Exploring the Text

1. Which of the appeals—ethos, logos, or pathos—is strongest in this piece? Explain. What are the main differences between Americans and Europeans as Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur describes them?

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   Exploring the Text: - Which of the appeals—ethos, logos, or pathos—is strongest in this piece? Explain. What are the main differences between Americans and Europeans as Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur describes them?
2. Which do you regard as Crèvecoeur’s most compelling observation in the first paragraph? Why?

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   Exploring the Text: - Which do you regard as Crèvecoeur’s most compelling observation in the first paragraph? Why?
3. How does the “promiscuous breed” to which Crèvecoeur refers at the beginning of the second paragraph compare with Americans today? How might he characterize Americans in our time?

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   Exploring the Text: - How does the “promiscuous breed” to which Crèvecoeur refers at the beginning of the second paragraph compare with Americans today? How might he characterize Americans in our time?
4. Crèvecoeur poses several questions in this letter. Which are rhetorical questions? Which are not? What is the effect of those that are not?

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   Exploring the Text: - Crèvecoeur poses several questions in this letter. Which are rhetorical questions? Which are not? What is the effect of those that are not?
5. How are Crèvecoeur’s own values revealed in his characterization of “an American”?

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   Exploring the Text: - How are Crèvecoeur’s own values revealed in his characterization of “an American”?
6. In Rights of Man (1791), Thomas Paine makes the following observation about America:

   If there is a country in the world, where concord, according to common calculation, would be least expected, it is America. Made up, as it is, of people from different nations, accustomed to different forms and habits of government, speaking different languages, and more different in their modes of worship, it would appear that the union of such a people was impracticable; but by the simple operation of constructing government on the principles of society and the rights of man, every difficulty retires, and all the parts are brought into cordial unison. There, the poor are not oppressed, the rich are not privileged. Industry is not mortified by the splendid extravagance of a court rioting at its expence. Their taxes are few, because their government is just; and as there is nothing to render them wretched, there is nothing to engender riots and tumults.

   Compare Paine’s observation with what Crèvecoeur writes in paragraph 4 of his letter. What similarities and differences do you find?

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   Exploring the Text: - In Rights of Man (1791), Thomas Paine makes the following observation about America:If there is a country in the world, where concord, according to common calculation, would be least expected, it is America. Made up, as it is, of people from different nations, accustomed to different forms and habits of government, speaking different languages, and more different in their modes of worship, it would appear that the union of such a people was impracticable; but by the simple operation of constructing government on the principles of society and the rights of man, every difficulty retires, and all the parts are brought into cordial unison. There, the poor are not oppressed, the rich are not privileged. Industry is not mortified by the splendid extravagance of a court rioting at its expence. Their taxes are few, because their government is just; and as there is nothing to render them wretched, there is nothing to engender riots and tumults.Compare Paine’s observation with what Crèvecoeur writes in paragraph 4 of his letter. What similarities and differences do you find?
7. In her 2010 book, The History of White People, African American historian Nell Irvin Painter responds to Crèvecoeur’s final paragraph:

   This “new man” escapes old Europe’s oppression, embraces new opportunity, and glories in freedom of thought and economic mobility. Now a classic description of the American, Crèvecoeur’s paragraph constantly appears as an objective eyewitness account of American identity. But letter 3 is only one part of the story. When other classes, races, sexes, and the South entered Crèvecoeur’s picture, all sorts of revisions became necessary.

   What might some of those necessary revisions be? Does Painter’s statement alter your view of Crèvecoeur? Explain.

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   Exploring the Text: - In her 2010 book, The History of White People, African American historian Nell Irvin Painter responds to Crèvecoeur’s final paragraph:This “new man” escapes old Europe’s oppression, embraces new opportunity, and glories in freedom of thought and economic mobility. Now a classic description of the American, Crèvecoeur’s paragraph constantly appears as an objective eyewitness account of American identity. But letter 3 is only one part of the story. When other classes, races, sexes, and the South entered Crèvecoeur’s picture, all sorts of revisions became necessary.What might some of those necessary revisions be? Does Painter’s statement alter your view of Crèvecoeur? Explain.
8. Crèvecoeur writes of America: “Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world” (par. 4). Considering that he wrote that statement in 1782, how accurate was his prediction? Provide specific examples.

   Question

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   Exploring the Text: - Crèvecoeur writes of America: “Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world” (par. 4). Considering that he wrote that statement in 1782, how accurate was his prediction? Provide specific examples.