What is an American?

After the class discussion I do not believe that my definition of an American has changed, but it did open my eyes to the opinions of what others believe an American to be. To me an American is proud, opinionated, free, powerful, equal, and determined. I still believe all of these describe an American. After reading the poems in class I found that not everyone thought of Americans equally. "What is an American" written in 1782 clearly defined an American as a native born white Englishman. This definition seems to be completely opposite of what the general population today would think of an American. Being an American includes all races and ganders and allows all citizens to start off at an equal standing in our society. Other writings we discussed revealed to me that people believed that America should not be open to foreigners. America is the land of the free; a place of refuge, and to exclude anyone therefore goes against this entire principle. The statue of liberty represents a place for people to come and start anew, start a whole new life from an equal standpoint of every other American. This means that no matter their color, gender, heritage, race, or even age can stop them from a happy and fulfilling life like they were kept from in their original country. After our class I still believe my view of what an American is has remained the same, but I have learned that not everyone truly the believes widely used adjectives correlated with this view and that to me is extremely ignorant and even un-American.