The Role Of Individualism In American Culture

One of the most pervasive values in U.S. American culture is individualism, and understanding its effects can help illuminate many aspects of the culture. In American culture, in order to succeed and achieve one’s personal best, one must be strong and independent. In more collective cultures, accomplishments and successes may be viewed foremost as an honor to the group, for example, how it reflects upon one’s family or hometown community. In the US, a person’s success is more likely to be attributed primarily to the hard work and perseverance of the individual. Literary works reflect the main ideas of the American mind. An American theme that is seen in various works of literature is individuality. Individuality is expressed in many different
Taking as unquestionably "self evident" the idea that "all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” (Jefferson), the Declaration makes the rights and potential of the individual the cornerstone of American values. The fact that these lines from the Declaration are among the most quoted in all of American letters testifies to the power and resonance of this commitment to individual freedom in American culture. The Second Continental Congress affirmed the Declaration's privileging of the individual by making the signing of the document an important occasion. That is, by using the representatives' signatures as the means of validating this public document, they attested to the importance of individual identity and individual consent to government. John Hancock's famously large signature is thus a graphic emblem of the revolutionaries' commitment to individualism. Of course, the Declaration's assertion that "all men are created equal" conspicuously left out women and did not even seem to include "all men": when America achieved independence, many individuals found that their right to liberty was not considered self-evident. For African American slaves, Native Americans, and many others, the new nation's commitment to individual rights was mere rhetoric rather than reality. America was built on the social-political ideals of Individualism; the philosophy of self-reliance, in the face of peril, and in the name freedom. American communities were forged by rugged personalities, adventurers and entrepreneurs, determined to secure their freedoms in a new land, far from the archaic ideas of statism that were popular throughout Europe. The new world became a nation of nations, including individuals from all over the world from an array of