American Identity Essay

Despite, or perhaps because of, this country’s short history, the American identity is one of the most highly contested and undefinable of intangible ideas. Many of the highly debated abstract concepts are so often and sometimes needlessly argued over because they are indefinable. So much can fall under the categories of these types, like art, love, and poetry, that deems them impossible to narrow down into workable definitions. A blank canvas can be considered art and free verse is somehow still poetry, but the vagueness of the definitions of these words is not what plagues the attempts to specify the American identity. It is instead the juxtaposition of blatant contradictions that makes this particular abstract so difficult to pin down accurately. America consists almost solely of polarization at this point, and the contradictory counterpart oriented nature was not simply invented by the last few generations. The nation’s conception is due to a great attitude of defiance and great acts of rebellion. It follows easily that a launching point might set enough precedence that the definition could orient itself around this same perspective; i.e., that the American identity could become defined by the exact disobedience that constructed the existence of such an identity in the first place. The most inclusive parameter of said identity to be present while still defining it more than the fans of semantics will with other abstract concepts is the progress based evolution of ideals…

The African American community has been the object of several studies in social sciences, mainly in sociology and psychology. Among the aspects studied from African Americans, identity is one of them. Identity is defined by Ritzer and Ryan in The concise Encyclopedia of Sociology, as the way people think of themselves. In others words, cultural identity is how one expresses his or her individuality or group affiliation. For African Americans, cultural identity could be perceived as the way…

Most people tend to practice old ways, never challenging the thoughts or beliefs they’re following in fear of being viewed as different. The American Identity is an idea of being a strong, generous person with their own views and opinions without looking to others for guidance. In the story Sleep Hollow written by Washington Irving, Ichabod Crane and the American Identity are complete opposites. Director Tim Burton put his own twist on the movie Sleepy Hollow. Although in both the movie and…

Nigerian-American is a terribly uncomfortable hyphen that’s not commonly talked about. In a Nigerian-American household, the parents only represent the left side of the hyphen. They were born and raised and lived in Nigeria. The children of the household represent the right side of the hyphen, whether they were born in Nigeria or not, their disposition always ends up taking on some of the ideals of their American environment. As a Nigerian-American I can speak of many of the conservative…

Importance of Caribbean Cultural Identity and Diaspora Cultural identity is one of the most important aspects of human life, which can understand in many different ways. People usually regard culture as one shared thing, which remains unchanged throughout their lifetime. In Stuart Hall’s “Cultural Identity and Diaspora” essay, he illustrates the essential features of cultural identity by providing and discussing two important definitions of cultural identity and diaspora. Hall’s first…

Personally, I believe the media is more pervasive when it comes to setting gender roles and identity in society. Media serves as a way to socialize people from a young age. Nevertheless, Agents of socialization are very important for the development of people and their ways of thinking. Family, friends, school, television, and many more things have an impact on the way people view society. Media serves to show what things are acceptable in society and that things are frowned upon. Even though,…

unique identity; a distinct American identity. In 1776, America declared its independence from England because they had irreconcilable difference with England due to an evolving American identity that clashed with England’s foreign policy on matters of economic ideologies, ethnic backgrounds, and lifestyle. A combination of these factors and England’s underestimation of the strength of the American identity, led to America gaining its independence in 1776, and…

Gender Identity I am from a conservative Asian-American family and part of being in this family was having a strong sense of who and what you are. I remember as a child growing up I never had any other feelings of being anything other than female. Around the age of 5 when I started noticing the opposite sex, I can tell in my mind this is a boy and I am attracted to him. Having a sense of being female and what this meant to me was how I identified my gender (Ramirez, 2015). In today’s society,…

accessories and wardrobe (e.g., a straw “Coolie” hat, a Maoist Red Guard uniform). In 2004, Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle featured two Asian-American leads, both of whom played stereotypical Asian roles. The identity of Asian Americans has long been constructed through popular culture. This paper seeks to analyze how Asian American identity is constructed in popular culture by examining Asian American identity through a theoretical approach, as well as in sports and literature. Through a…

The American identity resulted from America’s early British roots and the separation that America experienced from its colonial roots as it emerged as a young nation. The events leading up to the revolution illustrate how deeply America was intertwined with Britain and the rapid escalation of tension between the two, comparatively post-revolutionary America is when America began to truly develop a unique and personalized identity that separated America from its original British roots. In 1607…