Pride in America

A recurring theme that I found throughout the American literature we have read this semester is pride/confidence. I think the theme or feeling of pride is often seen amongst American literature and Americans in general. I saw a video in one of my education classes that stated that American teens fall short behind the major world countries in every academic subject but lead in the area of confidence. I don’t think this just goes for Americans today but for Americans in the past too. Walt Whitman, Zora Neale Hurston, and Langston Hughes all show a lot of pride and confidence.

Walt Whitman expresses pride and confidence in himself –

Divine am I inside and out, and I make holy whatever I touch or am

touch'd from,

The scent of these arm-pits aroma finer than prayer,

This head more than churches, bibles, and all the creeds.” –

and also pride and confidence in America through all of his descriptions of the American people and landscape that he observes around him. America has a lot to be proud of – our forefathers worked incredibly hard and our troops still fight valiantly in order to keep our freedoms that we so enjoy and take for granted in America today. Americans may not be considered hard workers anymore (in fact, we’re almost always referred to as ‘lazy Americans’ but in our past we have had people that built this country up on good morals and hard work. Walt Whitman’s pride and confidence may be somewhat overbearing at times and we might think of him as ‘cocky’ or ‘conceited’, but he also shows healthy pride and expresses that a person should do whatever makes them happy.

Zora Neale Hurston expresses healthy pride in herself, in her race, and in her hometown. At a time when there was major oppression and racism, her pride and confidence is surprising but also refreshing. Hurston expresses pride in herself and her race in Colored Me when she says, “Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It’s beyond me.” In Hurston’s short stories about her hometown, Eatonville, Florida, she jokes about their small town ways, but does it with pride. I understand this because as someone from a small town, I make fun of it all the time to others but still love to go back there and think it’s a great place to live.

Langston Hughes expresses his confidence in himself and his race through his poetry. In I, Too, Hughes writes,

“Tomorrow,

I’ll be at the table

When company comes.

Nobody’ll dare

Say to me,

“Eat in the kitchen,”

Then.

Besides,

They’ll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed –

I, too, am America.”

This poem could be expressing a dream of equality some day –he has confidence that the world will one day be just and right and his race will be recognized as beautiful and everyone that thought it wasn’t will be ashamed. I believe this view expresses what many people of color were feeling at this time and through the next few decades. This poem could also be expressing Langston Hughes’ confidence in his ability to become famous. One day he’ll be famous and put all of those people to shame that made him feel like dirt before he became famous. Hughes also expresses confidence through The Weary Blues, which says,

“Ain’t got nobody in all this world,

Ain’t got nobody but ma self.

I’s gwine to quit ma frownin’

And put ma troubles on de shelf.”

In this poem Hughes expresses that even though a person may have lost everything in their life or may feel like they have nothing, they can “quit their frowning and put their troubles on the shelf” and have confidence in who they are and their own abilities. With a downturned economy in America today people may feel like this old blues singer did about his life, but they can do the same thing and have confidence that everything will get better because if you hit rock bottom, the only way to go is up.

American pride may be a little misplaced nowadays – in our possessions, our careers, and our money instead of things that should really matter – but it is definitely still present. Americans now have become even more confident and prideful in themselves than Walt Whitman is in his poetry. Readers at the time probably thought it undoable, but once again, America has outdone itself.