"Youth and American Identity"/"More Than Just A Shrine"

I have forgotten to post to blog for the past several stories I have read. So I guess I will start with Lawrence Grossberg's "Youth and American Identity." I personally had a problem following the essay. The point that Grossberg was trying to make seemed to make was about the American Dream. However, I feel that nobody has a real concept of what it actually is. I believe that it changes from person to person. For some people it is based on material comfort and others it can be based on personal sucess. Hopefully we can talk about this one in class because this essay was not too clear to me!

I enjoyed reading "More Than Just A Shrine" by Mary Gordon. This essay showed how much we take advantage of being a U.S. citizen and how great we have it. Most of us are just born into the U.S. so we did not have to experience the struggles of many immigrants. I found it shocking that many immigrants killed themselves if they could not become citizens. And it just showed how willing people are to give up the life they have just to take a risk of coming to the United States to try to become a citizen. I also thought of how terrible it was when the immigrants were checked for diseases and the ones who didn't have the diseases were probably infected after the testing was done. This essay really demonstrated the triumphs and hardships of immigrants arriving in the United States.