Fidaa Janoudi

ELA 11 - Into the Wild: Final Assignment Final Draft

Paul Healy

American Spirit Prevarication

Freedom, independence, perseverance, optimism. The list could long lastingly carry on.
These are a small fraction of the terms oftenly used to define characteristics of the idealistic
American Spirit. But if some Americans were to actually possess these characteristics, would it
be true to say that all Americans do the same? Clearly, the American Spirit does not represent
Americans truthfully as a whole. Characteristics like so are simply used to cover up for what the
American Spirit realistically is. In other words, the avowed American Spirit is a massive
misrepresentation of what Americas true spirit endures.
One of the major misrepresentations of the American Spirit is that Americans have
adapted to allowing greed to get the best of them. This is undeniably strong when it comes down
to government and economy. Back in 2004, Common Dreams reporter Andrew Greeley
proclaimed that Greed is the reason [why] the country is being run by the insurance,
pharmaceutical, weapons and petroleum industries. Greeley is trying to express that money is
slowly dominating everything. Greeley is also metaphorically stating that with this rate of
macroeconomic tyranny, money will eventually fully control Americans. This is because money
is constantly desired yet invariably wasted causing a certain level of blindness in Americans.
Then theres the insurance, pharmaceuticals, and huge marketing industries allowing and
promoting this blind greed to overcome the Americans. Unfortunately, this is what the country

has come down to. The respectively larger and more important people abuse their power of greed
to blind all other Americans to become greedy as well.
With greed comes abuse of power. Some critics say that America is powerful and
meaningless. If America wasnt so greedy about their enormity in power, meaning their military
and defense army, they would allow themselves to use their power for much more meaningful
causes. For instance, instead of throwing the U.S military into a pathetic war on terrorism in
the Middle East, why not keep their strongest inside the country to actually serve and protect it.
Or even let them leave the country to help the less fortunate get through their tough times instead
of making them worse. John Kozy once said, In reality, America is a militarily powerful but
otherwise ordinary nation ruled by small minded greedy, unjust, and inhumane people. Kozys
conveys a vigorous point about Americans having power but abiding by such negative
characteristics. This simply proves the overrated abuse of power that Americans conform to.
The excessive necessity of money and overrated power in America doesnt necessarily
mean that the country is a bad one. It only gives off an impression that Americans dont exactly
embody the characteristics Americans are said to behold within the beliefs of the idealistic
American Spirit.
Another reason why Americans are not entitled to the so-called American Spirit is the
reputation of tolerance in injustice that they had created for themselves. Its extremely
unfortunate to say that Americans have and will not let go of the untrue fact that the majority
race will always be more superior to all other minorities. There are countless incidents where this
is proven to be true. Usually with this topic, the names Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice,
etc. come to mind. All three of these citizens were brutally murdered based on their racial
statuses. Even though their stories have been brought to awareness of the public, there will still

be many, many others who suffer from a similar problem. Everyday citizens are subject to an
incredibly harsh and unforgiving criminal justice system, while elites escape with a slap on the
wrist or complete immunity (Shammas). The worst part is probably the fact that the culprits
who murdered these poor citizens walk away with no sort of punishment. This is horrible, as it
defies one of Americas greatest motto, all men are created equal. Again. Americans are not
meeting the requirements of the idealistic American Spirit when such inequity takes place.
Others may argue that the American Spirit is still misrepresented because the negative
aspects of Americans doesnt account for all of them as a whole either. This point is certainly
understandable. There truly are many Americans who could prove this negative side wrong.
Chris McCandless, is an amazing example.
For one, McCandless is the pure opposite of greedy. He chose to throw away his snobby
life and give it all to people he felt deserved it more than he did. He achieved that by donating all
of his savings away to people who he thought best needed it. He used to own $25,000 in his bank
account, but granted it all to OXFAM, a nonprofit organization that strives to end poverty and
hunger globally. McCandless didnt exactly care about wealth or possessions. He believed that
happiness doesnt come from money and possessions. He quoted transcendentalist Thoreau many
times to support his views. One really gratifying quote that McCandless highlighted was, I'm
going to paraphrase Thoreau here... rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than
fairness... give me truth (Into the Wild- Movie). This is important because it shows how
considerable McCandless was about the world. He agrees that greed isnt the best way to live and
he decided to take action in that. There were many controversies that McCandless didnt exactly
agree with also, including injustice in the world. With all that hes done to make some sort of

difference, he technically meets the requirements that are a part of what the ideal American Spirit
is. But again one person does not represent a whole nation.
The representation of people and their beliefs is really inconvenient when it narrows
down to the American Spirit. There is no such truth to what the American Spirit is or should be.
All Americans have different views of the world and how they deal with it, some positive or
negative characteristics surely wont represent the kind of people they are as a whole.
American Spirit is known for its bogus traits, which are mainly heritable by choice.
People in this world have the choice to either go along with the American Spirits plastic roses or
look at its undead truth and try to pull a Chris McCandless.

Works Cited

Greeley, Andrew. "America's Disease Is Greed." Common Dreams. Chicago Sun Times, 20 Aug.
2004. Web. 30 Mar. 2015.

Into the Wild. Dir. Sean Penn. Perf. Emile Hersch. Paramount Vantage, 2007. DVD.

Kozy, John. "America: An Ordinary Nation Ruled by Greedy, Unjust, and Inhumane
People." Global Research. N.P., 14 July 2014. Web. 30 Mar. 2015.

Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild. New York: Anchor, 1997. Print.

Shammas, Michael. "Too Often, American Justice Is Injustice." The Huffington Post.
TheHuffingtonPost.com, 12 Feb. 2014. Web. 30 Mar. 2015.