American culture - Research Paper Example

20 February, The American Culture: Critical analysis: Culture of a nation plays a very important role in shaping its vision and deciding its future. Culture contains in itself, the norms, values, trends and traditions that are ingrained in the psychology of a nation. Thus, culture can be though of as a reflection of a nation’s ideology. This paper presents a brief critical analysis of the American culture. America is today’s leading country in science and technology. This has convinced many people to migrate to America in search of job opportunities, more income and a better lifestyle.

Millions and millions of foreigners have poured into the land of America since the past few centuries. Today, America is crowded with foreigners and has largely become a multicultural society. “The 1990 census, for example, shows that racial and ethnic groups are growing more than seven times as fast as the majority” (Qasawa). As a result of heavy in-pour of several cultures, the Native American culture has developed many shades over the course of time that reflects influence of the foreign cultures in them.

America, today, is a multicultural democratic society which provides its citizens with freedom of expression in terms of art, culture, ideas and opinions. Unfortunately, with the increase in cultural diversity, expression of racism has also gained strength in America (Howard 1). Like every culture, American culture has its own pros and cons. Some of the cons of the American culture are reluctance among people towards marriage. According to a survey, no more than “52 percent of adult Americans said they were married in 2010” (Lubin).

People tend to develop relationships with their proposed fiances before marriage. They live together for certain time in order to understand each other so that they would be in a better position to decide whether or not to marry the person they have lived with. This may lead people to rational decisions in some cases, but in a vast majority of cases, people tend to live through their youth unmarried. It so happens because they first allow sufficient time to know each other, and once they actually get to know each other, they find out that the person is not worth marrying.

This realization becomes the beginning of yet another relationship and the circle continues. This is a very harmful practice, and has disturbed the family system not only in America, but also in several other countries. Another negative aspect of the American culture is people’s uncontrolled liking for junk food. This habit has resulted into extreme obesity in quite a lot of Americans. Youth, which is a period to celebrate one’s smartness, goes ruined because of the ruined looks, and the old age is even more terrible.

In order for a culture to be ideal, people should leave the decision of selection of partner upon their parents. Old parents have a life long experience and are thus, in a better position to identify the right partner for their son or daughter to make couple with. Also, in an ideal culture, people should eat nothing but fruits and boiled vegetables. Works cited: Howard, Gary R. “White Americans in a Multicultural Society: Re-thinking Our Role.” 2009. Web. 20 Feb. 2011. . Lubin, Gus. “Marriage Rate Hits All-Time Low As Americans Put Jobs Before Love.

” 28 Sep. 2010. Web. 20 Feb. 2011. . Qasawa, Karin B. “Ethnic minority groups are growing more than seven times as fast as the majority population. Are you embracing diversity in your community?” n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2011. .