What is an American

What is an American? There is no simple answer to this question, it is forever evolving. The idea of an “American” is much like a tree. Deep within root there lie the foundations or ideas that will with time form into the entire tree. From these roots or ideas a concrete trunk forms slowly, a solid poise that is the shared belief system. The trunk creates a support and balance that is necessary for the tree as it further develops. Deep inside there are rings, one inside the other that represents each of these shared beliefs. They are deep inside the trunk of the tree. From the trunk or from these beliefs new ideas begin to branch out until there are hundreds of budding limbs. To put this complex idea simply, it is a metamorphic concept that is continually branching out from the roots of its set beliefs. In my opinion John Winthrop best represents the complex rings that formed the trunk of early colonial thinking, while Thomas Paine became one of the first American writers wh...