CHAPTER 1
What Does It Mean to Be a Citizen?
”An idea is a feat of association.”
Robert Frost
GETTING STARTED: Picturing Citizenship
When you hear the question “What does it mean to be a citizen?” what ideas
come first to your mind? If you imagine concepts like freedom or duty, or actions
like voting, try to visualize them; are there objects, persons, or events that help
you picture these ideas? Hold one of those images in your mind, then take out
a piece of clean paper and draw that image in the paper’s center.
Some images, such as flags, will be easy to draw, but others, like a group
of people living together in harmony, will not, so you might symbolize that
idea with two stick figures holding hands. The image does not have to be drawn
well, but it should be kept relatively small to give you room on the paper for
further drawing. As you introduce yourselves to your classmates, describe what
image you drew and why. Then compare the images; are there significant
differences or similarities?
FIRST INQUIRY: USING MIND MAPS TO ASSESS
WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT CITIZENSHIP
The pictures you drew in the Getting Started exercise are the first step in
creating a Mind Map of citizenship. Created by Tony Buzan and based on
the notebooks of great thinkers like Leonardo da Vinci, Mind Maps help us
create and examine our ideas. Writers begin with a central image and expand
outward, writing down additional words or images that they associate with
the central image. From these new words and images, writers can see new
connections, creating more ideas and expanding the map further.
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While Mind Maps can be used in a variety of ways, from planning an activity
to taking class notes, the map of citizenship included below demonstrates how writers can use maps to brainstorm, or generate ideas, about citizenship. Created by
several freshmen at the University of Minnesota, this Mind Map represents only
one of thousands of possible maps. As you analyze it, describe how the Mind Map
helped you create or examine ideas about citizenship. Then assess whether the map
achieves three common goals of brainstorming: 1) to assess what we already know,
2) to alert us to what we don’t know, and 3) to suggest directions for further inquiry.
As you examined the Mind Map, did you think of other ideas or images associated with citizenship? Now assess your own ideas about citizenship by creating your own Mind Map.
EXERCISE 1.1 Creating Your Own Mind Map
1. Place the paper with your image of citizenship in front of you. Starting a
Mind Map with a picture or symbol encourages creativity because we associate many ideas and feelings with visual images. Placing the image in the
center of your paper will free you to expand in any direction.
Continuing the Inquiry: Dictionary Definitions
3
2. Write down any words suggested by the image. In different locations
around the central image, write down any words, phrases, or images
inspired by the central image. You shouldn’t second-guess any of your
ideas by worrying about what others will think. Next, connect the words
and images to your central image with arrows that point outward from the
center. These arrows can help you organize your thoughts by showing the
direction of your thinking.
3. Continue expanding on the secondary words and images. Using each new
word, phrase, or image as your starting point, expand your ideas, connecting those ideas with new arrows. As you expand outward, include specific
ideas and examples that clarify the elements in your map. A completed
Mind Map often resembles a spider’s web because each new word or image
suggests additional ideas that radiate outward from it. Finish your Mind
Map only when you’ve exhausted your ideas. Even though you may not use
every item in a Mind Map, having an abundance of ideas can offer more
possible directions for further inquiry.
Once you have finished your Mind Map, meet in small groups and compare
your ideas. Do some of your words and images parallel those of your classmates? Do other words or images suggest conflicting ideas about citizenship?
As a follow-up exercise, you might do a class Mind Map, beginning with the
most commonly used image from the Getting Started exercise.
CONTINUING THE INQUIRY: DICTIONARY DEFINITIONS
Your Mind Maps may have suggested many common ideas among your classmates. At the same time, the maps may have highlighted differences in your definitions of citizenship that are hard to reconcile. One student may associate
citizenship with social protests while another may associate it with law, order,
and social harmony. One student may see citizenship primarily as our civil
rights, while another may focus on our civic duties. To reconcile these differences, we might turn to an outside authority like a dictionary. Consulting a dictionary about unfamiliar words becomes natural for college students; perhaps
you even looked up the words citizen and citizenship in the dictionary before
beginning your Mind Map.
Dictionaries guide readers on a word’s pronunciation and usage and trace
its etymology (its earliest introduction into the language). Dictionaries also provide several features useful to understanding a word’s meaning. Each dictionary’s
editorial board identifies the alternative meanings of a word, using numbers to
differentiate them and letters to note differences within a particular meaning.
Some dictionaries even provide examples, called citations, of how the word is used
in a sentence. The Oxford English Dictionary, for example, provides citations from
writers of different historical periods, showing how a word can gain new meanings over time. Finally, dictionaries occasionally provide synonyms, which are
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words with similar meaning. To further explore how dictionaries work, try the following exercise:
EXERCISE 1.2 Comparing Dictionary Definitions
Look up the words citizen and citizenship in your own dictionary, compare
them with the following definitions, and then—either individually or in small
groups—respond to the questions that follow the definitions.
1. There are a number of differences in the dictionary definitions. The variety
might be a result of writing for different audiences. Who might be the
probable audiences and what might be the likely purposes for each definition, based on each definition’s features?
2. Consider your needs as a college writer. Which of the dictionary definitions
would be most useful to you, and why?
3. To communicate their ideas effectively, writers choose precisely worded
statements over vague, generally worded statements. Do the dictionary
definitions help to clarify your ideas of citizenship by giving you more precisely worded descriptions?
The American Century Dictionary:
Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary:
Definition of “Citizen” from Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate® Dictionary, 10th Edition
©2001 by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, by permission of Merriam-Webster, Inc.
The Oxford English Dictionary (see p. 5):
© Oxford University Press 1989. Definition reprinted from The Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edition 1989) by permission of Oxford University Press.
Continuing the Inquiry: Dictionary Definitions
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Chapter I
What Does It Mean to Be a Citizen?
Black’s Law Dictionary:
Definition of “citizen” from Black’s Law Dictionary, 6th edition. Reprinted with permission of the West Group.
Citizen. One who, under the Constitution and laws of the United
States, or of a particular state, is a member of the political community, owing allegiance and being entitled to the enjoyment
of full civil rights. All persons born or naturalized in the United
States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of
the United States and of the state wherein they reside.
U.S.Const., 14th Amend. See Citizenship.
“Citizens” are members of a political community who, in
their associated capacity, have established or submitted themselves to the dominion of a government for the promotion
of their general welfare and the protection of their individual as well as collective rights. Herriott v. City of Seattle,
81 Wash.2d 48, 500 P.2d 101, 109.
The term may include or apply to children of alien parents born in United States, Von Schwerdtner v. Piper,
D.C.Md., 23 F.2d 862, 863; U. S. v. Minoru Yasui, D.C.Or.,
48 F.Supp. 40, 54; children of American citizens born outside United States, Haaland v. Attorney General of United
States, D.C.Md., 42 F.Supp. 13, 22; Indians, United States
v. Hester, C.C.A.Okl., 137 F.2d 145, 147; National Banks,
American Surety Co. v. Bank of California, C.C.A.Or., 133
F.2d 160, 162; nonresident who has qualified as administratrix of estate of deceased resident, Hunt v. Noll,
C.C.A.Tenn., 112 F.2d 288, 289. However, neither the
United States nor a state is a citizen for purposes of diversity jurisdiction. Jizemerjian v. Dept. of Air Force, 457
F.Supp. 820. On the other hand, municipalities and other
local governments are deemed to be citizens. Rieser v. District of Columbia, 563 F.2d 462. A corporation is not a citizen for purposes of privileges and immunities clause of the
Fourteenth Amendment. D. D. B. Realty Corp. v. Merrill,
232 F.Supp. 629, 637.
Citizenship. The status of being a citizen. There are four ways
to acquire citizenship: by birth in the United States, by birth
in U.S. territories, by birth outside the U.S. to U.S. parents,
and by naturalization. See Corporate citizenship; Diversity of
citizenship; Dual citizenship; Federal citizenship; Naturalization; Jus sanguinis; Jus soli.
The dictionary definitions give us more ideas to associate with citizenship,
such as being an inhabitant of a city. They may also give us a clearer idea of what
citizen and citizenship mean by providing more precisely worded descriptions.
For example, we may not have differentiated between “native” and “naturalized”
citizens in our understanding of citizenship. Nevertheless, the different dictionaries, like the preceding Mind Maps, still define the words in slightly different
ways. For example, the first meaning given for citizen in the American Century
Dictionary does not mention entitlement to civic rights or privileges, as do the
Continuing the Inquiry: Official Documents
7
others. If dictionaries are supposed to be our authorities for a word’s meanings,
why don’t they all define words in exactly the same way?
The most obvious answer for the differences between the dictionaries is
that, like any form of written communication, each has its own purpose and audience. For example, the range of the American Century Dictionary is broad but each
entry is brief; it is also inexpensive, appealing to general readers who want a guide
useful for looking up unknown words but don’t need to distinguish between a
word’s different senses. The Oxford English Dictionary, on the other hand, has a
different purpose and audience. First proposed by the Philological Society in England in 1857, the dictionary took more than seventy years to complete and occupies twelve large volumes. The second edition, which came out in 1989, defines
over half a million words and occupies twenty volumes. The dictionary is so
large because its purpose is to demonstrate, through the use of citations, the full
range of the word’s various meanings. Because the cost of producing such an
exhaustive work is high, few general readers can afford to buy it. Consequently,
its audience tends to be researchers and library patrons.
Dictionaries like Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary are more common
for college students who may need a rigorous but affordable guide. Finally, some
dictionaries like Black’s Law Dictionary are specialized for a particular audience.
The use of precise legal language (e.g., “All persons born or naturalized in the
United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof ”) and the references to relevant court cases (e.g., Herriott v. City of Seattle) make the definitions more useful to lawyers, law students, and legal scholars.
Dictionary definitions are not the only writing situations shaped by the
writer’s purpose and audience. All forms of writing, from personal diaries to business memos, are shaped by the writer’s subject, purpose, and audience. This is
an important point to consider, because knowing what restrictions your subject
places on your writing, what goals you have for writing about the subject, and
what your audience knows or wants to know about the subject will help you communicate more effectively. As a follow-up exercise, you might list different writing types or situations, and then discuss how the writer’s subject, purpose, and
audience shape each of these examples.
CONTINUING THE INQUIRY: OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS
Dictionary definitions describe how English speakers and writers use concepts like
citizenship. To learn how these concepts are defined in the context of American political and social institutions, we might examine official documents. Official documents
like laws, court opinions, and organization policies—even mission statements, press
releases, and the published speeches of public officials—offer definitions closely
tied to the visions and practices of actual businesses, government agencies, and
public interest groups. In this section we will examine two sets of documents fundamental to American citizenship: the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s naturalization requirements, and the Constitution of the United States.
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INS Naturalization Requirements
According to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), 849,807
immigrants arrived legally in the United States in 2000. Many of these immigrants
applied for U.S. citizenship. The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) of 1952
and its many amendments serve as the basis for existing immigration law. Because
the law is complex, the INS offers guides to assist immigrants in applying for
citizenship. A candidate for citizenship must satisfy a number of different criteria and successfully complete several forms and exams. The process outlined in
those guides has been simplified in this chapter to illustrate some of the ideas
about citizenship that form the basis of the process. After you complete each stage,
consider the follow-up questions individually or in groups.
In order to even apply to become a U.S. citizen, a candidate must first pass
several naturalization requirements. A candidate for citizenship must
• Be at least eighteen years old.
• Have been “lawfully admitted for permanent residence” according to
immigration laws, which means that the person has been registered as an
immigrant and has filled out certain forms (for census and tax purposes,
for example); this is in contrast to a person who arrives as an “illegal
alien” and does not have registration papers (who is, in other words,
“undocumented”).
• Have been a lawful resident for at least five years and have been physically present in the United States for at least thirty months out of those previous five years.
• Have resided in a state or district for at least three months.
In short, the person must be an adult who has entered the country through the
standard legal channels and has lived here most of the last five years. In small
groups or as a class, consider the following questions:
1. Why do you think it is so important for citizenship candidates to be lawful residents for at least five years?
2. Why must they have stayed in one state or district for three months?
3. What do these requirements suggest about the INS definition of
citizenship?
If candidates meet the above requirements, they must still meet additional
eligibility criteria. Complete part ten of the Request for Naturalization form (Form
N-400), which appears on pages 9–10; as you answer the questions, consider what
these criteria have to do with U.S. citizenship
Continuing the Inquiry: Official Documents
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Continuing the Inquiry: Official Documents
11
Unlike the first set of criteria, the eligibility factors relating to political party
involvement, military service, and personal moral character seem less clear. For
example, Section D—designed to assess what the INS calls good moral character—may seem insufficient for assessing candidates’ characters. A candidate might
meet the criteria and still be a poor citizen morally. In addition, Question 22
might seem an invasion of individual privacy. Should the government be able
to learn, for example, if you are an alcoholic? Keep these larger questions in mind
as you complete the next stage of the application process: the United States history and government exam.
The U.S. history and government exam consists of twenty questions chosen randomly from a set list. Because candidates respond to questions orally or
in writing, INS officers can assess another eligibility requirement, the candidates’ ability to speak, read, write, and understand the English language. Reprinted
below are twenty questions selected randomly from one hundred samples provided by the INS to help candidates prepare for the exam.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
What are the colors of the American flag?
How many states are there in the union?
Can the Constitution be changed?
For how long do we elect the president?
How many branches are there in the American government?
How many senators are there in Congress?
What is the Bill of Rights?
Who said, “Give me liberty or give me death?”
Which countries were our enemies during World War II?
Who elects the President of the United States?
Why did the pilgrims come to America?
Who wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner”?
Who was the main writer of the Declaration of Independence?
What special group advises the president?
What is the minimum voting age in the United States?
When was the Declaration of Independence adopted?
What kind of government does the United States have?
In what year was the Constitution written?
Where is the White House located?
What is the introduction to the Constitution called?
After you have answered the questions, check your answers at the end of
the chapter. To pass this portion of the test, candidates need to get twelve or
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more correct. The exam can give each of us insight into our own knowledge
of U.S. history and government; when joined with the other naturalization
requirements, it can also tell us something about how Congress, which establishes naturalization laws, defines citizenship. If you recall that all of the dictionary definitions of citizenship refer to membership in a community, you
can see that the naturalization requirements make assumptions about the nature
of our national community.
A community is usually defined as a group of people living in the same place
and sharing the same government, but the definitions also carry the sense of
having common rights and claims that bond individual members together. Reread
the naturalization requirements and U.S. history and government exam; then consider the following questions.
1. These requirements assume a common set of values. How would you
describe these values? Should the U.S. government set minimum moral
standards for naturalization candidates? What might be the social consequences of not setting such standards?
2. Do these requirements assume a common U.S. history, or a view of what
is most important in U.S. history? Could Question 11, asking why the pilgrims came to America, be replaced with “Why did the Spanish conquistadors come to the Americas?” Assuming that INS officers must select
those questions they consider most important for U.S. history—because
they can only ask twenty questions in all—would the new question suggest a new version of U.S. history?
3. Should INS officers require citizens to demonstrate competence in English? What is the value to a community of having a common language?
4. Do these requirements assume a common political ideology (a set of ideas
about how a society should be run)? Should a candidate who believes in
a different political ideology, like communism, be allowed to gain U.S.
citizenship?
5. Should INS officers require citizens to take an oath of allegiance? Many
immigrants who are naturalized continue to maintain familial and political ties with their countries of origin. Do you see any benefits or drawbacks to citizens having dual loyalties?
In answering the above questions, you may discover that not everyone has
the same ideas about the nature of our national political community. Disagreements on issues of public ethics, which we will explore in later chapters, are
often based on just such competing ideas. For example, the conflict in states
like California over bilingual education—teaching students in more than one language—involves larger disagreements over the place of non-English languages
in the United States. As you read the next official source of ideas on citizenship,
the U.S. Constitution, consider how it does or does not anticipate the issues raised
in the above questions.
Continuing the Inquiry: Official Documents
13
The U.S. Constitution
The United States existed for just over ten years without a written constitution.
The Constitution was written in 1787 because the previous effort at constitutional
government, the Articles of Confederation, failed to adequately define the power
and responsibility of the federal government and its relationship with the states.
Under a federal system, power is shared between a national government and
state governments, with each having clearly established powers. Although citizens
are subject to both national and state laws, their rights and powers are also recognized in the Constitution. As you will discover in later chapters, American society has often struggled to balance the competing interests of the national
government, individual states, and individual citizens.
The U.S. Constitution is made up of a preamble, a statement of the document’s purpose; seven articles outlining the makeup, responsibilities, and procedures of the government; and twenty-seven amendments, or changes, that have
been made to those articles. Here is an index of the Constitution:
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
Preamble
Article One: The Legislative Branch
Article Two: The Executive Branch
Article Three: The Judicial Branch
Article Four: Relations Between the States
Article Five: The Amendment Process
Article Six: General Provisions, Supremacy of the Constitution
Article Seven: Ratification Process
Amendments
Included below are selected passages from the U.S. Constitution; the complete text can be accessed from this book’s accompanying Web site http://www.
ablongman.com/berndt. After you’ve read the selections, consider the questions that follow.
The Constitution of the United States
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union,
establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquillity, provide for the common defence,
promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves
and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United
States of America.
Article. I.
Section. 1.
All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United
States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.
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Section. 2.
The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall
have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch
of the State Legislature.
No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the
age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States,
and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he
shall be chosen.
Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several
States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of
free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of
the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed
one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode-Island and
Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New-York six, New Jersey four,
Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina
five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.
Article. IV.
Section. 1.
Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records,
and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by
general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof.
Section. 2.
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities
of Citizens in the several States.
A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who
shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of
the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to
be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime.
No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof,
escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein,
be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim
of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.
Section. 3.
New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new
State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State;
nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of
Continuing the Inquiry: Official Documents
15
States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as
well as of the Congress.
The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules
and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the
United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State.
Section. 4.
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican
Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and
on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.
Article. V.
The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall
propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and
Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three
fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the
one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth
Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without
its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.
Article. VI.
All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the Adoption of
this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation.
This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made
in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under
the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and
the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any state to the Contrary notwithstanding.
The first ten amendments to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, were proposed to Congress on September 25, 1789, and ratified on December 15, 1791.
(Originally there were twelve amendments proposed; the first two, in regard to compensating members of Congress and the number of constituents for each Representative, were not ratified. Numbers 3–12 became the first ten amendments.)
Amendment I.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the
press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
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Amendment II.
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right
of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Amendment III.
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent
of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
Amendment IV.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects,
against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants
shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Amendment V.
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime,
unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time
of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence
to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public
use, without just compensation.
Amendment VI.
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall
have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by
law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.
Amendment VII.
In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty
dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury,
shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
Amendment VIII.
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and
unusual punishments inflicted.
Amendment IX.
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed
to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Amendment X.
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited
by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
Continuing the Inquiry: Official Documents
Amendment XIII.
Section 1.
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime
whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United
States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
[Passed by Congress January 31, 1865. Ratified December 6, 1865.]
Amendment XIV.
Section. 1.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they
reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State
deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor
deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Section. 2.
Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to
their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State,
excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for
the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States,
Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or
the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United
States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other
crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion
which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male
citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
Section. 3.
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President
and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States,
or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution
of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the
same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a
vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Section. 4.
The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the
United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred
in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for
the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims
shall be held illegal and void.
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Section. 5.
The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
[Passed by Congress June 13, 1866. Ratified July 9, 1868.]
Amendment XV.
Section. 1.
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged
by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Section. 2.
The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
[Passed by Congress February 26, 1869. Ratified February 4, 1870.]
Amendment XIX.
Section. 1.
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged
by the United States or any State on account of sex.
Section. 2.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
[Passed by Congress June 4, 1919. Ratified August 18, 1920.]
Amendment XXVI
[Note: Amendment 14, section 2, of the Constitution was modified by Section 1 of the 26th amendment.]
Section. 1
The rights of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or
older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any
State on account of age.
Section. 2.
The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
[Passed by Congress March 23, 1971. Ratified July 1, 1971.]
Here are some questions that may help you reflect on what you’ve read. The
questions encourage you to consider the Constitution as a written document
and to recall the other documents on citizenship that you have studied so far.
1. What impressions of American citizenship do you get from the Constitution?
How do these impressions compare with those you got from your Mind Map,
the dictionary definitions, and INS naturalization requirements?
2. The majority of the Constitution deals with the makeup, procedures,
and authority of the federal government. Is this what you expected when
you began reading the Constitution? Why do you think the rights of individual citizens were not addressed until the amendments?
3. How would you describe the language of the Constitution? Consider the
kinds of words used, the words’ specificity or vagueness, the length and
complexity of the sentences, and so on. Does this language fit the authors’
purpose and audience?
Continuing the Inquiry: Public Messages
19
While the U.S. Constitution provides the framework for the citizens’ relation
to their government, it is only one of many laws defining how citizens ought to
live. There are rules for driving automobiles, for operating a business, and for running political campaigns. There are laws protecting individuals within families,
protecting groups within society, and for taking affirmative action against past
injustices. Take a few minutes to brainstorm other laws that define what individuals can or cannot do as citizens. You might also consult your library, the Internet, or government agencies to examine the laws themselves.
Then, consider the fact that all of these laws are written. What advantages do
written laws offer for a community? Are there disadvantages? Finally, create a
list of other instances where writing helps to define your communities or the issues
your community is facing. How significant is writing to citizens’ lives?
CONTINUING THE INQUIRY: VISUAL MESSAGES
In addition to government documents, you might examine the many messages
about citizenship that circulate in our communities. Advertisements, public service messages, works of art, flags, memorials, the credos and mission statements
of civic organizations—citizens are exposed to thousands of messages every day,
each seeking to affect how we view our community membership. These messages may complicate—or oversimplify—the definitions of citizenship that we
find in official documents.
Many of these messages are conveyed to us using visual themes. Recognizing
that these messages seek to shape our understanding of citizenship, we can
respond to them more thoughtfully. In Chapter Four, you will study how writers seek to persuade us using written and visual texts. To get some initial practice analyzing visual messages, examine the following messages. The first is an
advertisement for a consumer affairs organization that appeared in the US News
& World Report on May 27, 2002 (p. 20). The second is a cartoon that appeared
in the New Yorker on October 15, 2001 (p. 21). Here are some questions to help
you begin your analysis.
1. What is the central message of each visual text? What associations does
each piece make between being a good citizen and a consumer? Note when
the pieces were published; e.g., the cartoon appeared one month after
the September 11, 2001 attacks. Why is this significant?
2. Who is the audience for these messages? What do you know about U.S.
News & World Report and the New Yorker ? Why would these particular
images by printed in those individual magazines?
3. Read the two images side by side, as if they were in a conversation with one
another, each conveying a message to you. In what ways could the cartoon
by read as a critique of or commentary upon the advertisement?
4. Do you think the pieces are effective? Why or why not?
5. Do you think the pieces are ethical? Why or why not?
20
Chapter I
What Does It Mean to Be a Citizen?
Continuing the Inquiry: Narratives of Citizenship
© The New Yorker Collection 2001 Marisa Acocella From Cartoonbank.com. All Rights Reserved.
21
22
Chapter I
What Does It Mean to Be a Citizen?
Your analysis of the visual texts may have illustrated just how complex these
messages can be. They often use sophisticated strategies to communicate, and they
raise important questions about what it means to be a “good” citizen. To continue
your inquiry into how visual messages shape our understanding of citizenship,
you might bring additional examples into your classroom: more advertisements
or public service announcements from magazines and billboards, for instance,
or even bumper stickers and t-shirts.
CONTINUING THE INQUIRY: NARRATIVES OF CITIZENSHIP
In the preceding sections, you inquired further into the definition of citizenship. Yet the definitions you examined are collective and general; consequently,
they don’t illustrate how individual citizens experience their citizenship. For example, the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees citizens “equal protection of the laws,”
but our history has repeatedly shown that some groups—whether because of race,
class, gender, age, sexual orientation, or ability—have not experienced the same
privileges and immunities as other citizens. To learn about citizenship as it is lived
by individuals, we can turn to their stories.
In this section, you will find the narratives of politicians, fiction writers, and
fellow citizens. The insights these writers provide about their civic lives are tied
to the narrative as a form of writing. Unlike dictionary definitions and legal documents, narratives can teach us about citizenship in unique ways. Narratives can:
• Dramatize ideas. Writers can show a character’s actions and the consequences,
encouraging readers to discover the writers’ ideas or arguments for themselves.
• Show us other viewpoints. We can better appreciate how individual citizens think or feel by seeing, for ourselves, how they interpret events around
them.
• Appeal to our emotions. Using vivid descriptions of people, places, and
events, writers can inspire us, encourage us to empathize, even anger us into
taking action.
• Generate interest. Stories intrigue us as human beings. Writers can catch and
hold our attention by appealing to our imaginations.
As you read the following narratives, underline lines or passages that illustrate
the qualities outlined above. In addition, explore other ways in which these narratives, as forms of writing, teach you about citizenship. Then, after you’ve read
the narratives, read the suggestions for writing your own narrative of citizenship.
Benjamin Franklin
From Autobiography
23
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN From Autobiography
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) is considered one of the founding fathers
of the United States. He worked as a printer in Philadelphia, where he became
deeply involved in the civic life of that city and the developing nation. Later
in life he served in the Continental Congress, on the committee to draft the
Declaration of Independence, and as America’s ambassador to France. A great
believer in living a civic life, he set up one of the earliest libraries, organized a fire company, updated the U.S. Post Office, helped found the American Philosophical Society, and invented the Franklin stove and the lightning
rod. The following passages are excerpted from his Autobiography (The
Library of America, 1993), which he worked on from 1771 until his death in
1790, when it was left unfinished.
It was about this time that I conceiv’d the bold and arduous Project of arriving at moral Perfection. I wish’d to live without committing any Fault at any time;
I would conquer all that either Natural Inclination, Custom, or Company might
lead me into. As I knew, or thought I knew, what was right and wrong, I did
not see why I might not always do the one and avoid the other. But I soon found
I had undertaken a Task of more Difficulty than I had imagined: While my Care
was employ’d in guarding against one Fault, I was often surpriz’d by another. Habit
took the Advantage of Inattention. Inclination was sometimes too strong for Reason. I concluded at length, that the mere speculative Conviction that it was our
Interest to be compleatly virtuous, was not sufficient to prevent our Slipping, and
that the contrary Habits must be broken and good Ones acquired and established,
before we can have any Dependance on a steady uniform Rectitude of Conduct.
For this purpose I therefore contriv’d the following Method.—
In the various Enumerations of the moral Virtues I had met with in my Reading, I found the Catalogue more or less numerous, as different Writers included
more or fewer Ideas under the same Name. Temperance, for Example, was by
some confin’d to Eating & Drinking, while by others it was extended to mean the
moderating every other Pleasure, Appetite, Inclination or Passion, bodily or mental, even to our Avarice & Ambition. I propos’d to myself, for the sake of Clearness, to use rather more Names with fewer Ideas annex’d to each, than a few
Names with more Ideas; and I included under Thirteen Names of Virtues all
that at that time occurr’d to me as necessary or desirable, and annex’d to each a
short Precept, which fully express’d the Extent I gave to its Meaning.—
These Names of Virtues with their Precepts were
1. TEMPERANCE.
Eat not to Dulness.
Drink not to Elevation.
2. SILENCE.
Speak not but what may benefit others or your self. Avoid trifling
Conversation.
24
Chapter I
What Does It Mean to Be a Citizen?
3. ORDER.
Let all your Things have their Places. Let each Part of your Business have its
Time.
4. RESOLUTION.
Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.
5. FRUGALITY.
Make no Expence but to do good to others or yourself: i.e. Waste nothing.
6. INDUSTRY.
Lose no Time.—Be always employ’d in something useful.—Cut off all
unnecessary Actions.—
7. SINCERITY.
Use no hurtful Deceit.
Think innocently and justly; and, if you speak; speak accordingly.
8. JUSTICE.
Wrong none, by doing Injuries or omitting the Benefits that are your Duty.
9. MODERATION.
Avoid Extreams. Forbear resenting Injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. CLEANLINESS
Tolerate no Uncleanness in Body, Cloaths or Habitation.—
11. TRANQUILITY
Be not disturbed at Trifles, or at Accidents common or unavoidable.
12. CHASTITY.
Rarely use Venery but for Health or Offspring; Never to Dulness, Weakness, or the Injury of your own or another’s Peace or Reputation.—
13. HUMILITY.
Imitate Jesus and Socrates.—
My intention being to acquire the Habitude of all these Virtues, I judg’d it would
be well not to distract my Attention by attempting the whole at once, but to fix it
on one of them at a time, and when I should be Master of that, then to proceed
to another, and so on till I should have gone thro’ the thirteen. And as the previous Acquisition of some might facilitate the Acquisition of certain others, I arrang’d
them with that View as they stand above. Temperance first, as it tends to procure that
Coolness & Clearness of Head, which is so necessary where constant Vigilance
was to be kept up, and Guard maintained, against the unremitting Attraction of
ancient Habits, and the Force of perpetual Temptations. This being acquir’d & establish’d, Silence would be more easy, and my Desire being to gain Knowledge at the
same time that I improv’d in Virtue, and considering that in Conversation it was
obtain’d rather by the Use of the Ears than of the Tongue, & therefore wishing to
break a Habit I was getting into of Prattling, Punning & Joking, which only made
me acceptable to trifling Company, I gave Silence the second Place. This, and the
next, Order, I expected would allow me more Time for attending to my Project
and my Studies; RESOLUTION once become habitual, would keep me firm in my
Endeavours to obtain all the subsequent Virtues; Frugality & Industry, by freeing me
from my remaining Debt, & producing Affluence & Independance would make
Benjamin Franklin
5
From Autobiography
25
more easy the Practice of Sincerity and Justice, &c. &c.. Conceiving then that agreeable to the Advice of Pythagoras in his Golden Verses,* daily Examination would
be necessary, I contriv’d the following Method for conducting that Examination.
I made a little Book in which I allotted a Page for each of the Virtues. I rul’d
each Page with red Ink so as to have seven Columns, one for each Day of the
Week, marking each Column with a Letter for the Day. I cross’d these Columns
with thirteen red Lines, marking the Beginning of each Line with the first Letter of one of the Virtues, on which Line & in its proper Column I might mark
by a little black Spot every Fault I found upon Examination, to have been committed respecting that Virtue upon that Day.
Form of the Pages
TEMPERANCE.
Eat not to Dulness.
Drink not to Elevation.
S
M
T
W
T
T
S
O
R
F
I
S
J
M
Cl.
T
Ch
H
*Let not the stealing God of Sleep surprize,
Nor creep in Slumbers on thy weary Eyes,
Ere ev’ry Action of the former Day,
Strictly thou dost, and righteously survey.
With Rev’rence at thy own Tribunal stand,
And answer justly to thy own Demand.
Where have I been? In what have I transgrest?
What Good or Ill has this Day’s Life exprest?
Where have I fail’d in what I ought to do?
In what to GOD, to Man, or to myself I owe?
Inquire severe whate’er from first to last,
From Morning’s Dawn till Ev’nings Gloom has past.
If Evil were thy Deeds, repenting mourn,
And let thy Soul with strong Remorse be torn:
If Good, the Good with Peace of Mind repay,
And to thy secret Self with Pleasure say,
Rejoice, my Heart, for all went well to Day.
}
F
S
26
Chapter I
What Does It Mean to Be a Citizen?
I determined to give a Week’s strict Attention to each of the Virtues successively.
Thus in the first Week my great Guard was to avoid every the least Offence against
Temperance, leaving the other Virtues to their ordinary Chance, only marking
every Evening the Faults of the Day. Thus if in the first Week I could keep my first
Line marked T clear of Spots, I suppos’d the Habit of that Virtue so much strengthen’d and its opposite weaken’d, that I might venture extending my Attention to
include the next, and ‘for the following Week keep both Lines clear of Spots.
Proceeding thus to the last, I could go thro’ a Course compleat in Thirteen Weeks,
and four Courses in a Year.—And like him who having a Garden to weed, does
not attempt to eradicate all the bad Herbs at once, which would exceed his Reach
and his Strength, but works on one of the Beds at a time, & having accomplish’d
the first proceeds to a second; so I should have, (I hoped) the encouraging Pleasure of seeing on my Pages the Progress I made in Virtue, by clearing successively my Lines of their Spots, till in the End by a Number of Courses, I should
be happy in viewing a clean Book after a thirteen Weeks daily Examination.
This my little Book had for its Motto these Lines from Addison’s Cato;
Here will I hold: If there is a Pow’r above us,
(And that there is, all Nature cries aloud
Thro’ all her Works) he must delight in Virtue,
And that which he delights in must be happy.
Another from Cicero.
O Vite Philosophia Dux! O Virtutum indagatrix, expultrixque vitiorum! Unus dies bene,
& ex preceptis tuis actus, peccanti immortalitati est anteponendus.1
Another from the Proverbs of Solomon speaking of Wisdom or Virtue;
Length of Days is in her right hand, and in her Left Hand Riches and Honours; Her Ways
are Ways of Pleasantness, and all her Paths are Peace. III, 16, 17.
And conceiving God to be the Fountain of Wisdom, I thought it right and necessary to solicit his Assistance for obtaining it; to this End I form’d the following little Prayer, which was prefix’d to my Tables of Examination; for daily Use.
O Powerful Goodness! bountiful Father! merciful Guide! Increase in me that Wisdom which
discovers my truest Interests; Strengthen my Resolutions to perform what that Wisdom dictates. Accept my kind Offices to thy other Children, as the only Return in my Power for
thy continual Favours to me.
I us’d also sometimes a little Prayer which I took from Thomson’s Poems. viz
10
Father of Light and Life, that Good supreme,
O teach me what is good, teach me thy self!
Save me from Folly, Vanity and Vice,
1
A paraphrased translation (with several lines omitted): “O, Philosophy, guide of life! O teacher of virtue and
corrector of vice. One day of virtue is better than an eternity of vice.” Tusculan Disputations 5.2.5
Benjamin Franklin
From Autobiography
27
From every low Pursuit, and fill my Soul
With Knowledge, conscious Peace, & Virtue pure,
Sacred, substantial, neverfading Bliss!
The Precept of Order requiring that every Part of my Business should have its
allotted Time, one Page in my little Book contain’d the following Scheme of
Employment for the Twenty-four Hours of a natural Day,
The Morning Question,
What Good shall I do
this Day?
5
6
7
Rise, wash, and address Powerful Goodness;
contrive Day's Business and take the
Resolution of the Day; prosecute the present
Study; and breakfast.—
8
9
10
Work.
11
12
1
Read, or overlook my Accounts, and dine.
2
3
4
Work.
5
6
7
Evening Question,
What Good have I done
to day?
8
Put Things in their Places, Supper, Musick,
or Diversion, or Conversation,
Examination of the Day.
9
10
11
12
1
Sleep.—
2
3
4
I enter’d upon the Execution of this Plan for Self Examination, and continu’d it with occasional Intermissions for some time. I was surpriz’d to find myself
so much fuller of Faults than I had imagined, but I had the Satisfaction of seeing them diminish. To avoid the Trouble of renewing now & then my little Book,
which by scraping out the Marks on the Paper of old Faults to make room for
new Ones in a new Course, became full of Holes: I transferr’d my Tables
& Precepts to the Ivory Leaves of a Memorandum Book, on which the Lines were
drawn with red Ink that made a durable Stain, and on those Lines I mark’d
my Faults with a black Lead Pencil, which Marks I could easily wipe out with
a wet Sponge. After a while I went thro’ one Course only in a Year, and afterwards only one in several Years; till at length I omitted them entirely, being
employ’d in Voyages & Business abroad with a Multiplicity of Affairs, that interfered. But I always carried my little Book with me. My Scheme of ORDER, gave
me the most Trouble, and I found, that tho’ it might be practicable where a Man’s
28
Chapter I
What Does It Mean to Be a Citizen?
Business was such as to leave him the Disposition of his Time, that of a Journeyman Printer for instance, it was not possible to be exactly observ’d by a
Master, who must mix with the World, and often receive People of Business at their
own Hours.—Order too, with regard to Places for Things, Papers, &c. I found
extreamly difficult to acquire. I had not been early accustomed to it, & having an
exceeding good Memory, I was not so sensible of the Inconvenience attending Want
of Method. This Article therefore cost me so much painful Attention & my Faults
in it vex’d me so much, and I made so little Progress in Amendment, & had such
frequent Relapses, that I was almost ready to give up the Attempt, and content my
self with a faulty Character in that respect. Like the Man who in buying an Ax of a
Smith my Neighbour, desired to have the whole of its Surface as bright as the Edge;
the Smith consented to grind it bright for him if he would turn the Wheel. He turn’d
while the Smith press’d the broad Face of the Ax hard & heavily on the Stone, which
made the Turning of it very fatiguing. The Man came every now & then from the
Wheel to see how the Work went on; and at length would take his Ax as it was
without farther Grinding. No, says the Smith, Turn on, turn on; we shall have it bright
by and by; as yet’ tis only speckled. Yes, says the Man; but—I think I like a speckled
Ax best.—And I believe this may have been the Case with many who having for want
of some such Means as I employ’d found the Difficulty of obtaining good, & breaking bad Habits, in other Points of Vice & Virtue, have given up the Struggle, &
concluded that a speckled Ax was best. For something that pretended to be Reason was
every now and then suggesting to me, that such extream Nicety as I exacted of my
self might be a kind of Foppery in Morals, which if it were known would make me
ridiculous; that a perfect Character might be attended with the Inconvenience of
being envied and hated; and that a benevolent Man should allow a few Faults in himself, to keep his Friends in Countenance. In Truth I found myself incorrigible with
respect to Order; and now I am grown old, and my Memory bad, I feel very sensibly the want of it. But on the whole, tho’ I never arrived at the Perfection I had
been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was by the Endeavour
made a better and a happier Man than I otherwise should have been, if I had not
attempted it; As those who aim at perfect Writing by imitating the engraved Copies,
tho’ they never reach the wish’d for Excellence of those Copies, their Hand is mended
by the Endeavour, and is tolerable while it continues fair & legible.—
And it may be well my Posterity should be informed, that to this little Artifice, with the Blessing of God, their Ancestor ow’d the constant Felicity of his Life
down to his 79th Year in which this is written. What Reverses may attend the
Remainder is in the Hand of Providence: But if they arrive the Reflection on past
Happiness enjoy’d ought to help his Bearing them with more Resignation. To
Temperance he ascribes his long-continu’d Health, & what is still left to him of
a good Constitution. To Industry and Frugality the early Easiness of his Circumstances, & Acquisition of his Fortune, with all that Knowledge which enabled
him to be an useful Citizen, and obtain’d for him some Degree of Reputation
among the Learned. To Sincerity & Justice the Confidence of his Country, and the
honourable Employs it conferr’d upon him. And to the joint Influence of the
Benjamin Franklin
15
From Autobiography
29
whole Mass of the Virtues, even in their imperfect State he was able to acquire
them, all that Evenness of Temper, & that Chearfulness in Conversation which
makes his Company still sought for, & agreable even to his younger Acquaintance. I hope therefore that some of my Descendants may follow the Example
& reap the Benefit.—
It will be remark’d that, tho’ my Scheme was not wholly without Religion there
was in it no Mark of any of the distinguishing Tenets of any particular Sect.—I
had purposely avoided them; for being fully persuaded of the Utility and Excellency of my Method, and that it might be serviceable to People in all Religions,
and intending some time or other to publish it, I would not have any thing in
it that should prejudice any one of any Sect against it.—I purposed writing a
little Comment on each Virtue, in which I would have shown the Advantages
of possessing it, & the Mischiefs attending its opposite Vice; and I should have
called my Book the ART of Virtue, because it would have shown the Means &
Manner of obtaining Virtue; which would have distinguish’d it from the mere
Exhortation to be good, that does not instruct & indicate the Means; but is like
the Apostle’s Man of verbal Charity, who only, without showing to the Naked
& the Hungry how or where they might get Cloaths or Victuals, exhorted them
to be fed & clothed. James II, 15, 16.—
But it so happened that my Intention of writing & publishing this Comment
was never fulfilled. I did indeed, from time to time put down short Hints of the
Sentiments, Reasonings, &c. to be made use of in it; some of which I have still
by me: But the necessary close Attention to private Business in the earlier part
of Life, and public Business since, have occasioned my postponing it. For it being
connected in my Mind with a great and extensive Project that required the whole
Man to execute, and which an unforeseen Succession of Employs prevented my
attending to, it has hitherto remain’d unfinish’d.—
In this Piece it was my Design to explain and enforce this Doctrine, that vicious
Actions are not hurtful because they are forbidden, but forbidden because they
are hurtful, the Nature of Man alone consider’d: That it was therefore every ones
Interest to be virtuous, who wish’d to be happy even in this World. And I should
from this Circumstance, there being always in the World a Number of rich Merchants, Nobility, States and Princes, who have need of honest Instruments for the
Management of their Affairs, and such being so rare, have endeavoured to convince young Persons, that no Qualities were so likely to make a poor Man’s Fortune as those of Probity & Integrity.
My List of Virtues contain’d at first but twelve: But a Quaker Friend having
kindly inform’d me that I was generally thought proud; that my Pride show’d itself
frequently in Conversation; that I was not content with being in the right when
discussing any Point, but was overbearing & rather insolent; of which he convinc’d me by mentioning several Instances;—I determined endeavouring to cure
myself if I could of this Vice or Folly among the rest, and I added Humility to
my List, giving an extensive Meaning to the Word.—I cannot boast of much Success in acquiring the Reality of this Virtue; but I had a good deal with regard to
30
Chapter I
What Does It Mean to Be a Citizen?
the Appearance of it.—I made it a Rule to forbear all direct Contradiction to
the Sentiments of others, and all positive Assertion of my own. I even forbid
myself agreable to the old Laws of our Junto,2 the Use of every Word or Expression in the Language that imported a fix’d Opinion; such as certainly, undoubtedly, &c. and I adopted instead of them, I conceive, I apprehend, or I imagine a
thing to be so or so, or it so appears to me at present.—When another asserted
something that I thought an Error, I deny’d my self the Pleasure of contradicting him abruptly, and of showing immediately some Absurdity in his Proposition;
and in answering I began by observing that in certain Cases or Circumstances
his Opinion would be right, but that in the present case there appear’d or seem’d
to me some Difference, &c. I soon found the Advantage of this Change in my
Manners. The Conversations I engag’d in went on more pleasantly. The modest
way in which I propos’d my Opinions, procur’d them a readier Reception and less
Contradiction; I had less Mortification when I was found to be in the wrong, and
I more easily prevail’d with others to give up their Mistakes & join with me
when I happen’d to be in the right. And this Mode, which I at first put on, with
some violence to natural Inclination, became at length so easy & so habitual to
me, that perhaps for these Fifty Years past no one has ever heard a dogmatical
Expression escape me. And to this Habit (after my Character of Integrity) I
think it principally owing, that I had early so much Weight with my Fellow Citizens, when I proposed new Institutions, or Alterations in the old; and so much
Influence in public Councils when I became a Member. For I was but a bad
Speaker, never eloquent, subject to much Hesitation in my choice of Words,
hardly correct in Language, and yet I generally carried my Points.—
In reality there is perhaps no one of our natural Passions so hard to subdue
as Pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much
as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself.
You will see it perhaps often in this History. For even if I could conceive that I
had compleatly overcome it, I should probably be proud of my Humility.—
Thus far written at Passy 1784
QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER INQUIRY
1. Americans often identify Franklin as one who achieved the American Dream: he
became wealthy, and powerful in local and state governments. How does his
search for moral perfection fit with achieving the American Dream?
2Junto
was an organization that Franklin, a printer, formed in 1727 with a group of other tradesman in
Philadelphia. In his biography Franklin of Philadelphia (Harvard UP, 1986), Esmond Wright describes it as
“part mutual aid society, part social fraternity, part academy. Its organization was modeled on Mather’s
neighborhood Benefit Societies, but it was touched also by Masonic principles: it was intended to be secret
and exclusive. The questions the members set themselves included ‘queries on any point of Morals, Politics or
Natural Philosophy,’ but the real motivation was self-improvement, the ‘wish to do good’ that would also
bring them advantages, or even profit” (37–38).
Ralph Ellison
Prologue from Invisible Man
31
2. Working from the details Franklin gives us about the way he lives his life, what does
he value as both a private person and as a public citizen? How much do you think
he distinguishes between the two? What might be his definition of citizenship?
3. Franklin’s ideas about living a successful, moral life still influence the plans of
many self-improvement advocates. Create your own written plan for successful
living, live by it for at least a week, and then compare your plan and your experiences with Franklin’s. Did you become a better person when following your plan?
Will you continue to follow it in the future?
Writing Style
CRAFTING A PERSONA
In Chapter Four, you will learn how to craft your persona, the image your writing
projects to others of your ability as a thinker, writer, and researcher; your attitude towards your subject and readers; and your personality. Franklin presents a
very distinctive persona in his Autobiography.
At one point in his narrative, he says that while he may not have acquired
genuine humility, he had succeeded “a good deal with regard to the Appearance
of it.” To guard against complaints that the Autobiography is a boastful record of
his many accomplishments, Franklin works hard to create the appearance of
humility in his writing. He records his mistakes and failures as well as his successes and he often pokes fun at himself. For example, in the beginning of the
Autobiography, he lists his reasons for writing about his life. The last of his reasons, he states, is to “gratify my own Vanity. Indeed I scarce ever heard or saw
the introductory Words, Without Vanity I may say, etc. but some vain thing
immediately followed. Most People dislike Vanity in others whatever Share they
have of it themselves, but I give it fair Quarter wherever I meet with it. . . .” In
what other ways does Franklin seek to create a more humble persona?
Review your own writing. What kind of persona do you think it shows to
readers? What features of your writing would lead them to this conclusion? How
might you change your persona to meet new writing situations, e.g., a cover letter for a job application, a letter to a friend, or a research paper?
RALPH ELLISON Prologue from Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison was born in Oklahoma in 1914. In 1933, he won a state scholarship to study music at the Tuskegee Institute; while there he met Richard Wright,
who encouraged him to become a writer. Ellison then moved to New York, where
he eventually worked for the WPA’s federal Writer’s Project. His novel Invisible
Man (1952) won the 1953 National Book Award. Considered a classic of American literature, Invisible Man follows an African-American antihero’s efforts to
32
Chapter I
What Does It Mean to Be a Citizen?
define himself and his place in American society. In a 1955 interview for The
Paris Review, Ralph Ellison offered this explanation for why he writes:
I feel that with my decision to devote myself to the novel I took on one
of the responsibilities inherited by those who practice the craft in the
United States: that of describing for all that fragment of the huge diverse
American experience which I know best, and which offers me the possibility of contributing not only to the growth of the literature but to the
shaping of the culture as I should like it to be.
Literary critics in the 1960s often criticized Ellison for not trying more
actively to shape American culture. Specifically, they criticized his unwillingness to use his fiction to protest against racism. In “The World and the
Jug” (in two parts, 1963 and 1964), he responded that “protest is an element
of all art, though it does not necessarily take the form of speaking for a political or social program.”
Prologue
I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan
Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance,
of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids—and I might even be said to possess a mind.
I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the
bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been
surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they
see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination—indeed,
everything and anything except me.
Nor is my invisibility exactly a matter of a biochemical accident to my epidermis. That invisibility to which I refer occurs because of a peculiar disposition of the eyes of those with whom I come in contact. A matter of the
construction of their inner eyes, those eyes with which they look through their
physical eyes upon reality. I am not complaining, nor am I protesting either. It
is sometimes advantageous to be unseen, although it is most often rather wearing on the nerves. Then too, you’re constantly being bumped against by those
of poor vision. Or again, you often doubt if you really exist. You wonder whether
you aren’t simply a phantom in other people’s minds. Say, a figure in a nightmare which the sleeper tries with all his strength to destroy. It’s when you feel
like this that, out of resentment, you begin to bump people back. And, let me
confess, you feel that way most of the time. You ache with the need to convince
yourself that you do exist in the real world, that you’re a part of all the sound
and anguish, and you strike out with your fists, you curse and you swear to make
them recognize you. And, alas, it’s seldom successful.
One night I accidentally bumped into a man, and perhaps because of the
near darkness he saw me and called me an insulting name. I sprang at him, seized
his coat lapels and demanded that he apologize. He was a tall blond man, and
Ralph Ellison
Prologue from Invisible Man
33
as my face came close to his he looked insolently out of his blue eyes and cursed
me, his breath hot in my face as he struggled. I pulled his chin down sharp upon
the crown of my head, butting him as I had seen the West Indians do, and I felt
his flesh tear and the blood gush out, and I yelled, “Apologize! Apologize!” But
he continued to curse and struggle, and I butted him again and again until he
went down heavily, on his knees, profusely bleeding. I kicked him repeatedly,
in a frenzy because he still uttered insults though his lips were frothy with blood.
Oh yes, I kicked him! And in my outrage I got out my knife and prepared to
slit his throat, right there beneath the lamplight in the deserted street, holding
him in the collar with one hand, and opening the knife with my teeth—when
it occurred to me that the man had not seen me, actually; that he, as far as he knew,
was in the midst of a walking nightmare! And I stopped the blade, slicing the
air as I pushed him away, letting him fall back to the street. I stared at him hard
as the lights of a car stabbed through the darkness. He lay there, moaning on
the asphalt; a man almost killed by a phantom. It unnerved me. I was both disgusted and ashamed. I was like a drunken man myself, wavering about on weakened legs. Then I was amused: Something in this man’s thick head had sprung out
and beaten him within an inch of his life. I began to laugh at this crazy discovery. Would he have awakened at the point of death? Would Death himself have
freed him for wakeful living? But I didn’t linger. I ran away into the dark, laughing so hard I feared I might rupture myself. The next day I saw his picture in
the Daily News, beneath a caption stating that he had been “mugged.” Poor fool,
poor blind fool, I thought with sincere compassion, mugged by an invisible man!
Most of the time (although I do not choose as I once did to deny the violence of my days by ignoring it) I am not so overtly violent. I remember that I
am invisible and walk softly so as not to awaken the sleeping ones. Sometimes
it is best not to awaken them; there are few things in the world as dangerous as
sleepwalkers. I learned in time though that it is possible to carry on a fight against
them without their realizing it. For instance, I have been carrying on a fight
with Monopolated Light & Power for some time now. I use their service and
pay them nothing at all, and they don’t know it. Oh, they suspect that power is
being drained off, but they don’t know where. All they know is that according
to the master meter back there in their power station a hell of a lot of free current is disappearing somewhere into the jungle of Harlem. The joke, of course,
is that I don’t live in Harlem but in a border area. Several years ago (before I
discovered the advantages of being invisible) I went through the routine process
of buying service and paying their outrageous rates. But no more. I gave up all
that, along with my apartment, and my old way of life: That way based upon
the fallacious assumption that I, like other men, was visible. Now, aware of my
invisibility, I live rent-free in a building rented strictly to whites, in a section of
the basement that was shut off and forgotten during the nineteenth century, which
I discovered when I was trying to escape in the night from Ras the Destroyer.
But that’s getting too far ahead of the story, almost to the end, although the end
is in the beginning and lies far ahead.
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5
Chapter I
What Does It Mean to Be a Citizen?
The point now is that I found a home—or a hole in the ground, as you will.
Now don’t jump to the conclusion that because I call my home a “hole” it is damp
and cold like a grave; there are cold holes and warm holes. Mine is a warm hole.
And remember, a bear retires to his hole for the winter and lives until spring; then
he comes strolling out like the Easter chick breaking from its shell. I say all this
to assure you that it is incorrect to assume that, because I’m invisible and live in
a hole, I am dead. I am neither dead nor in a state of suspended animation. Call
me Jack-the-Bear, for I am in a state of hibernation.
My hole is warm and full of light. Yes, full of light. I doubt if there is a brighter
spot in all New York than this hole of mine, and I do not exclude Broadway.
Or the Empire State Building on a photographer’s dream night. But that is taking advantage of you. Those two spots are among the darkest of our whole civilization—pardon me, our whole culture (an important distinction, I’ve
heard)—which might sound like a hoax, or a contradiction, but that (by contradiction, I mean) is how the world moves: Not like an arrow, but a boomerang.
(Beware of those who speak of the spiral of history; they are preparing a
boomerang. Keep a steel helmet handy.) I know; I have been boomeranged across
my head so much that I now can see the darkness of lightness. And I love light.
Perhaps you’ll think it strange that an invisible man should need light, desire light,
love light. But maybe it is exactly because I am invisible. Light confirms my
reality, gives birth to my form. A beautiful girl once told me of a recurring nightmare in which she lay in the center of a large dark room and felt her face expand
until it filled the whole room, becoming a formless mass while her eyes ran in
bilious jelly up the chimney. And so it is with me. Without light I am not only
invisible, but formless as well; and to be unaware of one’s form is to live a death.
I myself, after existing some twenty years, did not become alive until I discovered my invisibility.
That is why I fight my battle with Monopolated Light & Power. The deeper
reason, I mean: It allows me to feel my vital aliveness. I also fight them for taking so much of my money before I learned to protect myself. In my hole in the
basement there are exactly 1,369 lights. I’ve wired the entire ceiling, every inch
of it. And not with fluorescent bulbs, but with the older, more-expensive-tooperate kind, the filament type. An act of sabotage, you know. I’ve already begun
to wire the wall. A junk man I know, a man of vision, has supplied me with wire
and sockets. Nothing, storm or flood, must get in the way of our need for light
and ever more and brighter light. The truth is the light and light is the truth.
When I finish all four walls, then I’ll start on the floor. Just how that will go, I
don’t know. Yet when you have lived invisible as long as I have you develop a
certain ingenuity. I’ll solve the problem. And maybe I’ll invent a gadget to place
my coffee pot on the fire while I lie in bed, and even invent a gadget to warm
my bed—like the fellow I saw in one of the picture magazines who made himself a gadget to warm his shoes! Though invisible, I am in the great American
tradition of tinkers. That makes me kin to Ford, Edison and Franklin. Call me,
since I have a theory and a concept, a “thinker-tinker.” Yes, I’ll warm my shoes;
they need it, they’re usually full of holes. I’ll do that and more. . . .
Ralph Ellison
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Prologue from Invisible Man
35
Please, a definition: A hibernation is a covert preparation for a more overt
action. . . .
Meanwhile I enjoy my life with the compliments of Monopolated Light &
Power. Since you never recognize me even when in closest contact with me, and
since, no doubt, you’ll hardly believe that I exist, it won’t matter if you know
that I tapped a power line leading into the building and ran it into my hole in
the ground. Before that I lived in the darkness into which I was chased, but now
I see. I’ve illuminated the blackness of my invisibility—and vice versa. And so I
play the invisible music of my isolation. The last statement doesn’t seem just right,
does it? But it is; you hear this music simply because music is heard and seldom
seen, except by musicians. Could this compulsion to put invisibility down in black
and white be thus an urge to make music of invisibility? But I am an orator, a rabble rouser—Am? I was, and perhaps shall be again. Who knows? All sickness is
not unto death, neither is invisibility.
I can hear you say, “What a horrible, irresponsible bastard!” And you’re right.
I leap to agree with you. I am one of the most irresponsible beings that ever
lived. Irresponsibility is part of my invisibility; any way you face it, it is a denial.
But to whom can I be responsible, and why should I be, when you refuse to see
me? And wait until I reveal how truly irresponsible I am. Responsibility rests upon
recognition, and recognition is a form of agreement. Take the man whom I almost
killed: Who was responsible for that near murder—I? I don’t think so, and I refuse
it. I won’t buy it. You can’t give it to me. He bumped me, he insulted me. Shouldn’t
he, for his own personal safety, have recognized my hysteria, my “danger potential”? He, let us say, was lost in a dream world. But didn’t he control that dream
world—which, alas, is only too real!—and didn’t he rule me out of it? And if he
had yelled for a policeman, wouldn’t I have been taken for the offending one? Yes,
yes, yes! Let me agree with you, I was the irresponsible one; for I should have used
my knife to protect the higher interests of society. Some day that kind of foolishness will cause us tragic trouble. All dreamers and sleepwalkers must pay the
price, and even the invisible victim is responsible for the fate of all. But I shirked
that responsibility; I became too snarled in the incompatible notions that buzzed
within my brain. I was a coward . . .
But what did I do to be so blue? Bear with me.
QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER INQUIRY
1. Ellison’s narrator admits, “I am one of the most irresponsible beings that ever
lived. Irresponsibility is part of my invisibility; any way you face it, it is a denial.
But to whom can I be responsible, and why should I be, when you refuse to see
me?” What are the consequences to a democratic society if certain groups or
individuals are marginalized?
2. Compare this narrative to the Black Panthers’ Ten-Point Plan in Chapter Four.
How do their responses to injustice differ? Is the Black Panthers’ response better
or worse than the invisible man’s?
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Chapter I
What Does It Mean to Be a Citizen?
3. In a 1955 interview for The Paris Review, Ralph Ellison argued that “One function
of serious literature is to deal with the moral core of a given society. Well, in the
United States the Negro and his status have always stood for that moral concern.
He symbolizes among other things the human and social possibility of equality.”
What is the prospect for equality represented in this narrative? What are the
prospects now, over four decades later?
Writing Style
WRITING AS A PERFORMANCE ART
Ellison’s wonderful “music of invisibility” should remind us that writing can be a
performance. When readers begin a written work, they are agreeing to be led by
the writer. This gesture puts responsibility on the writer to perform well, giving
readers what they want and need. Everything we select from our ideas to our
specific words shapes the readers’ experience.
In practical terms, this might mean withholding information to create some
suspense. It might mean including the actual speech of interesting characters. It
might even mean mixing realistic and fantastic situations, like a basement room
with 1,369 lights in it. The point is that writers’ imaginations can be infinitely
creative if they can learn to expand their ideas about what makes a proper essay.
To help themselves get into a role, actors often exaggerate some feature of
their characters. For example, if an actor needs to play a wily, slithering character, she might practice by pretending to be a snake. Then, she can tone it down
to where she exhibits the qualities she wants without the exaggeration. This
exercise is good for writing as well. Identify some quality you want to emphasize
in your own writing. Perhaps you want to project an angry tone or make your
readers laugh. Exaggerate that quality; have fun with it. Then, if you need to, you
can tone down your performance to make it fit your subject, purpose, and audience. Hopefully, enough of that quality will remain to enliven your writing style.
ANZIA YEZIERSKA ”America and I”
Anzia Yezierska (c. 1885–1970) was born near Warsaw and immigrated with
her family to New York City. She wrote novels about Jewish-American life,
including Salome of the Tenements (1923) and Bread Givers (1925), and
worked for the Works Progress Administration’s Writers Project in Manhattan. “America and I” was originally published in 1922. Immigration laws
changed in 1924 and restricted access to those not from northern or western Europe. How would that fact have changed Yezierska’s narrative?
As one of the dumb, voiceless ones I speak. One of the millions of immigrants
beating, beating out their hearts at your gates for a breath of understanding.
Anzia Yezierska
5
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”America and I”
37
Ach! America! From the other end of the earth from where I came, America
was a land of living hope, woven of dreams, aflame with longing and desire.
Choked for ages in the airless oppression of Russia, the Promised Land rose
up—wings for my stifled spirit—sunlight burning through my darkness—freedom singing to me in my prison—deathless songs tuning prison-bars into strings
of a beautiful violin.
I arrived in America. My young, strong body, my heart and soul pregnant with
the unlived lives of generations clamoring for expression.
What my mother and father and their mother and father never had a chance
to give out in Russia, I would give out in America. The hidden sap of centuries
would find release; colors that never saw light—songs that died unvoiced—
romance that never had a chance to blossom in the black life of the Old World.
In the golden land of flowing opportunity I was to find my work that was
denied me in the sterile village of my forefathers. Here I was to be free from the
dead drudgery for bread that held me down in Russia. For the first time in America I’d cease to be a slave of the belly. I’d be a creator, a giver, a human being!
My work would be the living joy of fullest self-expression.
But from my high visions, my golden hopes, I had to put my feet down on
earth. I had to have food and shelter. I had to have the money to pay for it.
I was in America, among the Americans, but not of them. No speech, no common language, no way to win a smile of understanding from them, only my
young, strong body and my untried faith. Only my eager, empty hands, and my
full heart shining from my eyes!
God from the world! Here I was with so much richness in me, but my mind
was not wanted without the language. And my body, unskilled, untrained, was
not even wanted in the factory. Only one of two chances was left open to me:
the kitchen, or minding babies.
My first job was as a servant in an Americanized family. Once, long ago, they came
from the same village from where I came. But they were so well-dressed, so well-fed,
so successful in America, that they were ashamed to remember their mother tongue.
“What were to be my wages?” I ventured timidly, as I looked up to the wellfed, well-dressed “American” man and woman.
They looked at me with a sudden coldness. What have I said to draw away
from me their warmth? Was it so low from me to talk of wages? I shrank back into
myself like a low-down bargainer. Maybe they’re so high up in well-being they
can’t any more understand my low thoughts for money.
From his rich height the man preached down to me that I must not be so grabbing for wages. Only just landed from the ship and already thinking about money
when I should be thankful to associate with “Americans.”
The woman, out of her smooth, smiling fatness assured me that this was
my chance for a summer vacation in the country with her two lovely children.
My great chance to learn to be a civilized being, to become an American by living with them.
So, made to feel that I was in the hands of American friends, invited to share
with them their home, their plenty, their happiness, I pushed out from my head
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Chapter I
What Does It Mean to Be a Citizen?
the worry for wages. Here was my first chance to begin my life in the sunshine,
after my long darkness. My laugh was all over my face as I said to them: “I’ll
trust myself to you. What I’m worth you’ll give me.” And I entered their house
like a child by the hand.
The best of me I gave them. Their house cares were my house cares. I got up
early. I worked till late. All that my soul hungered to give I put into the passion
with which I scrubbed floors, scoured pots, and washed clothes. I was so grateful to mingle with the American people, to hear the music of the American language, that I never knew tiredness.
There was such a freshness in my brains and such a willingness in my heart that
I could go on and on—not only with the work of the house, but work with my
head—learning new words from the children, the grocer, the butcher, the iceman.
I was not even afraid to ask for words from the policeman on the street. And every
new word made me see new American things with American eyes. I felt like a
Columbus, finding new worlds through every new word.
But words alone were only for the inside of me. The outside of me still branded
me for a steerage immigrant. I had to have clothes to forget myself that I’m a
stranger yet. And so I had to have money to buy these clothes.
The month was up. I was so happy! Now I’d have money. My own, earned
money. Money to buy a new shirt on my back—shoes on my feet. Maybe yet
an American dress and hat!
Ach! How high rose my dreams! How plainly I saw all that I would do with
my visionary wages shining like a light over my head!
In my imagination I already walked in my new American clothes. How beautiful I looked as I saw myself like a picture before my eyes! I saw how I would
throw away my immigrant rags tied up in my immigrant shawl. With money
to buy—free money in my hands—I’d show them that I could look like an American in a day.
Like a prisoner in his last night in prison, counting the seconds that will free
him from his chains, I trembled breathlessly for the minute I’d get the wages in
my hand.
Before dawn I rose.
I shined up the house like a jewel-box.
I prepared breakfast and waited with my heart in my mouth for my lady
and gentleman to rise. At last I heard them stirring. My eyes were jumping out
of my head to them when I saw them coming in and seating themselves by
the table.
Like a hungry cat rubbing up to its boss for meat, so I edged and simpered
around him as I passed them the food. Without my will, like a beggar, my hand
reached out to them.
The breakfast was over. And no word yet from my wages.
“Gottuniu!” 1 I thought to myself. “Maybe they’re so busy with their own things
they forgot it’s the day for my wages. Could they who have everything know what
1Oh,
my God!
Anzia Yezierska
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”America and I”
39
I was to do with my first American dollars? How could they, soaking in plenty,
how could they feel the longing and the fierce hunger in me, pressing up through
each visionary dollar? How could they know the gnawing ache of my avid fingers for the feel of my own, earned dollars? My dollars that I could spend like a
free person. My dollars that would make me feel with everybody alike!”
Breakfast was long past.
Lunch came. Lunch past.
Oi-i weh! Not a word yet about my money.
It was near dinner. And not a word yet about my wages.
I began to set the table. But my head—it swam away from me. I broke a
glass. The silver dropped from my nervous fingers. I couldn’t stand it any longer.
I dropped everything and rushed over to my American lady and gentleman.
“Oi weh! The money—my money—my wages!” I cried breathlessly.
Four cold eyes turned on me.
“Wages? Money?” The four eyes turned into hard stone as they looked me
up and down. “Haven’t you a comfortable bed to sleep, and three good meals a
day? You’re only a month here. Just came to America. And you already think about
money. Wait till you’re worth any money. What use are you without knowing English? You should be glad we keep you here. It’s like a vacation for you. Other
girls pay money yet to be in the country.”
It went black for my eyes. I was so choked no words came to my lips. Even
the tears went dry in my throat.
I left. Not a dollar for all my work.
For a long, long time my heart ached and ached like a sore wound. If murderers could have robbed me and killed me it wouldn’t have hurt me so much.
I couldn’t think through my pain. The minute I’d see before me how they looked
at me, the words they said to me—then everything began to bleed in me. And I
was helpless.
For a long, long time the thought of ever working in an “American” family
made me tremble with fear, like the fear of wild wolves. No—never again would
I trust myself to an “American” family, no matter how fine their language and how
sweet their smile.
It was blotted out in me all trust in friendship from “Americans.” But the life
in me still burned to live. The hope in me still craved to hope. In darkness, in dirt,
in hunger and want, but only to live on!
There had been no end to my day—working for the “American” family.
Now rejecting false friendships from higher-ups in America, I turned back to
the Ghetto. I worked on a hard bench with my own kind on either side of me.
I knew before I began what my wages were to be. I knew what my hours were
to be. And I knew the feeling of the end of the day.
From the outside my second job seemed worse than the first. It was in a sweatshop of a Delancey Street basement, kept up by an old, wrinkled woman that
looked like a black witch of greed. My work was sewing on buttons. While the
morning was still dark I walked into a dark basement. And darkness met me when
I turned out of the basement.
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Chapter I
What Does It Mean to Be a Citizen?
Day after day, week after week, all the contact I got with America was handling
dead buttons. The money I earned was hardly enough to pay for bread and rent.
I didn’t have a room to myself. I didn’t even have a bed. I slept on a mattress on
the floor in a rat-hole of a room occupied by a dozen other immigrants. I was
always hungry—oh, so hungry! The scant meals I could afford only sharpened my
appetite for real food. But I felt myself better off than working in the “American” family, where I had three good meals a day and a bed to myself. With all
the hunger and darkness of the sweatshop, I had at least the evening to myself.
And all night was mine. When all were asleep, I used to creep up on the roof of
the tenement and talk out my heart in silence to the stars in the sky.
“Who am I? What am I? What do I want with my life? Where is America? Is
there an America? What is this wilderness in which I’m lost?”
I’d hurl my questions and then think and think. And I could not tear it out
of me, the feeling that America must be somewhere, somehow—only I couldn’t
find it—my America, where I would work for love and not for a living. I was
like a thing following blindly after something far off in the dark!
“Oi weh!” I’d stretch out my hand up in the air. “My head is so lost in America! What’s the use of all my working if I’m not in it? Dead buttons is not me.”
Then the busy season started in the shop. The mounds of buttons grew and
grew. The long day stretched out longer. I had to begin with the buttons earlier
and stay with them till later in the night. The old witch turned into a huge greedy
maw for wanting more and more buttons.
For a glass of tea, for a slice of herring over black bread, she would buy us
up to stay another and another hour, till there seemed no end to her demands.
One day, the light of self-assertion broke into my cellar darkness.
“I don’t want the tea. I don’t want your herring,” I said with terrible boldness. “I only want to go home. I only want the evening to myself!”
“You fresh mouth, you!” cried the old witch. “You learned already too much
in America. I want no clock-watchers in my shop. Out you go!”
I was driven out to cold and hunger. I could no longer pay for my mattress
on the floor. I no longer could buy the bite in the mouth. I walked the streets. I
knew what it is to be alone in a strange city, among strangers.
But I laughed through my tears. So I learned too much already in America
because I wanted the whole evening to myself? Well America has yet to teach
me still more: how to get not only the whole evening to myself, but a whole day
a week like the American workers.
That sweat-shop was a bitter memory but a good school. It fitted me for a
regular factory. I could walk in boldly and say I could work at something, even
if it is was only sewing on buttons.
Gradually, I became a trained worker. I worked in a light, airy factory, only
eight hours a day. My boss was no longer a sweater and a blood-squeezer. The first
freshness of the morning was mine. And the whole evening was mine. All day
Sunday was mine.
Anzia Yezierska
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”America and I”
41
Now I had better food to eat. I slept on a better bed. Now, I even looked
dressed up like the American-born. But inside of me I knew that I was not yet
an American. I choked with longing when I met an American-born, and I could
say nothing.
Something cried dumb in me. I couldn’t help it. I didn’t know what it was I wanted.
I only knew I wanted. I wanted. Like the hunger in the heart that never gets food.
An English class for foreigners started in our factory. The teacher had such a
good, friendly face, her eyes looked so understanding, as if she could see right into
my heart. So I went to her one day for an advice:
“I don’t know what is with me the matter,” I began. “I have no rest in me. I
never yet done what I want.”
“What is it you want to do, child?” she asked me.
“I want to do something with my head, my feelings. All day long, only with
my hands I work.”
“First you must learn English.” She patted me as if I was not yet grown up.
“Put your mind on that, and then we’ll see.”
So for a time I learned the language. I could almost begin to think with English words in my head. But in my heart the emptiness still hurt. I burned to
give, to give something, to do something, to be something. The dead work with
my hands was killing me. My work left only hard stones on my heart.
Again I went to our factory teacher and cried out to her: “I know already to
read and write the English language, but I can’t put it into words what I want.
What is it in me so different that can’t come out?”
She smiled at me down from her calmness as if I were a little bit out of my
head. “What do you want to do?”
“I feel. I see. I hear. And I want to think it out. But I’m like dumb in me. I
only feel I’m different—different from everybody.”
She looked at me close and said nothing for a minute. “You ought to join
one of the social clubs of the Women’s Association,” she advised.
“What’s the Women’s Association?” I implored greedily.
“A group of American women who are trying to help the working-girl find herself. They have a special department for immigrant girls like you.”
I joined the Women’s Association. On my first evening there they announced
a lecture: “The Happy Worker and His Work,” by the Welfare director of the
United Mills Corporation.
“Is there such a thing as a happy worker at his work?” I wondered. “Happiness is only by working at what you love. And what poor girl can ever find it to
work at what she loves? My old dreams about my America rushed through my
mind. Once I thought that in America everybody works for love. Nobody has
to worry for a living. Maybe this welfare man came to show me the real America that till now I sought in vain.
With a lot of polite words the head lady of the Women’s Association introduced
a higher-up that looked like the king of kings of business. Never before in my
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life did I ever see a man with such a sureness in his step, such power in his face,
such friendly positiveness in his eye as when he smiled upon us.
“Efficiency is the new religion of business,” he began. “In big business houses,
even in up-to-date factories, they no longer take the first comer and give him
any job that happens to stand empty. Efficiency begins at the employment office.
Experts are hired for the one purpose, to find out how best to fit the worker to
his work. It’s economy for the boss to make the worker happy.” And then he talked
a lot more on efficiency in educated language that was over my head.
I didn’t know exactly what it meant—efficiency—but if it was to make the
worker happy at his work, then that’s what I had been looking for since I came
to America. I only felt from watching him that he was happy by his job. And
as I looked on this clean, well-dressed, successful one, who wasn’t ashamed to
say he rose from an office-boy, it made me feel that I, too, could lift myself up
for a person.
He finished his lecture, telling us about the Vocational-Guidance Center that
the Women’s Association started.
The very next evening I was at the Vocational-Guidance Center. There I found
a young, college-looking woman. Smartness and health shining from her eyes!
She, too, looked as if she knew her way in America. I could tell at the first glance:
here is a person that is happy by what she does.
“I feel you’ll understand me,” I said right away.
She leaned over with pleasure in her face: “I hope I can.”
“I want to work by what’s in me. Only, I don’t know what’s in me. I only
feel I’m different.”
She gave me a quick, puzzled look from the corner of her eyes. “What are
you doing now?”
“I’m the quickest shirtwaist hand on the floor. But my heart wastes away by
such work. I think and think, and my thoughts can’t come out.”
“Why don’t you think out your thoughts in shirtwaists? You could learn to
be a designer. Earn more money.”
“I don’t want to look on waists. If my hands are sick from waists, how could
my head learn to put beauty into them?”
“But you must earn your living at what you know, and rise slowly from job
to job.”
I looked at her office sign: “Vocational Guidance.” “What’s your vocational
guidance?” I asked. “How to rise from job to job—how to earn more money?”
The smile went out from her eyes. But she tried to be kind yet. “What do
you want?” she asked, with a sigh of last patience.
“I want America to want me.”
She fell back in her chair, thunderstruck with my boldness. But yet, in a low
voice of educated self-control, she tried to reason with me:
“You have to show that you have something special for America before America has need of you.”
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“But I never had a chance to find out what’s in me, because I always had to
work for a living. Only, I feel it’s efficiency for America to find out what’s in me
so different, so I could give it out by my work.”
Her eyes half closed as they bored through me. Her mouth opened to speak,
but no words came from her lips. So I flamed up with all that was choking in
me like a house on fire:
“America gives free bread and rent to criminals in prison. They got grand
houses with sunshine, fresh air, doctors and teachers, even for the crazy ones. Why
don’t they have free boarding-schools for immigrants—strong people—willing
people? Here you see us burning up with something different, and America turns
her head away from us.”
Her brows lifted and dropped down. She shrugged her shoulders away from
me with the look of pity we give to cripples and hopeless lunatics.
“America is no Utopia. First you must become efficient in earning a living
before you can indulge in your poetic dreams.”
I went away from the vocational-guidance office with all the air out of my
lungs. All the light out of my eyes. My feet dragged after me like dead wood.
Till now there had always lingered a rosy veil of hope over my emptiness, a
hope that a miracle would happen. I would open up my eyes some day and suddenly find the America of my dreams. As a young girl hungry for love sees always
before her eyes the picture of lover’s arms around her, so I saw always in my
heart the vision of Utopian America.
But now I felt that the America of my dreams never was and never could
be. Reality had hit me on the head as with a club. I felt that the America that
I sought was nothing but a shadow—an echo—a chimera of lunatics and
crazy immigrants.
Stripped of all illusion, I looked about me. The long desert of wasting days
of drudgery stared me in the face. The drudgery that I had lived through, and
the endless drudgery still ahead of me rose over me like a withering wilderness
of sand. In vain were all my cryings, in vain were all frantic efforts of my spirit
to find the living waters of understanding for my perishing lips. Sand, sand was
everywhere. With every seeking, every reaching out I only lost myself deeper
and deeper in a vast sea of sand.
I knew now the American language. And I knew now, if I talked to the Americans from morning till night, they could not understand what the Russian soul
of me wanted. They could not understand me any more than if I talked to them
in Chinese. Between my soul and the American soul were worlds of difference
that no words could bridge over. What was that difference? What made the Americans so far apart from me?
I began to read the American history. I found from the first pages that America started with a band of Courageous Pilgrims. They had left their native country as I had left mine. They had crossed an unknown ocean and landed in an
unknown country, as I.
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But the great difference between the first Pilgrims and me was that they
expected to make America, build America, create their own world of liberty. I
wanted to find it ready made.
I read on. I delved deeper down into the American history. I saw how the
Pilgrim Fathers came to a rocky desert country, surrounded by Indian savages
on all sides. But undaunted, they pressed on—through danger—through famine,
pestilence, and want—they pressed on. They did not ask the Indians for sympathy, for understanding. They made no demands on anybody, but on their own
indomitable spirit of persistence.
And I—I was forever begging a crumb of sympathy, a gleam of understanding from strangers who could not sympathize, who could not understand.
I, when I encountered a few savage Indian scalpers, like the old witch of the
sweat-shop, like my “Americanized” countryman, who cheated me of my wages—
I, when I found myself on the lonely, untrodden path through which all seekers
of the new world must pass, I lost heart and said: “There is no America!”
Then came a light—a great revelation! I saw America—a big idea—a deathless
hope—a world still in the making. I saw that it was the glory of America that it
was not yet finished. And I, the last comer, had her share to give, small or great,
to the making of America, like those Pilgrims who came in the Mayflower.
Fired up by this revealing light, I began to build a bridge of understanding
between the American-born and myself. Since their life was shut out from such
as me, I began to open up my life and the lives of my people to them. And life
draws life. In only writing about the Ghetto I found America.
Great chances have come to me. But in my heart is always a deep sadness. I feel
like a man who is sitting down to a secret table of plenty, while his near ones and
dear ones are perishing before his eyes. My very joy in doing the work I love hurts
me like secret guilt, because all about me I see so many with my longings, my burning eagerness, to do and to be, wasting their days in drudgery they hate, merely to
buy bread and pay rent. And America is losing all that richness of the soul.
The Americans of to-morrow, the America that is every day nearer coming
to be, will be too wise, too open-hearted, too friendly-handed, to let the least lastcomer at their gates knock in vain with his gifts unwanted.
QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER INQUIRY
1. Yezierska begins her narrative optimistically, saying, “I arrived in America. My young,
strong body, my heart and soul pregnant with the unlived lives of generations clamoring for expression.” How does her attitude toward America change as she begins
making a life for herself? Her title “America and I” suggests some kind of relationship. How does this relationship change as her attitude toward the country changes?
2. Yezierska says that learning English helped her see “American things with American eyes.” Does learning English help one become an American? Do other Americans see her as a fellow countryman once her English improves?
Anzia Yezierska
”America and I”
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3. Were Yezierska’s expectations of life in America accurate? Do you think immigrants still see America as “a land of living hope, woven of dreams”?
Writing Your Own Narrative of Citizenship
Like dictionary definitions and legal documents, narratives follow their
own writing conventions, strategies of presentation that, over time, readers have
come to expect. When writers violate these conventions, they usually do
so strategically. In other words, they discover those strategies that will help
them most effectively achieve their purpose. Here are several strategies common
in narratives:
• Focus on a main idea or dominant impression. Knowing what idea, attitude, or feeling you want to communicate through your story can help you
decide which parts of the story to emphasize. Ralph Ellison includes many
details in his story, but they all contribute to his main point: The invisible man is not recognized by the white citizens of the United States and
New York City. Although he doesn’t directly comment on what this means
in terms of social justice, racial equality, or the place of African Americans in our national community, his details dramatize these issues, letting us discover our own insights.
• Organize events for effect. As long as you provide clear transitions, your plot
(the sequence of events that make up your story) can begin and end just
about anywhere. What strategy you choose depends on the point you want
to convey to your readers. You could start at the beginning and move to
the end; you could drop readers into the action, pause to give background
information, and then return to the action; or you could, as Ralph Ellison does, begin at the end and then return to the beginning to explain how
the ending situation came about.
• Choose a perspective that complements your purpose. Individuals see the same
events in different ways. Writers can use this fact to achieve their purpose. They might tell a story from their own perspective, from the perspective of another participant, or even from the perspective of an objective
narrator, someone not involved in the story’s events. For instance, Franklin
tells the story of his self-improvement plan as an example for others to
follow. At the same time, he includes doubts he felt and mistakes he made,
which gives his tale of moral perfection a more human quality.
• Use specific details, sensory descriptions, and actual dialog. Writers can make
their stories seem more real for readers by using specific details. For example,
the woman who cheats Anzia Yezierska out of her wages speaks to her out
of “her smooth, smiling fatness.” This sensory description not only creates
a mental picture, it also suggests Yezierska’s attitude toward the woman.
Narratives offer extraordinary opportunities for communicating our ideas
of citizenship as it is lived. As you write your own citizenship narratives, go back
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to the qualities that narratives offer. Does your narrative dramatize or show your
ideas, expose the reader to particular viewpoints, appeal to a reader’s emotions,
and engage the reader’s imagination?
ASSESSING THE PROGRESS OF OUR INQUIRIES
Before turning to the final chapter exercises, we should assess how far we have come
in answering the central question of this chapter: What does it mean to be a citizen?
Past students have made the following observations in answering this question:
• Being a citizen means having both a private and public life. Even if we don’t
participate actively in politics or follow social issues, the laws, values, and
beliefs of our communities shape our private lives. Private citizens can
shape a community’s laws, values, and beliefs by getting involved. Benjamin Franklin affected the quality of his public life by becoming a party
leader in the Pennsylvania Assembly and later serving in the Continental
Congress.
• Being a citizen means testing our ideas and values against experience. For example, Anzia Yezierska learned the hard way that our ideas about America
may differ from reality. Her struggles as a new immigrant trying to escape
factory life caused her to abandon her rosy view of America. She then
used her writing to urge Americans toward that ideal society she had realized was still in the making.
• Writing can help us think through our ideas about citizenship. In writing about
what citizenship means we can find the words that clarify our own ideas. In
writing about his daily activities and long-term goals, Benjamin Franklin
gained insights into his own responsibility as a citizen of Philadelphia and
the new United States. Shaping his thoughts throughout his life into a narrative helped him to see the importance of critically examining his own choices
and effecting change in the community around him.
• Writing can let us share our ideas about citizenship with others. Although
Ralph Ellison’s story is fictional, it lets him show what citizens can experience when they aren’t acknowledged as full members of the community.
Because citizens saw Ellison’s character only as a threatening abstraction,
they didn’t see him as a real individual. However, by writing this story, Ellison makes the community’s racism real for other citizens. Reading Ellison’s
narrative encourages us to rethink our own ideas about race, identity, and
the kind of community we want to build in America.
In the first chapter, thinking, reading, and writing represent both opportunities to ask questions (inquiry), and to exchange ideas (action). In the chapters
that follow, we will expand this process of inquiry and action to some of the
most pressing questions facing our communities. Through these questions, we
will explore our civic lives, our experiences as members of various communities.
This exploration will also cultivate within us what the ancient Greek philoso-
Questions for Inquiry and Action
47
pher Socrates called the examined life. The civic life is an examined life when
we consciously reconsider the choices we make in our education, our friendships, our government, and our planet. Socrates once told his students that “the
unexamined life is not worth living.” While we might not go that far, we do believe
that an examined life is better for ourselves and our communities.
In Chapter Two, we will explore the examined life further by learning the
strategies for thinking, reading, and writing critically that make such a life possible. Because our private and public lives are intertwined, these strategies will help
us to live more thoughtful lives, and they will also serve as civic skills, tools we can
use to participate more effectively in the community.
Chapters Three and Four take inquiry and action to a more rigorous level,
one consistent with the kind of work you will do as college students. As we have
already discovered in Chapter One, inquiry can be a form of action; performing research using dictionaries, government documents, and personal narratives
actively challenges our thinking, and the act of research is itself a form of social
action. In the same way, presenting our ideas to others can be a form of inquiry.
The responses we get push us to reshape or refine these ideas.
Finally, Chapter Five helps us recognize that inquiry and action occur within
specific social conditions. Our ability to research and argue is influenced by the
parameters set within a classroom; our access to libraries, research facilities, and
experts; and the routes available to us for communicating with the larger public. These conditions will become real for us as we work through the writing
assignments in each chapter.
QUESTIONS FOR INQUIRY AND ACTION
1. Tell a personal story that illustrates a point you want to make about what citizenship means to you. Use the story to set up a further discussion of your point
or integrate your comments within the story itself.
2. Compare and contrast experiences as a member of different communities. These
communities might be national, international, local, or unofficial, like a political
organization, a student group, a religious group, or a social club. Your community might also be defined by a shared ethnic identity, sexual identity, class, or subculture. Whatever communities you decide to compare, show us with relevant,
specific examples what it is like to be a member of more than one community.
Do these communities complement one another? Do they conflict? Do they
encourage you to be a different person within each group?
3. Analyze a recent event to show how it exemplifies some point about citizenship.
In writing your analysis, use specific details from the event and specific discussion of how those details illustrate your point.
4. Pick a social issue that interests you, then look around campus for any groups or
resources that can help you research that issue and advocate a particular position.
Write a guide to other students explaining how they can use campus resources
to participate in public debate over the issue you selected.
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5. Talk with your instructors, examine the syllabi from your courses, and review the
classes you need for your degree; are there opportunities for you to do coursework
that also benefits other communities? Write an essay that shows how students
within your major can also be good citizens.
6. Prepare an extended etymology of the word citizenship to show how its meaning has been shaped over time. You might also write an essay that compares your
own experiences as a citizen with a definition from the dictionary or official
government documents.
7. Prepare your own Code of Citizenship that outlines the principles of participation
in a particular community. Then, explain in detail why you created each principle.
Answers to the U.S. History and Government Exam
The complete list of one hundred questions that the Immigration and Naturalization
Service uses as part of the U.S. citizenship exam can be found at <http://www.ins.usdoj.
gov/graphics/services/natz/require.htm>. The INS Web site also includes an interactive selftest visitors can use to test their knowledge of U.S. history and government.
1. Red, white, blue
2. 50
3. Yes
4. Four years
5. 3
6. 100
7. The first 10 amendments
8. Patrick Henry
9. Germany, Italy, Japan
10. The Electoral College
11. For religious freedom
12. Francis Scott Key
13. Thomas Jefferson
14. The cabinet
15. 18
16. July 4, 1776
17. Republican
18. 1787
19. Washington, D.C. (1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW)
20. The Preamble