POE

Poe's life was full of sorrow and misery. He was known for his “romantic” style of writing which was dark, dreary, and full of mystery. His terrible beginning years seemed to have a great effect on his life and his writing later on in his life. I feel as if his works were basically based on his life, almost like a biography which he wanted to share with others. This man was basically sad his whole life with all the mourning of his dead family members! He had his dad leave at a young age, mom die when he was young, and many others die, most of who died from the same thing, tuberculosis. From a young age he was probably lonely and depressed. This left him without any parents, though; he was shortly taken in by a rich merchant named John Allan. John Allan wanted Poe to be a businessman but instead he wanted to be a poet. He went to college at University of Virginia and ended up being very broke, desperate enough to burn furniture for some sort of warmth during the winters. Some years later, his foster family ended up dying as well. It was almost normal for him to lose someone in his life. This probably screwed him up in the head.  In The Raven and Ligeia, the narrator was mourning the death of a loved one, probably what he was doing in real life when he wrote the literary works. Poe, in real life, was probably wanting to know more about his loved ones and wanting to be with them. This could have been linked to his lost fiancé, who left him for another guy. He made the situation alive for the readers with the amount of description he gave in the stories, like he was just giving an account of what actually happened in his life. His incestuous relationship with Virginia, his cousin, may have been his premise for The Fall of the House of Usher. After she died, Poe was described as being a drunk and mentally unstable, just like Roddrick (for the mentally unstable part at least). His dark gothic style of writing had the same themes that embodied Poe as a person. Some examples would be mourning, the supernatural, and death. Though Poe’s life was cut short mysteriously (mysterious just like his stories!), he has created some amazing literary works that brings to life the story and whose meanings are still being debated today.  

What is an American?

Usually, this word is used to describe a person living in the United States of America, but to a lesser extent is also be used to describe someone living in the Americas. But I don't think the second part of the definition is accurate as their demonym is just based on whatever country they are living in. 

Describing what an American is can be quite hard as we all come from different walks of life. There is no definition that really encompasses all "Americans". To add to that, I think the definition of what a true American varies according to who you ask. There are some stereotypes of what an "American" is. According to these stereotypes, an American is fat (morbidly obese, owns a gun or multiple guns, lazy, uncivilized, and is super patriotic. Do I agree with these? No. Most of these are inaccurate and doesn't truly show what an American actually is. An American can come from all parts of the world, speak different languages, and practice different religions. As Crevecouer said, America is a melting pot and not every American is a native to this country. There are over 300 million different Americans, most likely not one that is the same in terms of background and interests. We might all have different jobs or different views, but we are all bound under freedom and opportunity.

As Americans, we were either born here with some previous generations going through the legal process to get citizenships or are currently doing that. We or our ancestors came to this country looking for the highly valued freedom and opportunity that this country. We are able to speak our opinions without the threat of being prosecuted and are able to have a fair justice system that many countries may not have. But in order to have all of these perks of being an American, we have to be humble and not take for granted any of those perks that we got over almost 250 years ago after breaking free from the shackles of the British monarchy. An American needs to be open and accepting of other religions and ethnicities.

Nowadays in everyday occurrences, when someone asks what you are, we tend to say we are American but add a word or two in front of it. The reason why is that we want to be unique or to be more specific. Most everybody you meet on the street is American so just saying you’re American doesn’t make you unique or special anymore. That question has now transformed into asking what people’s ethnicities or background is and not just what country they are from. Back when this question was originally asked, the world was not as integrated and culturally diverse as we are now. In one country, there are now numerous ethnic groups.

An American, regardless of race or religion, is one who works hard in pursuit of happiness and a better life, values and cherishes their freedom and opportunities, impartial to other religions and ethnic groups, and is proud to be a citizen of the United States of America.