What+does+it+mean+to+be+American?

What does it mean to be American? America is a tune. It must be sung together. ~Gerald Stanley Lee    "Your father got a han'bill on yella paper, tellin; how they need folks to work. Costs 'em good money to get them han'bills out . What'd they want ta lie for, an' costin' 'em money to lie?" (Steinbeck, 92)



[|Fred Phelps]  "Repression works only to strengthen  and knit the repressed." (Steinbeck, 238) 

 REFLECTION: The structure of society causes the United States to form a hierarchy. The rich live on the top, while the poor struggle to survive and support the rest of society. Many people are oppressed by this system, for it's extremely difficult to rise to the top of the social ladder, and make it in America. Being an American also means being controlled by corporations and medial influences. Once someone turns on the TV or flips through a magazine, they are convinced that they need to buy something or convinced that something must be true because it was reported in the media. The United States bases it's Declaration of Independence on the phrase "all men are created equal". While this may be true for some, many people are still struggling to be included in that saying like the LGBTQ community and the poor. Even during the 1960s, we still struggled to live up to this phrase, when we segregated colored people from whites, and repressed them if they tried to fight against the law for what was morally right.


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