America

America

In Creating America, Joyce Moser and Ann Watters suggest that, "In understanding American identities, we need to come to terms with unity and division, with separateness and common ground." The 3 pairs of correlative words in the previous quote, which are American identity, unity and division, and separateness and common ground, are all contradictory pairs. America, which implies a public generalization, is the opposite of the idea of a personal identity, just as unity and division and separateness and common ground are opposites.

The main idea behind the episode Diversity Day from the sitcom The Office is to illustrate the ignorance of people who think they know a lot about racism, but are really some of the most unintentionally racist people out there. For instance, at the beginning of a meeting about diversity, Michael Scott, the manager, says, “This is a color-free zone.” This illustrates the complete wrong way of dealing with differences. It is foolish to ignore differences, or to try to cover them up. We should celebrate our diversity. Also, if Michael doesn’t wish to acknowledge the differences in his workplace, what does he see everyone as? Whatever he chooses, that is subconsciously saying that this is the superior race. Everyone wishes to be this race, whatever it may be.

In Carson McCullers’ Loneliness...An American Malady, it describes one aspect of the American identity as being loneliness. This is best illustrated in his quote, “It has been said that loneliness is the great American Malady. What is the nature of this loneliness? It would seem essentially to be a quest for identity.” The summation of his text supports the contradiction of Moser and Watters argument. They say that the American identity is a contradiction, and McCullers says that we can cure our loneliness by seeking our identity, yet we seek our identity alone.

In Richard Rodriquez’s Does America Still Exist, he tackles the idea of what being an immigrant means and...