Christopherson, Yes, America is Cultured!

Although I am still not convinced that America is as cultured as say, France (mais bien sur), this class has enabled me to articulately argue with people that yes, America does have culture and history running through its veins. I really always had faith that America was more than just a land of uncivilized hooligans who wanted to escape persecution. However this class has allowed me to base that on facts. Consider all the great works of literature we have studied in this course. I particulary enjoyed the works of American Romanticism by Cooper, Emerson, Thoreau, Irving, and Alcott. Exploring each of these magnificent works by brilliants Americans has truly enlightened me as to the talent and background of American writers and how the writings impacted people of their time and continue to influence American thought today. The paintings we studied also, like I mentioned in class reminded me of French Impressionism, yet had a uniquely American feel to them. Instead of conjuring images of pastels and flowers the paintings we studied had a woodsy rough feel to them, which essentially is how I have come to think of American Literature. It is the real deal. American writers and painters do not gloss over life in America, they portray it how it was; how life is. A struggle. The grittiness of life is portrayed in everything we have studied yet our studies have also brought me a to unique conclusion. That America really is a land of prosperity and hope. I have not felt as though anything we have studied (except maybe Poe) left me with a feeling of dissappointment in America and it's people. If anything I have learned that America and its citizens are people who live life the best they can and persevere through tough times. Sadly that is probably more than the French can say, they just like to start drama. P.S. There is one other thing I learned in this class that does not highlight Americans so well. The Puritans were crazy and the Salem Witch Trials were absolute ludicrous. Before I may have seen some justifiable reason for this insanity to take hold, but now I see that for as much as the Puritans preached the gospel they were really overzealous, powerhungry individuals concerned mainly with their own good.