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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 3 page essay that responds to De Crevecoeur's famous essay. J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur (1735-1813) wrote about his impressions and his pride in an infant country, a nation of immigrants, the newly formed United States of America. In his essay "What is an American," he offers the opinion that "...we are the most perfect society now existing in the world" (De Crevecoeur). The writer responds to this and other statements, considering the historical context, and then relates them to today's culture. No additional sources cited.
Page Count:
3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khjhsjdc.rtf
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United States of America. In his essay "What is an American," he offers the opinion that "...we are the most perfect society now existing in the world" (De Crevecoeur). To
substantiate this statement, De Crevecoeur contrasts American culture with features of European society at that time. He points out that American society has "no princes," for whom the people
"toil, starve, and bleed" and, in American, a "man is free, as he ought to be" (De Crevecoeur). In contrasting Europe and the US, De Crevecoeur emphasizes that America is
without a stark contrast between rich poor. He suggests that in the US, one does not see "great lords who possess everything" next to "a herd of people who have
nothing" (De Crevecoeur). In America, at this time, there were no "aristocratic families, no courts, no kings, no bishops, no invisible power giving to a few" (De Crevecoeur). He felt
that the "rich and the poor are no so far removed from each other" and pictured the majority of Americans as simple, good farmers. At the time that De Crevecoeur
wrote his observations concerning America were largely true. Excluding the issues of slavery and equality for women, the young US was largely a classless society of immigrants earning their living
from the soil and the sweat of their labor. European society, in contrast, had institutionalized class divisions that kept the rich and the poor firmly in their place. Referring to
this, De Crevecoeur argues that it does not make sense that "a poor European emigrant" should feel any attachment for the country of his birth, which gave him little, but
rather should embrace his adopted country, which "gives him land, bread, protection and consequence" (De Crevecoeur). It is because of this change in circumstance that De Crevecoeur argues that an
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