Crevecoeur's What is an American

The melting pot metaphor is quickly growing into a dated idea in United States. In his essay What is an American, Crevecoeur supports the idea of America, at the time, as a melting pot and may show why the idea was so popular. In his essay he states that many of the foreigners that came over to American married people of different nationalities. This mixing of cultures blurred the line between the different nationalities Crevecoeur writes "I could point out to you a family whose grandfather was an Englishman, whose wife was Dutch, whose son married a French woman, and whose present four sons have now four wives of different nations. He is an American." In his opinion an American is someone of a mixed heritage. I don't think that an American has to be someone of a mixed heritage anymore. I was born Bosnia but was raised in the United States. I feel much more American than I do a Bosnian. At the same time being Bosnian is also a huge part of who I am. I don't believe that being American can be defined as being one thing or another anymore. In our current society being American can mean many things to many people so it is impossible to have one concrete definition of an American.


Why do you think that the melting pot metaphor is not prevalent in our current society, and why may it have been a valid idea in the 1780's when Crevecoeur wrote this essay.