Religion and Individualism
Lilit Markosyan
Different countries have different cultures, traditions and values. They represent the image of the nation, people’s mentality, how they think and behave, and what they strive for and struggle for. With the help of them we judge of what is important in life of a person, of a nation, of a country. America is not an exception. Despite the great number of various ethnic groups that inhabit United States, there are things that unite all the people. Among them are such values like freedom and independence that entirely characterize America. The American founding fathers felt that this concept was of utmost importance when they were deciding what the United States Of America would be and how it would function. In the second paragraph of the “Declaration of Independence” it‘s written: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” This is what sets the U.S. apart from all other countries in the world. Other values are beauty, nature, patriotism, optimism, and equality. All of them are described by different American writers, painters, politicians and philosophers. Probably the most important ingredient of Americans' ideology is their belief in the freedom of the individual called individualism. America’s highest ideal and greatest blessing is freedom and each individual decides to what purpose should it be employed. Everyone should set his own goals for himself. Americans are considered to be rather religious nation. A majority of Americans report that religion plays a very important role in their lives. We can see how various writers, politics and painters talk about religion and express it in their works. In this paper such values as religion and individualism will be analyzed, through the words of Emily Dickinson, Abraham Lincoln, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Emily
Different countries have different cultures, traditions and values. They represent the image of the nation, people’s mentality, how they think and behave, and what they strive for and struggle for. With the help of them we judge of what is important in life of a person, of a nation, of a country. America is not an exception. Despite the great number of various ethnic groups that inhabit United States, there are things that unite all the people. Among them are such values like freedom and independence that entirely characterize America. The American founding fathers felt that this concept was of utmost importance when they were deciding what the United States Of America would be and how it would function. In the second paragraph of the “Declaration of Independence” it‘s written: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” This is what sets the U.S. apart from all other countries in the world. Other values are beauty, nature, patriotism, optimism, and equality. All of them are described by different American writers, painters, politicians and philosophers. Probably the most important ingredient of Americans' ideology is their belief in the freedom of the individual called individualism. America’s highest ideal and greatest blessing is freedom and each individual decides to what purpose should it be employed. Everyone should set his own goals for himself. Americans are considered to be rather religious nation. A majority of Americans report that religion plays a very important role in their lives. We can see how various writers, politics and painters talk about religion and express it in their works. In this paper such values as religion and individualism will be analyzed, through the words of Emily Dickinson, Abraham Lincoln, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Emily