What Does Being American Mean

First of all, an American is someone who serves our country. For example, In the essay, “Veteran’s Day: Never Forget Your Duty” by John McCain he defines America by talking about being prisoner of war and serving our country. To McCain to be an American is “Duty, honor, country …. Never forget those thousands of Americans who, with their courage, with their sacrifice and with their lives, made those words live for all of

I am an American. I choose this word to represent me, although others may not acquiesce and won’t categorize individuals who aren’t born in this country to be Americans. In others perspective, to be an American means to have the blood of an American. But I on the other hand, don’t have the heritage and the qualifications that are expected of me to be an American but that is the word that I have chosen to describe myself regardless. The definition of what it means to be an American is debatable and varies from each person. It is more about what you are about rather than who you are. It is contributing to this country, pledging allegiance to a flag and being open to the idea of life, liberty, and equality.

How to be a good American means following the laws. By doing that it makes you an good citizen. You have to give back what you get for example; giving out your opinion and being able to have freedom. Being an good American means being able to speak your mind or anything really and being able in a way be a leader for people or even for yourselves. Just being a good citizen, being helpful around and be kind to people in need of help. Giving back or just give someone who needs our help when they need it the most.

What it means to be an American is that you have the freedom to vote freedom of speech. You have the liberty to be what you want in America no one chooses for you. Also have the liberty to work wherever you want not be someone 's slave. Being American means you don 't have to hide your religion, the color of your skin or your sex. You have the ability to speak what you want. There are so many good things about being American but there are some downsigns.

The question, “What is an American?”, can be defined differently by different people. What makes up an American can be looked at in different ways. However, an American in my opinion comes from textual evidence, defined through many different readings, such as the “Letters from Columbus”, the story of “Olaudah Equiano”, and from “Of Plymouth Plantation”. As it is defined, Americans come from slavery, but at the same time, they also come from freedom. With points from Equiano and Columbus, and also William Bradford, a Puritan, as well as with the constant changes between exploitative colonialism, violence, and the strive for freedom, America is based around both forms of Slavery and the determination for Freedom.

In the current political environment, the question “What does it mean to be an American” is one that really caused me to think and reflect deeply. And while some are vowing to “Make America Great Again”, I think there are already a number of things that already make America great and make me proud to be an American. Early on, our founding fathers suggested through the Constitution that at its core, what it meant to be American was simply “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” That’s a fairly simplistic notion and the focus of my essay explores whether this literal interpretation can still apply in today’s more complex society or whether being an American requires more than that.

Being an American means a few things. Freedom, protecting the weak, loving your country, and being active in political affairs. The most important and also the most defining is freedom. Americans are free in both mind and body; able to think freely and, for the most part, act accordingly. Being an American means that almost anyone can run for government positions. Being an American means that if you don’t like the laws, you work to change them through politics. Being an American means dreaming bigger than reason, and working to fulfill that dream. Being an American also means that while you are free to disagree with America’s government and political figures, you realize that America is trying it’s best, and you respect that.

When you ask a non American “What does America mean to you?”, they will more often than not answer with hamburgers, obesity, NFL and Reality TV. That is okay because who doesn 't love hamburgers and football filled Sundays, who doesn 't love watching silly reality TV shows and who doesn 't love a cheat day every once in awhile? Those people are judging a book by its cover and fortunately for me… well my thoughts about America are quite different. When an individual asks me “What does America mean to you?”, I immediately think of three words, freedom, love and family. The most important right someone can have in this world is freedom and luckily for americans we have the luxury of freedom all the time. America has the freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly and petition, the freedoms I just listed are only a few that America are known for. Sadly for other countries, most of them do

In some of the pieces of literature like “I, Too, Sing America,” “America and I,” “The Bill of Rights,” and “Veterans Day: Never Forget Their Duty” the authors have different ideas of what it means to be American. They also express their ideas using different strategies: negation, classification, and function. With these ideas and strategies a more complex definition on what it means to be American was developed. Being an American means being patriotic, having freedoms, and believing in a dream of something amazing.

What is America all about? What is America defined as? America is more than just its geographical boundaries. To everyone in the world, America stands for something. People believe in America. America is the place that seems to give opportunities and equal changes to all. They have more freedom than others (but not total freedom). America is a united people working together. I believe America is a place where all people have a chance to succeed in life. I also believe that in America people have the freedom to stand up for their beliefs and fight for them.

Being an American is simply having equal rights, equal opportunities, freedom, and a safer, better life. There are countries that are so strict that if you are seen doing something you are not supposed to, you will be arrested and killed. That’s why we are so privileged to live in a country that allows us to do what we want to.

To be an American to me is not about your ethnicity, religion, or language you speak. It’s about your beliefs and what you add to this country. Americanism can be shown through many things throughout our community, and an important trait to an American citizen is that we respect everyone no matter their appearance. One of America’s traits is being a very

When a person hears or sees the word America, what do they think? America is a country that almost everyone in the world knows about because there are certain words and phrases that can be used to describe it. Some common terms are sports, equality, the melting pot, powerful, freedom, hard working, and some more. All of these words make up what is known as the American Identity. This American Identity has been built up over time by people’s actions and thoughts. Many advertisements, TV shows, pictures, movies that use the American Identity to draw attention. One such advertisement comes from Nike and is called the equality ad. This advertisement uses some of these identities to express their point and connect it to a larger Identity. The Nike Equality advertisement portrays the American Identity of equality by using famous figures, battling stereotypes, and connecting to the Declaration of Independence.

Finally, people still alive like my grandma may say different. When I asked her this question, she left me with this answer “It means you’re free to make your own choices”(Mary Eaton). This comes across as the same type of answer I gave. This is because she still is alive now to realize what is going on to this day, which results in an opinion like others. If she had remembered what an American identity was like back then, then her opinion could have been different. As things settle down as well there hasn’t really been much to tweak the opinion of others.

The actual definition of American is relating to, or characteristic of the United States or its inhabitants. Being proud of who you are and the place you live. Americans have defined themselves not by their racial, religious, and ethnic identity but by their common values and belief in individual freedom. An American says the Pledge of Allegiance and understands that voting is important to Democracy, individually Americans value freedom and are proud citizens, and the freedom of human right.