关键词：美国精神，马丁•路德•金，巴拉克•奥巴马
CONTENTS
Acknowledgment... .i
Abstract ii
摘要. iii
1 Introduction.1
2 American Spirit.3
2.1 The Definition of American Spirit.3
2.2 The Value of American Spirit4
2.3 The Driving Force of American Spirit6
3 Martin Luther King and American spirit9
3.1 Non-violence Movement.9
3.2 Striding Toward Equality.10
3.3 Courage Towards Danger.11
3.4 Love for All Races.12
4 Barack Obama and American spirit.14
4.1 Seeking who I am14
4.2 From log cabin to white house15
4.3“Yes ,we can”.16
4.4 Anti-terrorism both Domestic and Abroad17
5 Conclusions18
Bibliography.19
1 Introduction
As we all know, the United States is composed of a lot of different racial and ethnic groups. We also know that the United States is a nation of immigrants. Christopher Columbus first discovered American continent, which was called “New World”. Then many immigrants were continual to move out of their own homeland and went to an adventurous and the strange “New World”. Before immigrating, these people lived in the poverty of in their own countries and saw no hope of changing their destiny, so they were determined to make earning with good luck and choice in the New World. This “New World” is as the face of new colorful paper to the outsiders who intruded into this land by chance. The United States was busy expanding itself. Like “Gold Rush”, they didn’t know what would happen to them in this new continent, but they had the courage to seize the opportunities to start their new life. “Using the “pull” and “push” theory, it can be argued that it was due to the loss of hope at home that they felt “push” to uproot themselves from their homeland; and that it was the expectation of a new life on the virgin land that they felt “pull” to transplant themselves into a new yet unknown land.” (Wangenmin, 2004:24) So they began to establish a better life in the new world. These immigrants brought some spirits into this new country and turned into a new leaf in the Uncle Sam’s homeland.
The United States is one of the greatest opportunities and one of considerable challenges. American people would like to “make dreams” in their life. No matter you are black or white, rich or poor, as long as you carve yourself a place in the society, you would be respected and be set as a model to inspire people. This is probably related to their belief and culture. It gives everyone an equal opportunity and it depends on yourself whether you can seize it or not. This is another significant reason that attracts immigrants to come to this New World.
Pangzhongjia and Chensijin (2012) considered that belief and culture is inpidualism, equality, freedom, obligation, optimism, cooperation, loving family, desire for success and any kind of spirits exist in the United States. Wangyijiang (2007) said that the strength of American ascribes to the spirit of the United States.
The reason why I would like to choose this topic to elaborate on is that either Martin Luther King or Barack Obama sets an example of American hero in the heart of both blacks and whites. Their experiences reflect that both of them were the average Americans without outstanding family backgrounds, but they believed in faith that they must have persisted in their dreams and strived constantly through their efforts. If people have their dreams and they make great efforts to do them, they would have opportunities to achieve their dreams. The American spirit has been always supporting them to achieve their dreams. No matter in American or in China their stories do encourage many young people to pursuit what they want. Thanks to the “melting pot”, American spirit as an important American soul in the American culture. 马丁•路德•金及巴拉克•奥巴马透视美国精神(2):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_2208.html