American Identity Analysis

Each of the following writers; De Crèvecoeur, Quinney, and Turner has a different opinion on how the “frontier” has played an important role in forming American identity or if it even had one at all. Beginning with J. Hector St. John De Crèvecour it is noticed that the so-called frontier is not even discussed. De Crèvecour had an experience that was said to be “thoroughly European” (Horwitz 23). This is an experience that had led De Crèvecour to see America as its new-found self. Many identities, many ways of life and many job opportunities. De Crèvecour states “the citizens are a “new” sort of people; that their environment – a “natural” land of fecundity, liberty, and opportunity” (Horwitz 23). This all giving away that America, its people, and its land are now expanding and diversifying.
Expanding the opportunities to all and allowing for individuals to roam free and truly have an idea of self. De Crèvecour in just a few short lines describes the identity of America by saying “Diverse nationalities and faiths, he said might well “melt” into a more peaceful, justice-loving, and prosperous original, and it should be the envy of the world” (Horwitz 23). This is why individuals from all over make American identity what is, because we are nation of self-identification and a free one at that. The next writer to be discussed is John Wannuaucon Quinney. Quinney, had a very different outlook on American identity, and what made it what it is. Quinney wrote a speech at a time when it was very difficult for Native Americans as well as others. “John Quinney addressed citizens on Independence Day, 1854, which was also the 1st year of his U.S.