A Quilt Of A Country Analysis

What does it mean to be an American? That is the question answered in the two works of literature A Quilt of a Country by Anna Quindlen and The Immigrant Contribution by the one and only John F. Kennedy. While their opinions may be similar, they also differ and vary. However, both of their literary works prove the points trying to be made. America is a place where countless diverse ethnicities have accumulated over time, mingling together to establish the American culture as we know it today. Although the pieces themselves are differing from each other, they actually have a few similarities. They both discuss the point that America is from a plethora of cultures and there is no “stock” American. For example, an excerpt from A Quilt of a Country:”That’s

While A Quilt of a Country concerns the diversity of America after the tragedy of September 11, 2001, The Immigrant Contribution revolves around the idea that immigrants are American history and isn’t specifically about the diversity of America. A few quotes may explain some confusions:”When photographs of the faces of all those who died in the World Trade Center destruction are assembled in one place, it will be possible to trace in the skin color, the shape of the eyes and the noses, the texture of the hair, a map of the world”(Quindlen 16). This quote is about how when the World Trade Center came crashing down, viewers can recognize how diverse America is just by examining the photos of those who died; to put it in plain English, they can trace features from every part of the world in those photos. “Oscar Handlin has said, ‘Once I thought to write a history of the immigrants in America. Then I discovered that the immigrants were American history.’”(Kennedy 23). This quote elaborates on how there were no people originally in America, as they all immigrated here. Now that I expanded on it, do you recognize their