Blog #1

My idea of an American or what it means to be American have been challenged by both people from this country as well as many outside of it. Many American writers such as Langston Hughes and Emma Lazarus have put their ideas of an American into their writings and made me think about my own ideas of an American. One thing I realized is that each person is going to have their own idea because of where they are from or where they grew up, in short, there is not one true definition of what it means to be an American. Take the author Langston Hughes for example, his idea of an American is someone who is free, but they are free only because they are financially well off, and can afford to have it. On the other hand, Emma Lazarus sees America as a place to start over, where if someone had a bad past, it did not matter once they set foot on American ground. These two authors are from America and their definitions come from personal experiences or something that they have seen first hand. A different view of an American comes from the Author Crevecoeu, he believes that America is a melting pot of many different peoples, races, and cultures mixed into a new, almost hybrid culture. All of these writers have challenged me to truly think about what it means to be an American and what the American people stand for as a group.