Blog Entry 1

My ideas of American identity have definitely been challenged by the ideas of other people, writers and american figures who have presented their own ideas to society that have seemed different from mine. This is because there are countless people who have made points about the definition of being American that have opened my eyes and allowed me to realize other ideas as well as my own. I will admit that many people's ideas of being an american have definitely impacted my personal ideas because there are many people in history who have made me realize that the definition of an American can be different because many people's ideas are based off of their own situation (in terms of social standing, ethnicity, culture, etc.) For example, Langston Hughes poems about how America is "free" opened my eyes and allowed me to realize that the definition of free itself is not as simple as one would think. American's are "free", but there are still so many other factors that hinder a person's freedom or oppurtunities which makes freedom much harder in today's world as well as in the past as it seems. Also, seeing how Creveocoeur's definition of an American made me realize how each and everyone of us is a mixture of cultures, ethnicities, religious backgrounds and class that have all melted together and whether or not we have realized it, there are so many different factors that have shaped us into unique individuals. For the most part, I think that my ideas of being an American have changed but more in the way that I have been exposed to so many more ideas and views which have expanded mine and allowed me to further understand the meaning of being an American.