An American is English...or French, Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Australian, Iranian, Asian or Arab, Pakistani, or Native American. They are every ethnicity in this world. It does not matter what you are or where you are from in America, you have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else. Although America started off cruel we dug ourselves out of the hole and became who we are today Jean De Crevecoeur’s essay, “What is an American” says the American is a new man with equal rights and they have left their home to start a new land where everyone was treated the same, fairly. However when you hear the story of Chief Joseph in “I will fight no more forever” you soon realize that is not how America started; the chief and his tribe were slaughtered by the Americans on their own land. Caspar David Friedrich's story, ”Transcendentalism“says the American came to be because they wanted to be free and equal, it explains what we were supposed to be before we took the native land, and what we were going to do to fix it. We are not all the same but we all have the chance to be; we can not be defined by any one stereotype or multiple stereotypes for that matter, we are diverse.

America is a new home built on freedom and equality.  “What is an American”  shows that no matter what race or background, you can live peacefully and independently."The American is a new man, who acts upon new principles;he must, therefore entertain new ideas and form new opinions" An american is new we have not yet established who we are so we come up with ideas for ourselves and form and share opinions to work for the greater good. We are fair to all and respect each other, we have moved from our parent country to this new land to change our ways and become united. Europe is not ours any more we accept all and we will be independent, we will not change our ways, and we will only get stronger. Only this is not how America was built we did need to change our ways, we ran the indians right off their own land and that is not what we became independent to do.

The Americans are not who they say they are.”"It is cold and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills,and have no blankets,no food; no one knows where they are-perhaps freezing to death."  This is a quote from “I will fight no more forever” and it is a letter from chief joseph who had been attacked by the americans and had first hand experience with the cruelty of the united states. The american troops had killed some and the captured the rest of the indian tribe only 40 miles from freedom in Canada instead of letting them leave where they would never bother the U.S again. It is showing that we may say were are good but that is the mask of kindness that covers the face of evil, and we are not who we say we are. People knew america was turning evil and not focusing on equality, something had to change.

America was due for a big change. ”Transcendentalism“  says that we are not who we say and we are not changing for the greater good. “Let us demand our own works,laws and worship” this quote is similar to what our rights are today “Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of happiness”  the story is asking for the permission of the U.S to vote and demand, this also shows the government is not allowing the U.S citizens to be who they are, they are being told who to be and this was making the country fall as a whole. This story says we need to change our ways and become who we were destined to be, and that is exactly what we did.

America is whatever you want it to be. It could mean peace or it could mean war, it could be sad or it could be happy it does not matter because whatever you want is possible. What is an American showed us that the American is a new man and we have equal rights. I will fight no more forever showed us that America was headed in the wrong direction and we did not have rights or equality, but Transcendentalism showed us we can fix ourselves by being what we want to be. There are more good than bad, as long as we have that we will be America.