Rhetorical Analysis Of What Is An American By Crevecoeur

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Compared to those who lived in Europe, Americans had a much greater lifestyle in the new and beautiful America. In J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur’s narrative “Letter III What Is and American?”, he writes about the incredible lifestyle an American lives from the point-of-view of a farmer who had previously struggled in Europe. According to the farmer, being an American comes with the ideal life, something not offered in Europe. In What Is an American?, Crevecoeur presents a prideful and shameful tone as he describes his feelings towards America and Europe. Crevecoeur sees America as a beautiful place to live in, and describes it with a prideful tone. The author frequently uses DIDLS to emphasize the tone he is trying to use. One way he uses …show more content…

He again uses DIDLS to emphasize the tone he is using, especially diction and imagery. In paragraph one, he uses words such as “toil”, “starve”, and “miserable” to set the gloomy tone he is trying to describe, which makes his opinion of his former home evident. The absence of freedom and equality in Europe makes Crevecoeur much more grateful for what is given to him in his new home. In paragraph four, Crevecoeur uses words like “poor”, “scattered”, and “useless”, making Europe seem like it had become a place of emptiness. The use of the word “useless” probably represents how Europe had become useless to it citizens because of the lack of goods. The second example of DIDLS, imagery, is used when Crevecoeur creates pictures of European hardships. In paragraph one, Crevecoeur describes the contrast between its rich and poor by saying that there was “the hostile castle and the haughty mansion, contrasted with the clay-built hut and miserable cabin” (Crevecoeur). This example shows how the inequality created vast differences and problems for them. In paragraph four, Crevecoeur asks the question: “What attachments could a poor European emigrant have for a country where he had nothing?” (Crevecoeur). At this point Europeans were immigrating to America because Europe no longer had anything to offer them, and because the only connection they had Europe