Attempting to Understand American Culture

What is American culture? What is its significance? These two questions are extremely difficult to answer, let alone extremely difficult concepts to grasp. In fact, almost every human on this planet will derive different meanings of American culture and it will unquestionably hold different levels of significance to different people. American culture is an oxymoronic phrase because there is no such thing. It is made up of various subcultures from every country and ethnicity in the world. Ishmael Reed even asks, “What’s American about America” (Verberg 2). American culture is the fusion of different subcultures which brings about an environment conducive to learning and tolerance. Not only that, but it also provides the basic moral code and guidelines that our society functions by.
Joyce Millet, an author and cultural historian would categorize the “melting pot” theory as antiquated. “America has traditionally been referred to as a ‘melting pot’, welcoming people from ...