Theme Of Democracy In America By Alexis Tocqueville

In the book “The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta”, John Ridge suggests that even though America was a democratic country in the 19th century, the citizens awarded true freedom, rights and the label of “American” to only the white people and disregarded people of color. On the other hand, the article “Democracy in America” by Alexis Tocqueville suggests that the rise of democracy in America created equality in the society with everyone being equal in class and all other social aspects. Although both authors give different depictions of American society and reflect on the issue differently, the article by Alexis Tocqueville when paired with John Ridge’s text helps the reader in establishing and solidifying the idea that one will not face racism and prejudice in 19th century democratic America if they are white and that American society is not all egalitarian and fair as how it was presented.

In “The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta”, John Ridge expresses how 19th century America was not the land of …show more content…
In the article, Tocqueville uses the democracy in the United States, to examine Europe and how it was ruled by “a small number of families, who were the owners of the soil and the rulers of the inhabitants…” (13), until the Church came into power and established the “poor and the rich” (13) and the “villain and the lord” (13) as equal. This is important to note because Tocqueville simply believes that since the church has defined all beings as equal, they will now begin to intermingle and have formed an equal and classless society, which is false and it shows that he fails to realize that labels don’t lead to