Definition Essay: What Makes An American?

What Makes an American One of the founding fathers of America, Thomas Jefferson, once stated that the people of America “are all created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” (Jefferson ). Now, what is an American? An American is someone who has the power to voice their opinion. What I mean by having the ability to voice one’s opinion is that the people have the freedom to take action and steer America down the path they have chosen through reaction. Americans are people who fight through the pain of reality. We may be knocked off of our feet occasionally, but we are so united on the fact of freedom that we build ourselves …show more content…
There are some things people of America say or do that signifies the American culture. When witnessing it happen, you cannot help but think to yourself, “that is a very American thing to have happened.” An American is someone who believes that everyone is born with the god given rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. An American is someone who has a voice, and by that I mean they are allowed to say what they mean without resistance. An American is someone like Patrick Henry who took the initiative to explain his feelings about Americans under Britain’s control. He believed that Americans deserved to be free because the treatment the colonists received from the king was brusque. Henry’s belief seemed far-fetched from the colonists’ perspective because they could not imagine a society different from the once they lived in then. What they did not know was that Henry’s idea was closer to being achieved than they expected. In Henry’s address to the Virginia Convention, he stated, “Gentleman may cry ‘Peace, peace’-but there is no peace. The war has actually begun! Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death”