What Being American Means?

What is the true meaning of being an American? Millions of people migrate to the United States of America in order to achieve their dream and earn the name of an American. People leave their old homes to start a new one in the United States of America. Even people that are already technically Americans try to achieve their American dream by any means necessary. In the letter, “What is an American?” by J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur. de Crèvecoeur states “What then is the American, this new man? He is either a European or the descendant of a European; hence that strange mixture of blood, which you will find in no other country.

I could point out to you a man, whose grandfather was an Englishman, whose wife was Dutch, whose son married a French woman, and whose present four sons have now four wives of different nations. He is an American,” (de Crèvecoeur 33). This explains that not all Americans are supposed to be native to the United States of America in order to be considered an American.

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And that those who are not native make great sacrifices to complete their trip to America. A true American is anyone that does not really have to be native to America, but has the right reasons to live in the United States, who wants to reach their own American Dream, who has sacrificed a lot to become a true American, and who has a deep desire to achieve the title “American.

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Many people come to America for their own reasons, mostly for a greater and better life. People come to live in American from an American dream, which they defined as having things like a great career, a home, and being successful in life. But in reality, all that is needed to reach one’s selves American dream is a person’s dreams in life. In the short story, “America and I” by Anzia Yezierska, she expresses, “As a young girl hungry for love sees always before her eyes the picture of lover’s arms around her, so I saw always in my heart the vision of Utopia America. But now I felt that the America of my dreams never was and never could be. Reality had hit me on the head with a club. I felt that the America that I sought was nothing but a shadow--an echo--a chimera of lunatics and crazy immigrants. Stripped of all illusion, I looked about me. The long desert of wasting days of drudgery stared me in the face.

The drudgery that I had lived through, and the endless drudgery still ahead of me rose over me like a withering wilderness of sand. In vain were all my cryings, in vain were all frantic efforts of my spirit to find the living waters of understanding for my perishing lips, Sand, sand was everywhere. With every seeking, every reaching out I only lost myself deeper and deeper in a vast sea of sand.” (Yezierska 25-26). This shows however mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard times. A person does not need things to reach his or her dream, all that a person really needs is what they already have. This means it's all about the way a person thinks that determines if they will reach their dream. Another example of why many individuals come is because, “Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world.” (de Crèvecoeur 33). This shows that everyone is equal in the United States. America is now a melting pot of cultures so that everyone can be equal. If everyone is equal in one country then everyone will be able to succeed in life.