americans are shown to be hard workers and are given opportunities in America, because of their love of labor and appreciativeness of good opportunities in the works of de Crevecoeur and McCain. In the second, Americans possess optimism, shown by FDR’s speech and Emma Lazarus’s poem. In the last body paragraph, Americans are marked by being multicultural because of the melting pot in “What is an American” and Blair’s article. Therefore, Americans possess traits of ambition, hope, and