Throughout the generations there have been many different attributes that defined those generations specifically. The American culture has been molde by these ideals. However, some of them have held true in every generation. These values have connected all the people in each era and have made America what it is today. While there may be a multitude of these, the ones focused on in this essay are working hard, having integrity, and fearing God. These ideals have had the biggest impact on the lives of young Americans. The American dream, as it is commonly called, is the desire to be successful. That only comes through sweat, tears, and lots of hard work. Take Sherman Alexi for instance, he was raised on a reservation where being successful was not in their genetic make up. Though, he strived to be great… to read everything he could. He also had to fight through peer pressure because the people that he lived with didn’t want him to succeed. “A smart Indian is a dangerous person, widely feared and ridiculed by Indians and non-Indians alike” (Alexi 111). Almost everyone in his position would have given up, but not him. “ I read anything that had words…” (Alexi 112). He worked hard to be different… he had a desire to achieve the American dream. Americans are also defined by the relationships that they have, and relationships are made by trust.
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The only way to gain someones trust is to have integrity. If someone has integrity they are trustworthy and have a good set of moral values. Most Americans would agree that they strive to have integrity, because if someone they do, then they will be successful. For example, in the short story Coyote and the Buffalo by Mourning Dove, the buffalo trusts the coyote to have integrity. “ Coyote promised to remember [not to kill the young cow]” (Dove 47). However, the coyote had terrible will-power and couldn’t keep his promise. So he told himself, “Buffalo Bull will never know… so he took his young cow down beside a creek and killed her,” (Dove 48). What happened was that Bull Buffalo gave the coyote a gift in the form of a young cow. The coyote would’ve had food for his entire life, but he got greedy and decided his promise wasn’t worth not being able to eat all of the delicious cow… so he killed it with plans to eat it. He wasn’t able to eat it though, because Bull Buffalo came in the form of crows and an old woman, and he took the meat and bones with him. The coyote had no integrity and that made him loose all he had gained. He could not be trusted. There is one ideal that may be more important than all the rest. It forces people to do what is right, and it is what America was founded upon…being God fearing. If someone fears God, they are afraid of what he can do to them, and that will make most people do what they know is right. Jonathan Edwards does his best to get people to fear God in his sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. He says that the people should fear God because he is angry with them. He says in the first line “We find it easy to tread on and crush a worm that we
The only way to gain someones trust is to have integrity. If someone has integrity they are trustworthy and have a good set of moral values. Most Americans would agree that they strive to have integrity, because if someone they do, then they will be successful. For example, in the short story Coyote and the Buffalo by Mourning Dove, the buffalo trusts the coyote to have integrity. “ Coyote promised to remember [not to kill the young cow]” (Dove 47). However, the coyote had terrible will-power and couldn’t keep his promise. So he told himself, “Buffalo Bull will never know… so he took his young cow down beside a creek and killed her,” (Dove 48). What happened was that Bull Buffalo gave the coyote a gift in the form of a young cow. The coyote would’ve had food for his entire life, but he got greedy and decided his promise wasn’t worth not being able to eat all of the delicious cow… so he killed it with plans to eat it. He wasn’t able to eat it though, because Bull Buffalo came in the form of crows and an old woman, and he took the meat and bones with him. The coyote had no integrity and that made him loose all he had gained. He could not be trusted. There is one ideal that may be more important than all the rest. It forces people to do what is right, and it is what America was founded upon…being God fearing. If someone fears God, they are afraid of what he can do to them, and that will make most people do what they know is right. Jonathan Edwards does his best to get people to fear God in his sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. He says that the people should fear God because he is angry with them. He says in the first line “We find it easy to tread on and crush a worm that we