American Cultural Values- Before and After...

Cultures and values are the main aspects of our life; without them we wouldn’t be known by anything. In the early days cultural values didn’t really have a definite meaning as to most values were from Britain. Everything seemed mostly connected to Britain rather than the American values and tradition. Americans started adopting their own values as the years passed down and they became more global. They had a huge diversity of people and grew with identifying their “own” cultural values soon after.

Since the past, many cultural values have changed and many are still similar to one another. Mostly in my opinion, the American cultural values have changed. Many people in the early days were hard working and really tried their best to get what they wanted and they even achieved it to one point. Now days, I would say, people take most things for advantage. They don’t really appreciate what they have or will never appreciate it in their entire lifetime; they want more no matter what. Back then, people were happy with what they got, and never expected anything more. Most were poor so they were satisfied even if they got one piece of bread. Another value that has disappeared from today is the faith in God. In the early days, mostly the Puritans had a strong faith in God. For no matter what they did, they remembered God first and He made all their worries disappear. In contrast to this, in the 21st century, many people don’t believe in God. Most people don’t even go to church that often, as if you compare that to the past- people use to go to church every Sundays. Also, back then most teenagers didn’t get a chance to educate themselves. It was a different story if you were wealthy although. Americans have many choices now days. In school, they can decide their major field of study, with or without their parent’s influence, and students even get to select some of their courses.

In addition, the role of women was very different in the past and now- in this present. Woman in the early days were considered to just stay as house wives and take care of the kitchen, husband, family, and their house. She was not allowed so as to “speak out in the open public.” In contrast, women today are outgoing, and much more expressive. Many have corporate jobs and support their families by working and at the same time taking care of the family and children.

Many American concepts have fallen apart and some remain unchanged. Some that remain unchanged are the major holidays that families gather to celebrate together, for example, Christmas and Thanksgiving. Most families still do this today; they gather up and have a huge feast, just like in the early days. This helps maintain and help family to stay close together. This is the only root of families being together in today’s age. On the other hand, an equal amount of concepts and cultural values have fallen apart.

To begin with, in the daily lives of today, people get less time to spend with their family and relatives, except when it comes to some holidays. The American cultural value in this age, in contrast to the early ages, allows children to disagree, even argue with their parents. While in most other cultures such action would be considered lack of respect. But now it’s simply part of developing one’s independence. Another concept that has fallen is the concept of privacy. In the early ages, people barely had 3 rooms. In this age, every kid demands to have their own room when they are like 6 or 7. There is no form of eating at the dinner table anymore. They either eat at their leisure or in their own rooms watching TV, and usually parent’s are the only ones at the dinner tables by themselves. These concepts might have fallen due to time, and pressure of making money and being ahead of one another. All people care about in this age is money, money and more money. At some parts, you can even say there is no name of humanity!
The early texts of American society can help us understand the American life today tremendously. As I mentioned earlier, so much concepts have fallen from the early ages until now.

The early text literature helps us understand the value and meaning of the American cultures; it helps us be one with our family and teaches us moral values and to have faith in God at all times. Most early settlers believed that they had a responsibility to improve themselves, to be the best they can be, and to help others. These convictions have not only influences our educational system today, but are often useful in all manners. What many might consider meddling in other people’s affairs, others believe is fulfilling a moral obligation. Overall, literature from the early settlers have impacted the American way of thinking and taught one of the most valuable cultures. Even though some may not have been the same today, they help us understand how we should really be towards our cultures and value. All in all, American literatures teach us the lessons of life!