Obama Speech Analysis

“Of relating to, or characteristic of the United States or its inhabitants.” This is an American according to the dictionary. A person who represents the stripes and stars of the United States flag. People living in freedom, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. This is right, but in my opinion an American is someone who honors the United States on what it has become in your first person view, liberty, and to be a hard worker to get to your goals in America. Honoring the United States is a huge part of being an American. For example in the story of McCain he states, “Mike had a keen and deep appreciation for the opportunities this country -- and our military -- provide for people who want to work and want to succeed”(McCain 5). Mike defines
an American because he honors America by being in our military to serve and protect in the U.S. Navy. Another example in McCain’s story is when he states, “Mike got himself a piece of white cloth and a piece of red cloth and fashioned himself a bamboo needle. Over a period of a couple of months, he sewed the American flag on the inside of his shirt. Every afternoon, before we had a bowl of soup, we would hang Mike's shirt on the wall of our cell and say the Pledge of Allegiance”(McCain 7-8). This part of the story defines an American honors his or her country because Mike sewed a flag in his shirt and still pledged his country in another country that was capturing him as a prisoner. Mike in this story is an American because he honors his country no matter how bad of a situation he is in bad or good. Another part of history that defines an American is liberty.
For example in the speech Address on the Occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Statue of Liberty Roosevelt states, “If we keep the faith for our day as those who came before us kept the faith for theirs, then you and I can smile with confidence into the future. It is fitting therefore, that this should be a service of rededication, rededication to the liberty and the peace which this statue symbolizes”(Roosevelt 13). This part in Roosevelt’s speech defines an American because Roosevelt is explaining that Americans have liberty to give to people who come in this country and look at that statue. Roosevelt is an American because not only was he thirty second president ,but he kept liberty alive to define
Americans. Lastly an American is a hard worker who gets to their goal in their American life.
For example, in the short story America and I the author Anzia Yezierska states, “Ach! America! From the other end of the earth from where I came, America was a land of living hope, woven of dreams, aflame with longing and desire”(Yezierska 2). Although Aniza isn’t American she did what an American would do by working he way towards her goal which was to reach America or in her word “...a land of living hope…”. Anzia Yezierska is an American in my opinion because in her story she honors America when she is finally accepted as an American which she worked hard to get to that goal to and now she lives upon the statue of
liberty. What is an American. The dictionary or Google will say this “Of relating to, or characteristic of the United States or its inhabitants.” But Americans are people who honor the stars and stripes, they are people who live upon liberty, and people who work hard for their life goal. This term “American” affects me everyday just when I see that flag and I put my right hand on my heart I accept saying the pledge of allegiance. When someone criticizes America it’s because they aren’t American or they just don’t have the honor being an American. To be an American is to be fat and lazy because of all the privileges we have in other countries. To be an American is like any other country to respect our founding fathers on what they made of our country.