What Does It Mean To Be An American
4th Period Definition Essay, “What is an American” FINAL DRAFT
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What Is an American?
What does it mean to be an American? Many will have similarities in their answers but none will ever be the same. When we started this unit, my definition was to have a deep history in the U.S., having opportunities to better yourself, and having freedom. Some people are never able to experience the feeling of living the American dream. Native Americans, who are the original people of this land had their freedoms taken away and have had less opportunities even though they roamed this land and made history on it before anyone else did.
However, there is much more to defining an American than that. Being an american is more than just having a deep history in the U.S.. It is …show more content…
The poem “I, Too, Sing America” by Langston Hughes is a direct response to Walt Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing”. Whitman's poem is about those who make up America and he says how each worker sings their work, loud and proud. However, this does not include colored folks. Hughes, in his poem, states, “I, too, sing America./ I am the darker brother./ They send me to eat in the kitchen”. This is his way of saying that he is not included in with the “average” American because he is colored. His job is merely a servant compared to others and he in incapable of singing his work proudy. Hughes disagrees completely and shows that he, too, sings his work loud and proud even if his work is considered less than the others. At the end of the poem, Hughes finishes with, “They’ll see how beautiful I am/ And be ashamed”. This was his way of saying that one day in the future, people will be ashamed that they ever treated him and others different and they will see his true colors shine through. These text examples uses the definition strategy of negation because two texts are compared and one of the texts directly responds to another, they
Paste your final draft here:
What Is an American?
What does it mean to be an American? Many will have similarities in their answers but none will ever be the same. When we started this unit, my definition was to have a deep history in the U.S., having opportunities to better yourself, and having freedom. Some people are never able to experience the feeling of living the American dream. Native Americans, who are the original people of this land had their freedoms taken away and have had less opportunities even though they roamed this land and made history on it before anyone else did.
However, there is much more to defining an American than that. Being an american is more than just having a deep history in the U.S.. It is …show more content…
The poem “I, Too, Sing America” by Langston Hughes is a direct response to Walt Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing”. Whitman's poem is about those who make up America and he says how each worker sings their work, loud and proud. However, this does not include colored folks. Hughes, in his poem, states, “I, too, sing America./ I am the darker brother./ They send me to eat in the kitchen”. This is his way of saying that he is not included in with the “average” American because he is colored. His job is merely a servant compared to others and he in incapable of singing his work proudy. Hughes disagrees completely and shows that he, too, sings his work loud and proud even if his work is considered less than the others. At the end of the poem, Hughes finishes with, “They’ll see how beautiful I am/ And be ashamed”. This was his way of saying that one day in the future, people will be ashamed that they ever treated him and others different and they will see his true colors shine through. These text examples uses the definition strategy of negation because two texts are compared and one of the texts directly responds to another, they