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Thomas Paine Argumentative

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Thomas Paine Argumentative
2011 AP English Language and Composition Free-Response Questions

Question 3

In Rights of Man written by Thomas Paine, Paine characterizes America as a union of people from many different nations speaking many different languages with no straightforward judgements against those who are poor and those who are rich. I wholeheartedly find myself believing Paine’s characterization of America. Scenario 1: America is a country where people of different nationalities stand together and proudly announce themselves by the title of “ I am an American.” There in America is not one person who can be found with the same blood origin running through the veins. My neighbor across from me is Chinese and my next door neighbors are Russian with a tint of Japanese dating back from the beginning of the 20th century when Russia was found to be at war with Japan. They are Americans who came to America in hopes of living a better and more peaceful life. The same can be found with others who came to America. Many came to America in hopes of escaping the religious revivals happening at home in order to escape persecution. These immigrants were aware that America wasn’t a judge for the many different religions that existed and the many different groups of people who exist. So when Europeans were being persecuted because of the way they practiced their religion in the 1800s many of these “New Immigrants” came to America hoping to practice religion the ways they wanted to. America held nothing against those who had differing outlooks on life and held nothing against those who were of different ethnicities because unlike many European countries, America has had its civil war which led to an outright acceptance of people who looked different and were oftentimes considered inferior. Scenario 2 : There were a few cases of people who had difficulty adapting to America because America had different traditions along with customs that were celebrated back at home. America, for one, had a

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