Эссе "Кто такой американец?" - "What Is an American?"
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What Is an American?

The image of the American people as a united nation, having special culture and traditions, has been developed by many men of letters: by the publicists, philosophers, poets and writers.

The American writer of the French origin J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur in his “Letters from an American Farmer” has paid attention to the fact that in America such merging of blood is observed that cannot be found in any other country. In particular, he wrote: “Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world” (Crevecoeur 3).

And we can notice that the main way to form this new nation he saw in interethnic marriages. John de Crevecoeur asks: “What then is the American, this new man? He is either an European or the descendant of an European, hence that strange mixture of blood, which you will find in no other country. I could point out to you a family 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...” (3).

As far as we know the emigrants who arrived on the American continent received not only plough-land, but also the freedom to work on it, equality and freedom to confess any religion without restrictions. This country has given them land, bread, protection, and as a result – America has become their new Motherland.

Crevecoeur’s description of the newly born American nation is very enthusiastic and exalted. So we can say that it is semi-romantic and semi-realistic.

        Such optimistic and progressive conception of “the melting pot” found the supporters in the XIX century too. So, it was backed up by one of the most influential intellectuals of that time, writer and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson.

        Emerson stresses out that a true American should “take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that through the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till… A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best…” (Emerson 1).

        The writer also points out that Man should be himself in all the situations without concerning what other people think of his actions but be a part of Nature and lead the life in harmony with it. “I suppose no man can violate his nature… There will be an agreement in whatever variety of actions, so they be each honest and natural in their hour” (Emerson 5). And one more interesting quotation verifies our opinion: “He cannot be happy and strong until he lives with nature in the present, above time” (Emerson 7).

Opposing ideal democracy based on confidence to the authorities and abstention from everything harmful, a real American in his opinion, however, does not lose optimism and sympathetically investigates difficulties, which arise on the long and hard path of the nation.

Henry David Thoreau in his essay Resistance to Civil Government supports Emerson’s ideas about the unity of Nature and people not taking any dictation from any authorities. He is sure “That government is best which governs least” or even “That government is best which governs not at all” (Thoreau 1) as to his mind people themselves should decide how to live in a real union with their conscience.

We can trace the character of an ordinary American not only in philosophical essays, but also in the works of fiction. Many famous American writers paid a tribute to the description of this problem.

In the course of time character of people had changed. Business-like manners, aggressiveness, and fussiness appeared instead of former enthusiasm, belief in the future. And at the same time many people lost their orientation in life and could not find their place in the existing world of money, business and profit.

The main character of the story “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving lives in a small village of Dutch colonists near Kaatskill mountains, not far from New Amsterdam. The main feature of Rip is “an insuperable aversion to all kinds of profitable labor” (Irving 35).  But he is ready to wander in the wood, in the mountains or to sit with a fishing tackle all day long. He patiently and silently bears his quarrelsome wife’s attacks, and his easy and careless customs allow him living such an idle life.

Rip’s returning home after his long enchanting sleep gives us an opportunity to compare "old" and "new" times. It becomes clear that all the changes are hardly to the best. The people in the village now are business-like, interested in different political parties, elections, talking about their civil rights but they have lost their coolness, serenity and calmness. And Rip Van Winkle becomes more amiable to us than his new fellow countrymen.

We can clearly see the influence of business activity on the people’s personality while reading Henry Melville’s short story “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street”. The author narrates about individual’s lack of freedom in the face of the public life laws and Nature.

Henry Melville portrays some different people affected by the surrounding conditions. They are not already those free and enthusiastic men that had been spoken about by Crevecoeur, Emerson or Thoreau. These characters prove the destructive and harmful influence of the then existing society. There were three of persons in the described office: Turkey, Nippers and Ginger Nut. All of them were somehow bitten by the circumstances and became miserable and pitiful, and became victims of the society. But the one who gains our sympathy most is Bartleby, the fourth person in the office “who was the scrivener the strangest I ever saw of or heard of” (Melville 21) as the author tells about him. His sad history was similar to those sad “dead letters”, with which he had worked for years. And we can say together with the writer: “…pardon for those who died despairing, hope for those who died unhoping; good tidings for those who died stifled by unrelieved calamities.” (Melville 68).

Some people even go crazy with the craving for money just like in Edgar Poe’s story The Tale-Tell Heart. We see that the character attempts old man’s life and kills him. But he does not even realize his activity because his perception is already deformed.

Speaking about the contemporary society Jack London indicates that very frequently people are self-confident, consider that can do everything. But as he points out in his essay What Life Means to Me: “It was the same everywhere, crime and betrayal, betrayal and crime – men who were alive, but who were neither clean nor noble, men who were clean and noble but who were not alive. Then there was a great, hopeless mass, neither noble nor alive, but merely clean. It did not sin positively nor deliberately; but it did sin passively and ignorantly by acquiescing in the current immorality and profiting by it.” (London 5).

In conclusion we can note that the image of the ordinary American in the American literature has changed with the course of time. At first it was the person – conqueror of Nature, free from prejudices and full of life. Afterwards, in works of fiction we meet with the characters calling for sympathy and pity.

So who can be called a real American? We can answer this question with the lines of the great American poet Walt Whitman who identifies himself with all the people living in the country, with the whole American nation irrespective of age, color or social status of its population. The lines are from his Song of Myself:

 “I am of old and young, of the foolish as much as wise, Regardless of others, ever regardful

 of others,

Maternal as well as paternal, a child as well as a man, Stuff’d with the stuff that is coarse and

stuff’d with the stuff that is fine,

One of the Nation of many nations, the smallest the same and the largest the same…”                                                                                                                        (Whitman 11).

Works Cited

Crevecoeur, J. Hector St. John de. From Letters from an American Farmer: 1 – 11. Copy.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Self-Reliance: 1 – 14. Copy.

Irving, Washington. Rip Van Winkle. The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. Oxford:

University Press: 33 – 49. Copy. are from his Song of Myself:

London, Jack. What Life Means to Me: 1 – 6. Copy.

Melville, Herman. Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street. The Piazza Tales. New York: The Modern Library: 23 – 68. Copy.

Poe, Edgar Allan. The Tale-Tale Heart: 1 – 3. Copy.

Thoreau, Henry David. Resistance to Civil Government: 1 – 13. Copy.

Whitman, Walt. Song of Myself: 1 – 41. Copy.