Thomas Paine, an english pamphleteer, wrote the book “Rights of Man’” in 1791. Within his book, Paine expresses his personal portrayal of America. Thomas Paine’s characterization of America being the country that is built upon a just government who allows all its citizens to be treated as equals is somewhat true.
To begin, Thomas Paine states that our government was built “on the principles of society and the rights of man”, this is a true statement. Our government was created by the people and for the people back in 1789. This is when the Federal Government of the United States was founded. With George Washington as president, he and the first members of congress decided to build the country on our new freedoms and rights by creating The …show more content…
He brings up this part of his characterization by stating that america is a place where “the poor are not oppressed”. As history has reveled in the past, there were times when people were oppressed and stripped away their freedoms due to their differences. One example of America’s oppression of differences is the Civil Rights Movement that took place from 1954 to 1968. The Civil Rights Movement occurred in order to end the oppression against African Americans. During this time, African Americans were treated differently than Caucasian Americans. People in America went as far as labeling water fountains, bathrooms, and even schools as “black” or “white”. Not just the labeling was considered oppression but the rights and freedoms African americans were deprived of. For example, African Americans and Caucasians were not allowed to be married or have children together. Going back to Thomas Paine’s characterization of America, his opinion of everyone here being equal is inaccurate proven by America’s history of …show more content…
An example of rich people being privileged is going along the same lines of the standard American way of life. I have noticed when grocery shopping, that healthier options of food are more expensive than its unhealthy counterpart. Thus, making eating healthier easy for a person who has a lot of money versus someone who is poor. A very popular epidemic in America is our obesity rates. It's been heavily advertised throughout the past couple of years to eat healthy in order to lose weight. That's almost impossible for someone who is a middle to lower class, they can not afford to eat healthy even if they wanted. This is where rich people are more privileged than the rest of society. They can afford to buy better food to nourish themselves and their families. Connecting back to Paine’s statement, this particular detail can be argued positively and negatively. He firmly believes that in America the rich are treated as equals, which in some cases is true. However, his belief that rich people are not privileged is inaccurate to today's society.
In conclusion, Thomas Paine's characterization of America in mostly true. Most of his thoughts can be compared to history, as well as modern examples to be found as accurate. On the other hand, the rest of his thoughts are challenged through America's past along with the modern way of
To begin, Thomas Paine states that our government was built “on the principles of society and the rights of man”, this is a true statement. Our government was created by the people and for the people back in 1789. This is when the Federal Government of the United States was founded. With George Washington as president, he and the first members of congress decided to build the country on our new freedoms and rights by creating The …show more content…
He brings up this part of his characterization by stating that america is a place where “the poor are not oppressed”. As history has reveled in the past, there were times when people were oppressed and stripped away their freedoms due to their differences. One example of America’s oppression of differences is the Civil Rights Movement that took place from 1954 to 1968. The Civil Rights Movement occurred in order to end the oppression against African Americans. During this time, African Americans were treated differently than Caucasian Americans. People in America went as far as labeling water fountains, bathrooms, and even schools as “black” or “white”. Not just the labeling was considered oppression but the rights and freedoms African americans were deprived of. For example, African Americans and Caucasians were not allowed to be married or have children together. Going back to Thomas Paine’s characterization of America, his opinion of everyone here being equal is inaccurate proven by America’s history of …show more content…
An example of rich people being privileged is going along the same lines of the standard American way of life. I have noticed when grocery shopping, that healthier options of food are more expensive than its unhealthy counterpart. Thus, making eating healthier easy for a person who has a lot of money versus someone who is poor. A very popular epidemic in America is our obesity rates. It's been heavily advertised throughout the past couple of years to eat healthy in order to lose weight. That's almost impossible for someone who is a middle to lower class, they can not afford to eat healthy even if they wanted. This is where rich people are more privileged than the rest of society. They can afford to buy better food to nourish themselves and their families. Connecting back to Paine’s statement, this particular detail can be argued positively and negatively. He firmly believes that in America the rich are treated as equals, which in some cases is true. However, his belief that rich people are not privileged is inaccurate to today's society.
In conclusion, Thomas Paine's characterization of America in mostly true. Most of his thoughts can be compared to history, as well as modern examples to be found as accurate. On the other hand, the rest of his thoughts are challenged through America's past along with the modern way of