w at it. Third, it has one hand raised in a charismatic fashion, symbolizing fearlessness and powerfullness. Steinbeck writes “no one can define the American Way of Life or point to any person or group who lives in it, but it is real nevertheless.” The way an American lives their life differs from person to person. Two Americans from the same country, living on the same street, have different ways of practicing their religions, celebrating holidays, and pursuing their culture in general. Americans can act freely, just as the Statue of Liberty depicts freedom to Americans. The Statue of Liberty is a statue of freedom, giving Americans the right to live and practice their culture however they want. There is no such thing as a true American identity. According to the essay Identities, “Identity has always been a difficult question nagging the collective American mind.” No two Americans are the same, no two live in the same manner. One person cannot tell another how to live ones life; one person cannot define him/herself as living the American way of life. This is because the Statue of Liberty symbolizes to people all over that America is the land of the free. Americans are free to make their decisions about what it is to be an American and how one lives. According to Identities “Americans have argued and wondered about who they are.” The Statue of Liberty once was the first thing that immigrants saw when they came to America. However, there is no set of rules or guidelines on it that say what is to be American. No one person can tell another that he/she is not an American because there is no recipe on what attributes a true American has. In What’s Happening to America, John Steinbeck writes, “we work to hard and may die under the strain.” An American can often be termed a hard worker. The Statue of Liberty is a woman who works to escape the chains of tyranny. An American i...
