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Student Name

Ms. Schnelle & Ms. Hackenberg

Honors English III

May 14, 2020

What does It Mean To be an American?

The ideal American is a representation of power and success from a past of adversity,

always steadfast in their convictions and maintaining hope. In the novels The Glass Castle by

Jeannette Walls and Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe we see ideals shown of what

it truly means to be an American. This is done through the depiction of the struggle of the

characters in the novels and their strive to attain a better life for themselves. In the Glass Castle

it is the struggle of the children to leave their unstable family and in Uncle Tom’s Cabin it is the

struggle to attain their freedom from bondage. Through highlighting the characters’ attempts at a

more promising future, the authors of both novels are implying that the true meaning of being an

American is a mindset, suggesting that desires in life are attainable by faith and hope throughout

struggle.

In Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Eliza’s attempt at freedom by fleeing to Canada in the north is an

example of the American mindset because she shows fortitude throughout her escape and

maintains hope. In her escape north as a runaway slave, she “dreams of a beautiful country…

green shores, pleasant islands, and beautifully glittering water…she saw her boy playing, a free

and happy child…” Stowe uses strong imagery when describing Eliza’s desires to make a

comparison between her dream and her current reality. Eliza, being a slave, is inherently not

happy or free. Her dreaming like this and her yearning to do better for herself by running away
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from the plantation to attain a better life is representative of that fortitude and hope. Throughout

her escape, she maintains her strength and faith that there will be better days for her and her

child. She deeply desires her freedom and, in her dreaming to attain that, she represents the

mindset of what it means to be an American.

Next, In the Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, the children’s attained independence

despite their parent’s failures reflect what it means to be an American because in a dire situation,

they achieve success through faith in the future. Jeanette Walls maintains her faith throughout

her struggle, stating later in life: “I wanted to let the world know that no one had a perfect life,

that even the people who seemed to have it all had their secrets.” Walls is stating that successful

people did not always have “a perfect life” and by stating this, she is also stating that success is

preceded by a worse situation in which one had to endure and maintain faith. Her struggle

through a desperate situation with her parents would be the description of that non “perfect life”

and her actual success later in her life reflects the mentality of what it means to be an American

because she achieved better for herself despite her dire situation. She and her siblings were

faithful throughout that situation and eventually, their life did turn around. They become

independent of their parents, and in their success doing so, represent the mentality of what it

means to be an American.

Finally, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the slave’s tenacious attempts to achieve their dreams in

their present struggle is representative of what it means to be an American because it is a mindset

of a worthy struggle in hopes of prosperity. In Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was Tom “alone, that long

night…against buffeting and brutal stripes? Nay! …The tempter stood by him…every moment

pressing him to shun that ... the brave, true heart was firm on the Eternal Rock… he knew that, if

he saved others, himself he could not save” Stowe’s detailed description of Uncle Tom being
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tortured by a slave hunter here is a strong depiction of a struggle in hopes of prosperity because it

is a literal portrayal of a struggle for prosperity. Tom is being heavily pressured by a brutal slave

hunter to betray his runaway friends and abandon his faith in god. He is hopeful in the future

whilst facing his current adversity, struggling to maintain faith. In his struggle to keep his faith in

God and his loyalty to his friends in hopes that the future will be prosperous for his situation as

well as theirs, he represents the American mindset.

In showing the characters’ struggle for a more promising future, both novels are

stating that the meaning of being an American is a mentality, expressing that goals are attainable

through faith against adversity. In Uncle Tom’s Cabin, it can be shown in Eliza’s hope as she

attempts freedom by escaping north and in Tom’s courage as he confronts a torturer who

attempts crush his beliefs. In The Glass Castle it is the children attaining independence despite

their parent’s failures to foster success. To be an American means to have faith in the present and

hope for the future.

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Museum Citation:

Struggle and Prosperity

By: Student Name

In this work Student Name not just depicts two slaves looking in opposite directions, but

just one slave looking down at his reality whilst dreaming of his possibilities. He chooses slaves

to represent struggle with a yearn for a promising future because that time period was very

consistent with pain and suffering. The slave looking down is looking at shackles, an

interpretation of oppression. The same slave, at the back of its head, is a representation of that

slave’s aspirations. It is looking upwards at roads representing freedom; They represent far lands

and new destinations. He attempts to capture what it means to be an American by contrasting a

dire reality and a promising dream.

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Works Cited:

SparkNotes, SparkNotes, www.sparknotes.com/lit/uncletom/quotes/character/eliza-

harris/.

“The Glass Castle Quotes by Jeannette Walls.” Goodreads, Goodreads,

www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/2944133-the-glass-castle

“Jeannette Walls Biography.” Encyclopedia of World Biography,

www.notablebiographies.com/newsmakers2/2006-Ra-Z/Walls-Jeannette.html.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Uncle Tom's Cabin.” Encyclopædia

Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 4 May 2020, www.britannica.com/topic/Uncle-Toms-

Cabin.