Analysis of the various definitions of the american voice in american literature

The American Voice is defined in more ways than one person can count. It is perceived as a voice of freedom, a voice of praise, a voice of justice, a voice of peace, (to name a few). Yes the American Voice can be defined in many ways; but the direction I will go in are dealing with the voices of knowledge and understanding.

The authors of the books I will be referring to all have “ written with the voice of knowledge and understanding. “ The help-Kathryn Stockett, The Things They Carried- Tim O’Brien, and Lessons we learn from Ruth-Denise Gordon all have a message of knowledge that one must have, and a lesson of understanding the knowledge presented.

American culture and American history for African Americans is viewed quite differently than their counter parts. Thus making our level of understanding and knowledge different. My culture views America differently as well. Even though there is so much of our history in the past there is still very much of it part of the present. For example in the book “ The Help” the maids were view as uneducated worthless people. Today we are not outwardly view as worthless but despite our degrees and education we still have to be five steps ahead of our counter parts. My culture truly has never recovered from our past. Instead of being in slaved we are allowing ourselves to be slaved to by our own way of thinking and perception/understanding by America as we now know it. Our understanding of America is sad. We are not loyal to our culture as our counter parts; we adopt other languages and accept a language which displays poor grammar, we allow others to give this poor language a name and apply it to our culture. We talk to one another with no respect or regard to our young. We allow the financial institution in America to establish how we spend and earn our money; thus controlling us to keep us depending on others and not one another.

We are all not like this but unfortunately this is a large voice of America and in order to fix it we first must understand it and take this knowledge and form another voice of America. A voice that will provide knowledge to take us in another direction so our history is not constantly repeating itself.

Religion is truly an interesting subject for the African American Culture. Our religion provides an unexplainable hope and promise for us. In the past religion carried messages of hope and a future of freedom. Now our religion carries status and puts us in a certain class of people. This may be one of the few things we have in common with our counter parts. In the book “ Lessons We Learn From Ruth” the author talks about how we (America) view the single woman with children. It discusses how Ruth’s (a biblical character in the Bible) qualities which make a good model and lifestyle from the Christian perspective. The author discusses economic, social relationships and spirituality. This knowledge from the author teaches us not to judge this woman and to keep her lifted positively with prayer, economics, and support. Our understanding however allow us to judge this woman, complain if she needs financial support, and if she works we say she not spending time raising her children; if doesn’t well now she is lazy and a poor role model. The single woman has a difficult time with being treated fairly and with love in our hearts. The voice of America at times can be cold and empty.

Finally, the last book I read “ The Things They Carried” this author had a profound way of making me understand that things that anger, burden, and upset you can control and ruin your life as you know it. If you allow any one of these three things consume/control you; you have just given that person or situation power over you. This was the best knowledge I received in a long time because I could relate this information to real world situations.

I hope you now have a better understanding how knowledge is power and the key to the power is how well you understand it. This will benefit you so your voice can assist with forming and shaping our Voice in America.