A strong sense of identity gives man an idea he can do no wrong; too
little accomplishes the same. – Djuna Barnes
The road to
success can be a challenging one. Full of bumps and stumps, twists and turns;
being successful in creating a new country can pose challenges that many people
will never face in their life time. That challenge was accomplished by many
people when creating The United States of America. People like William
Bradford, John Winthrop, and Benjamin Franklin were just a few of the people
who made the United States what it is today. One must wonder what challenges
they faced on the path to their success.
Creating a new country is in a since creating a new identity for a
group of people. One must have a group with a common goal and a reason to
create their own country. Such as the Separatist’s in William Bradford’s time,
the identity often times will be centered on the group’s common goal (Franklin et al., 2008, p. 58).
This would be because that is what brought them together. Everyone is different
and therefore will all bring different things to the table when they are
creating a new country together. That is where one’s past identity comes into
play. One will never be able to forget where they came from; they can only grow
on that. That is why one must try to learn from the things that they learned in
the past. They must keep in mind the reasons for establishing the new identity
and move on. All of these things are key when creating a country especially
when working with a group of people.
When creating a new country there will always be a time that one
has done all they were meant to do and it is time to live life. That time is
when one has established and accomplished everything that they wanted to do.
When overall the people are doing what they wanted to do that goes along with
the overall goal of the group. Just as the Puritans did when coming to America;
they had a common goal before they left England, which was to separate from the
Catholic Church and create a Christian based country (Finely). Then they
accomplished it by establishing the United States of America as a Christian
based country and incorporated it into many of their laws.
One is normally proud of something they have done when they know
it is good and it is what they wanted to do. Also often time’s people have to
approve of what they have done for that person to take pride in it. When
establishing a country one can be proud of the country they created once they
have established the things that they wanted to. When the group of people that
helped in the creation are pleased as well and overall everyone is happy with
the finished product. Taking pride in what one has done is a large part in
accepting that they are finished. With a country there will always be
continuous work; however, one must be able to see that they have done
everything they meant to and more.
When determining who is going to play a role in creating the new
country one must look at what the common goal is. Then they need to find the
leaders and strong personalities that share the common goal. Then last they
need to talk to the people and see if they are interested in considering being
a part of leading the creation of a new country. Then these people will
continue their leadership roles once the country is established. For example
with William Bradford and John Winthrop they both were leaders of the people
before the country was founded. Then after they landed in America they became
governors and held a lot of responsibility (Franklin et al., 2008).
The American Revolution affected literature in a variety of ways because
people normally write what is going on around them. The time during American
Revolution obviously had an effect on what they wrote. One can see this when
reading Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle” how much it affected the people and their
lives. Irving “sketches the funny adventure of Rip who had lived during the
revolution. One day Rip falls a sleep and wakes up to a very different America
after the revolution. As Benjamin Franklin becomes the hero of the Revolution,
the slow and easy going Rip celebrates the counter-hero of America.” (Aralık, 2009).
The establishment of the United States of America was something
that took effort from a variety of different people from different
backgrounds. It was their leadership and
determination that made it possible to create a new country according to their
morals and goals. It also took good people under them that had the same ideas
in mind to establish a “Christian” country like they had dreamed. They took all
of the right steps to create a country and it is something that should be
looked on with pride.
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