The American identity can often be misconstrued. The viewpoint from those outside of the country tends to greatly differ from those within the country. Although some believe the American identity to be biased against other races and religion, being American is about demonstrating pride in one’s own country through loyalty and determination.
To those with ethnicities often found outside of America, defining the American identity can be challenging. For example, the author of Growing Up Asian in America, Kesaya E. Noda, was born and grew up here in America, and also experienced a japanese culture through her grandparents who happened to be japaneses immigrants. In Noda’s essay, when describing the struggles of growing up racially asian, she…show more content… Being American comes from within and is about showing pride toward one’s country. This is often done through loyalty and determination. In Franklin D. Roosevelt’s speech, “The Four Freedoms”, he speaks of key human rights and calling Americans to a call for personal sacrifice in supporting Great Britain in its fight against germany. Towards the end of his speech, Roosevelt lets the people of america know that “[f]reedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights and keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose” (45). As a whole, our nation is capable of coming together as one and achieving great heights with determination. This can also be done individually. For example, John McCain- a man enlisted in the Navy during the Vietnam war and who was a prisoner of war- captures the true essence of what being an American truly means in his essay, “Veteran’s day: Never Forget Their Duty”. McCain tells a story about how while being held as a prisoner of war, one of the other men sewed the American flag inside of his shirt and “[e]very afternoon, before we had a bowl of soup, we would hang Mike’s shirt on the wall of our cell and say the Pledge of Allegiance”(7). Upon discovering the shirt with the flag sewn to the inside, the Vietnamese punished Mike Christian and beat him. Yet this was not enough to destroy the