American Life Essay, Research Paper

America has had its times of despair and advances but through it all we have learned new ways, cultures, and overall advancements in life. Throughout the literatures we were given to read and analyze, there were many things about American life that not only related to now but also showed us lessons learned and conflicts repeated through time. To myself and maybe others, the pieces presented to me in class had the ability to bring me into another world. In each piece, I was almost warped to a different time of America and had the ability to see many things. One thing I would like to compare is not only the trillion changes and differences we have made from those times to now but the common sense of diversity that has lurked our environment for decades and decades. Diversity can be broken down in some pieces of life including heritage, religion, race, color, and overall culture. Different cultures and civilizations have been the reason we have succeeded in this world and advanced to where we are now, yet they also have caused many wars and conflicts with each other. Through the pieces we see people treated as outcastes for their beliefs, groups evicted from society because of different religions, men trying to take the position of God and ridicule every mistake and sin made, and lastly mere differences in color causing people to be enslaved. Among all these things we notice one conclusion that can be made is we have had our differences in time in all aspects of life and we have fought those wars for them, but why 100’s of years later are we making the same mistake?

First and foremost, religion; the heart of cultures, the worship of spirits, and the causes of war has not only played a factor in our life today but has been evident in old American life. Evident in one piece of writing was the influence of religion back then in every culture. A man, preacher, with the ability to deceive the people, acted as the perfect example of God and took it upon himself to speak for God. Simply by acting as a religious man, he was able to make people believe that they were Gods false creations and nothing but sinners. He was allowed to trick many people into a different lifestyle because of worries of being sent to hell. He tricked the people into believing that no matter what they did it was a sin even if it wasn’t. Why he did this is unknown but one many conclude the reason is to better his chance in afterlife. The more sinners there are the better chance he will have in being accepted into heaven. The reason I used this man as an example is because of the influence religion has on people. Throughout time many individuals or groups have posed themselves as something they are not in lewd of religion. Religion has been a source of violence and anger towards other groups and religions. Recently there have been many terrorist attacks more towards Europe but also in America defending religions and appeasing others. In time many have turned to religion for salvation and a place of comfort and prayers, yet it has also posed a threat and an ingredient of diversity in America.

Continuing with religion is also your own beliefs in what ever it might be. Many people through time situate themselves in a certain “click” where some occurrences may be considered weird and different to other groups. We read bout the witch trials in early American time and the minute I read about them all I could think about was the movies and real life events I have seen in my own life. Besides witches, maybe people have been treated as outcastes in their life and it has only resulted in rebellion and deaths of themselves and others. Gothic, witches, and many other groups have one thing in common and one thing that separates them from the normal; that is different ways and beliefs towards living life. In the witch trials outcastes were portrayed as the bad people and just for being different were trialed for their existence. It is very much like today in every day life not necessarily a trial for life or death with jurors and what have you but true believers in gothic or witchcraft are put to the test daily by peers. They are forced to live in a world as outcastes and a label placed on their forehead reading abnormal. In any case the only way to survive is to be strong and stick with what you believe, if you are a follower where will life lead you, yet if you are a leader you know where your headed.

Lastly there is the well-known factor of racism and prejudice. This has lurked around our society for as long as people have been here. The prejudice may be towards a certain race or ethnic group or it may be towards a gender. Through out time we have allowed ourselves to make classes and make the minorities not only less powerful but also easily enslaved. Our culture consists of many mistakes, one unforgotten one is the time of slavery. As long as America will stand we will forever be haunted with the gruesome images of American slavery. African Americans were kept unlawfully and unwillingly to work for the white people who had more money and power in the society. Many wars were fought over this, yet why is it that it is evident in our life a hundred year later?

Life is basically a roller coaster, as it continues you will always hit your turns at a fast pace, climb that big hill, do that flip that changes your life for good or bad but if you don t notice it always goes back to the beginning with a new generation of people on board. Rapping it all up, we need to allow people to live by trial and error and as long as they are allowed to dictate their own life, their destiny is up tot hem and no one else. We are all individuals in a network of cultures, religions, races, and classes now all we have to do is learn how to work as a team.