Veterans Day Never Forget Their Duty Analysis

In some of the pieces of literature like “I, Too, Sing America,” “America and I,” “The Bill of Rights,” and “Veterans Day: Never Forget Their Duty” the authors have different ideas of what it means to be American. They also express their ideas using different strategies: negation, classification, and function. With these ideas and strategies a more complex definition on what it means to be American was developed. Being an American means being patriotic, having freedoms, and believing in a dream of something amazing. Having patriotism is part of being American. This is shown by John McCain in his essay “Veterans Day: Never Forget Their Duty.” He tells his story about being a prisoner of war (POW), and of a man named Mike Christian who showed and act of patriotism. “He sewed and American flag on the inside of his shirt. Every afternoon, before we had a bowl

In the poem “I, Too, Sing America” this is shown using negation. In the beginning of the poem the narrator is talking about what it is not to be part of America, like not being able to eat in the kitchen with everyone else because he is a black man (Hughes 13); however toward the end he shows how he believes that will change. “Tomorrow,/ I'll be at the table/ When company comes/ Nobody’ll dare/ Say to me/ ‘Eat in the kitchen’” (Hughes 13). This shows how he believes that he will be included. The idea of believing in a dream is also expressed in “America and I.” This story is about an immigrant coming to America who has has a rough time starting her new life. “And I could not tear it out of me, the feeling that America must be somewhere, somehow…” (Yezierska 19). This shows how even though she has been though a lot she still believes that she will be happy and be included in America. Although these stories are about two completely different people, they both show how believing in a dream is part of what it means to be