American Characters 美国人的性格

T
he American Character
Everyone in the world is unique not only for his appearance but also his inner characters .However there is something we can not deny ,namely, every nation has relatively similar characters.（Germans are professional pessimist. French are romantic . English are serious.) America is no exception.
America is such a young country .It is just like a teenager who is full of vigor and enthusiasm. Maybe there are many things that are typically American “America the home of the Big Mac and Coke”some from foreign lands think that such icons as McDonald’s and Coca-coca epitomize the American character. To some extent, they are right. In many ways, the corporate giants like Ford, coke Kodak and even the most recent arrivals, Microsoft and Apple, do represent the American character. Yes, all these business paragons set by American are the best fruit of American character which not only have changed American but also the whole world.
Sometimes I am held entirely by the power of American character which has created so many legends in the world. Now I will start my journey of exploring American character.
People’s character is only a glimpse of the culture history society and some other aspects of his county. So does America.
Besides ,each character of Americans has its origin in American views and ideas on a number of social domains. Thus, in defining the American character, if one uses too narrow a concept of ideas , the definition one arrives at may be a bit too ephemeral.
To gain a better understanding of American character, I will put more emphasis on the social base and the root of it and I will choose three of the most significant characters to explore their deep background.
First ,the need of the individual is the crux of the American character. This emphasis on individualism has root going back to the founding of America. The precursors of the first thirteen states started as a group of breakaway colonies that wanted nothing more to do with being controlled by another country. The early arrivals came mostly from England in the 1600s searching for economic opportunities and religious freedom. The first English colony in North America was set up in 1607, Virginia was the first English colony. It was a chartered colony started by the Virginia company of London in 1607. The company named its colony Virginia in honor of the virgin queen Elizabeth I. The first settlement was named Jamestown in honor of James I, the ruling king at the time. The first settles in Virginia were employees of the company. They wanted to find quick wealth in this land, but they failed because North America didn’t have gold. When the company’s supply ship didn’t arrive, they had no food. They always asked the local people for food , sometimes with force.
From then on the local people always suffered from force, early deaths, disease, starvation for the aggression of foreign countries .Over the next 150 years more and more invaders came to the new land. Americans grew increasingly resentful of efforts to control them by a kingdom thousands of miles away and across the ocean. The American Revolution also known as the war of Independence broke out. American fought for independence and many paid the ultimate price for it. Form the newly freed nation, a cry came for a government one that would fairy represent individuals and allow more individual freedom. It is an attempt to guard against the return of subjugation, the American constitution was written in 1776 with specific intention of guaranteeing protection of the individual from monolithic and unreasonable controls. An excerpt:
We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are lift liberty and the persuit of happiness…
Fueled by this constitution , an anti-control attitude gradually emerged that increasingly became an integral part of the developing nation’s soul. Later a collective bond grew from these shared known as the American Spirit.
Second, the spirit of criticizing authority is also an important character. Westerners and particularly Americans take pleasure in not only criticizing authority but also ridiculing their leaders. Newspapers print
unflattering cartoons, radio and TV shows broadcast scathing editorials and the Internet is a hotbed of faultfinding. No one is immune from these attacks. Elected official company CEOs and even one’s boss are fair game. The anti-control philosophy of the country’s forefathers certainly play a role in this reaction to authority that dictates, “no one is better than me!”
With this sort of attitude about power, Sometimes , it well inevitably get things done slowly and make the large scale operations suffer costly delays. While it is almost impossible in China for its policy is so forceful and effective. On the contrary , it will help citizens to gain their legal rights. Here is one example of how criticizing authority is played out in America.
A citizen in America named Mike owned a house in the city and received a tax bill he thought to be incorrect. In his heart, he dreaded having to face the people who had so much power in city government, because he would have to engage in a difficult dispute. Still he went to the city government tax collecting office and spoke with the officer to to complain about the incorrect tax .The tax officer was unmoved by Mike and refused to listen to his complaint. Several days he returned to speak to the supervisor. In the end the incorrect tax of Mike’s house was changed because of the supervisor’s right judgment.
From the above story, we can feel the confidence of Americans and
courage of challenging authority. Indeed, when Americans battle with a higher authority, they usually say something like they must “take on” the police department, IRS or other institutions of authorities. They will try their best to unveil the social injustice and spare no effort to defend their rights . For example , “Occupy Wallstreet” just took place recently. It is a campaign to protest the injustice of wealth distribution, which has influence the whole America.
Finally, Americans have special views on success. What Americans perceive as success is more internally than externally defined. It is quite different from Chinese people’s definition of success. China ,as a traditional country with a long history ,the definition of individual success is often related to one’s family. However, Americans rarely solicit the advice of their parents in selecting a career, a marriage partner or even a place to live . Likewise, after the age of 25, Americans generally do not seek financial assistance from their parents as they persue their target of success . Americans may not follow their family tradition as they would rather to persue their own life direction . “I do not care who my grandfather was , but I do care who my grandfather’s grandson is” is a popular saying among Americans . Bill Gates, the CEO of Mircosoft, is a classic paragon of the special views of success. Gates grew up in a prosperous area of Seattle ,Washington with his parents and two sisters. As a son of a lawyer and a school teacher , Gates was a talent in study
and he was admitted by Havard University with his father’s expection of becoming a lawyer . By the time he was a sophomore , however, Gates’s passion for computers and electronic went crazy. At last, Gates dropped out of Harvard in 1976 and began his long march of building the new business. He firmly believe that there was a market for computer software and that the market was going to expand rapidly. Just like Bill Gates , most Americans always stick to the way to success whether it live up to their families or not because they know what is their real success . Here are some famous phrases of the key to success summed up by Americans;
1.God helps those who help themselves.
2.You are the master of your life .
3.Where there is a will, there is a way .
4.You need to pull yourselves up by your own boot-straps.
Maybe these phrases can also be the guides in our domitable struggle for success because there is no border of way to success.
Something I have to admit is that these three aspects listed above are very limited. Americans, as the citizens of the most prosperous ,vigorous country in the world ,have many other great qualities such as independent ,open-minded ,patriotic ,passionate and so on . All these good qualities are the main causes of America’s constant prosperity. To be honest, like any other countries，Americans also have
many negative characters . For instance , many Americans are unorganized ,arrogant ,money-worshiped. While we should not deny that their positive characters greatly outweigh negative characters .On the whole , America is really an excellent country which has created numerous various splendid achievements. To some extent , we can learn a great deal of good experience from Americans not only for the improvement of ourselves but also for the great subjugations of our country.。