What does it mean to be an American? You may have heard this question before but never really thought about it much. If you"re having trouble finding the answer to this question, it may help reading certain novels such as the ones we have read in class. Stories and plays such as Miss Lonelyhearts, "The Death of a Salesman", "A Streetcar Named Desire", The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and The Day of the Locust. Each one of these novels shows some way of being American by using issues such as freedom, speech, abuse, poverty, occupation, race, religious freedom, slavery, etc., all of these pertaining to what it means to be an American. .
In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain, Twain uses racism, slavery, and freedom throughout his book. In the novel, Huck and a slave by the name of Jim attempt to escape from his "teacher" Miss Watson, and Jim attempting to escape from slavery. The two escape successfully and have plans to build a raft and journey down the Mississippi river to freedom. Before their river journey, Jim says to Huck, "I's rich now, come to look at it. I owns myself." This quote by Jim shows how much freedom really means to people in America and also shows how big of a part of being an American is. In other countries, like Middle East countries, the people have limited freedom. In America it's different, because everyone in America is free, which is why we have such a diverse population. Immigrants from all over the world immigrate to the United States all the time, so we also have to have a variety of religious freedom as Americans. .
Also included in Huck Finn, Twain uses the mockery of religion. It seemed like Twain intended to attack organized religion all the time using the "sarcastic" character of Huck Finn, which allowed him to mock religion perfectly. The attack on religion can already be seen in the first chapter, when Huck implies that hell sounds like a lot more fun than heaven.
