How Did Crevecoeur Shape The Sense Of The American Identity?

For a country that is not even 250 years old, the United States has seen a great deal of change in its physical nature; what was once the thirteen original colonies quickly expanded into one massive country with influence extending far beyond its geographical borders. Yet because the country covers so much land, many regional nuances and dialects are reflected in the works that come out from each section of the country. From accents, to food, to history and culture, no one place defines what America is as a country, but all combine to provide the sense of one American identity. American writers from the 19th century express this sense of regionalism, so this sense of the country’s identity is defined via the regions that make up the entirety.
Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, a pro-American writer during the American revolution lived a life full of traveling and experiencing vastly different cultures. He was born in Normandy, France, but made his way to England and Canada, before settling down in Orange County, NY as a farmer. It is through his travels and life as a farmer where a passion and appreciation for nature began to grow. Taking his thoughts and experiences to paper, Crevecoeur transcribed essays that not only shed light on the beauty of the American land, but also sparked the interest of Europeans to visit this foreign land, thus helping establish an American identity unarguably rooted in nature. Although most of his writing came from the late 18th century, his use of nature to expand upon what it meant to be an American aligned with the themes of regionalism and realism of the 19th century. Crevecoeur begins his piece “Letters from an American Farmer: Letter III. What Is an American,” eloquently expressing his love of this flourishing young country in saying that he “wish I could be acquainted with the feelings and thoughts which must agitate the heart and present themselves to the mind of an enlightened Englishman, when he first lands on this continent. He must greatly rejoice that he lived at a time to see this fair country discovered and settled.” (605) This opening comes at a very turbulent time in United States/ Great Britain history, as the American Revolutionary War is beginning to wind down,
He lived most of his life while the ideal of idealism was the most prominent, which greatly influenced his writing. Realism, according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary is “literary or artistic theory or practice that affirms the preeminent value of imagination as compared with faithful copying of nature.” Emerson was an idealist, but many other notable American writers of the 19th century are often considered to be realists, the opposite of idealists. Realism, “the theory or practice of fidelity in art and literature to nature or to real life and to accurate representation without idealization,” is commonly reflected in the writings of Mark Twain, another extremely influential 19th century American writer. Emerson’s use of idealism can be seen in his first book Nature. Emerson speaks widely on religion in Nature, but the book is not considered to be Christian, but rather one that is “influenced by a range of idealistic philosophies.” (179) The amalgamation of nature and religion in this book embrace idealism most accurately in Emerson’s description of the “Transparent eye-ball” in which he “[is] nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal being circulate through me; i am part or particle of God.” (183) Since the eye is transparent, it does not reflect nature, but rather is able to see it as it is absorbed. Emerson furthers this