Yunuen Arteaga
Ms. Lehmann
English 1-1A
10 October 2019
The Struggles of Generation Through Generation
Julian Castro once said, “In the end, the American dream is not sprint, or even a marathon, but a relay. Our families don’t always cross the finish line in the span of one generation, but each generation passes on to the next the of fruits of their labor.” Throughout American history, the struggles to attain an equal, united nation have been passed on. This essay will compare and contrast how Anna Quindlen’s “A Quilt of a Country’’ and Abraham’s Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” treat the issues of equality, unity, and patriotism in their visions of the American dream. Equality is the first ideal both authors discuss.
Quindlen and Lincoln both discuss equality in their works. Both authors agree that equality is an ideal worth striving for even though we have not yet achieved it in our nation. Quindlen explains that our nation has held onto the value of equality since its creation. She writes, ‘’America… is held together by the notion that all men are created equal ‘’ (Quindlen 3). Here, Quindlen highlights the value of equality, not only as something we should fight for, but also as a value that has held our nation together. Quindlen also saw the difficulty in attaining equality, though. Quindlen points to cultural inequalities in our nation, but Lincoln faced much more severe issues surrounding slavery. Lincoln, like Quindlen, saw the inequalities in the way people in our country are treated, but he fought a civil war to free slaves. In this speech, he says, “We here highly resolve that.... this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom’’ (Lincoln 28). Lincoln wanted equality to keep our nation together, but he didn’t see the fruits of his labor. Both authors valued unity as well as equality.
Unity is another topic both authors discuss. Both authors agree that unity is important and takes a long time to achieve, but we should still stick together. Quindlen talks about our failures, but we learn from them and keep growing. She writes, ‘’It is difficult to know how to convince students that this amounts to, ‘crown thy god with brotherhood, ‘that amid all the failures is something spectacularly successful’’ (Quindlen 4). Quindlen is saying that U.S. values unity, but we also fail a lot, which can make it hard to recognize the good in our nation. Quindlen urges reader to keep trying anyway. While Quindlen wanted the country to be more united socially, Lincoln was trying to put the U.S. back together. Quindlen notices that the nation come together after 9-11, but Lincoln saw the country divide over the issue of slavery. Lincoln urges people to make sure the “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth’’ (Lincoln 28). Lincoln wanted to reunite the government so we would remain one united nation. Both Quindlen and Lincoln wanted to reunite the U.S., but they sought for different kinds of unity. These authors didn’t just talk about equality and unity, they also talked about patriotism.
Both authors discussed their views on patriotism. Both Quindlen and Lincoln agree that patriotism means taking pride in America. Quindlen says patriotism means being proud of our diversity and unity. Quindlen says, But patriotism partly taking pride in this unlikely ability to throw all of us together is a country that across its length and breadth is as different as a dozen countries, and still be able to call it by one name” (Quindlen 6). Quindlen defines patriotism as pride in our struggle to stay together despite our differences. Quindlen’s definition of patriotism doesn’t require as much sacrifice as Lincoln’s. Lincoln needed more than pride. He needed devotion to the nation. At the dedication of the National Cemetry Lincoln said, “We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live” (Lincoln 27). Lincoln’s definition of patriotism is being devoted enough to fight for, or even die for, your nation. Both authors agree that patriotism requires pride, though Lincoln also wanted devotion.
Equality, unity, and patriotism are all ideals that Lincoln and Quindlen share though they valued them in different ways. Quindlen and Lincoln agreed that equality is something worth striving for, but Quindlen points to cultural inequalities while Lincoln fought slavery. Both authors agreed that unity takes a long time to achieve but we should still fight for it even though they wanted different kinds of unity. They also believed that patriotism is necessary to keep our nation together even though Lincoln needed patriotism more. So, Julian Castro’s ideas about the American dream are proved by Lincoln and Quindlen; it’s a relay, not a sprint.
Works cited page
Lincoln, Abraham. “The Gettysburg Address.’’ Collections, edited by Kylene Beers, Martha Hougen, Carol Jago, William L. Mcbride, Erick Palmer, & Lydia stack, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017, pp. 27-28.
Quindlen, Anna. “A Quilt of a Country.’’ Collections, edited by Kylene Beers, Martha Hougen, Carol Jago, William L. Mcbride, Erick Palmer, & Lydia stack, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017, pp. 3-6.
Compare and Contrast Reflection
Please answer all questions in complete, grammatically correct sentences.
1. Explain the process you went through to write this paper. Please be specific.
For the first paragraph I started by the hook, which is to catch peoples attention, then the intro, next the main topic, and lastly we talk about the main topic. The second and third paragraph is how Anna Quindlen's story is different from Lincoln's. I had to bring up why its different, then cite it and then bring up the next topic. Unity, equality, and patriotism are the topics I compared them on. last off all was the conclusion.
2. What qualifies this paper as a compare and contrast essay? What are the requirements for this genre and how did you meet them?
When you show the similarities and differences between to things. I had to list the differences of each topic and have to cite it for evidence.
3. Tell me about one challenge you faced writing this paper and how you overcame it.
The one thing i didn't understand at first was how this was suppose to be written until i got some helpon what goes next.