The American Man: Paine and Crevecouer

Paine and Crevecoeur’s American Man

The idea of the quintessential ‘American Man’ is one that, at first, Europe could not quite understand. From the start, it was quite obvious that America would be very different from Europe. The very idea of a productive colony prohibits the social hierarchy that existed in Europe at the time. A colony will wither and die if its inhabitants do not work together, for the greater good. In fact, America was founded on the concept of the greater good. This idea of everyone coming together can be found in the very roots of what America stands for-its Constitution. The preamble of the Constitution clearly states the goal of the document being “to form a more perfect Union”. That concept is what America is based off of, and rings true even to today.

It was painfully obvious right from the start that America would have to consist of people who were willing to work for a living. Benjamin Franklin blatantly told European aristocrats that they were not welcome in America unless they wished to earn an honest living. In Crevecoeur’s third letter of his Letters from an American Farmer, “What Is an American”, he emphasizes American society: “Here are no aristocratical families, no courts, no kings, no bishops…no great manufactures employing thousands, no great refinements of luxury”(961). To him, America represented a fresh start, a chance to establish a society that made sense, where everyone is equal. That mindset, that Americans work for an honest living and everyone is equal maintained for years to come, and eventually did sink in to the mindset of Europe. Oscar Wilde, arguably one of the finest Victorian authors and playwrights, wrote often of America, and lectured there for several years of his career. One instance where he pits the American Man against European high society (and there are many) is in the first act of “A Woman of No Importance”. Hester Worsley, and American Puritan, is chatting with several aristocratic English women over tea, when the concept of working for a living comes up. When the English women point out their utter dislike for men who work for a living, Hester points out that, in America, those men are admired most. The English women laugh lightly at the concept, and quickly change the subject, obviously disturbed by the concept. Once Hester leaves, they talk of how much they dislike her, mostly because of her opinions of their lifestyle. It was as obvious in the 1890’s as it was in the 1770’s that the American was quite a different person than the rest of the world.

One very controversial instance of this blatant difference lies in the way the American thinks. Both authors do a spectacular job of investigating the American thought process. Crevecoeur explains American society as “a modern society [offering] itself to contemplation”(961). According to Crevecoeur’s concept, American society suggests that any man in it should question everything he considered to be ‘normal’. Thomas Paine’s Common Sense exemplifies the thought process of the ideal American man. The clearest and most blatant of these observations is Paine’s analysis of Western religions. His opinions resemble those of a modern stand-up comedian, but they reflect a form of analysis entirely new to its time.

In his analysis of religion, Paine takes the word of the Bible at absolute face value, and investigates them through a rational lens. He begins by explaining how each religion has its own version of ‘the word of God’ and how each think they are right and the others are wrong and will spend eternity in damnation for not believing in their religion*. He explains that all religion is, in fact, hearsay. When explaining the idea of a religious revelation, he says “something has been revealed to a certain person, and not revealed to any other person, it is revelation to that person only. When he tells it to a second person, a second to a third, a third to a fourth, and so on, it ceases to be a revelation to all those persons.”(1004). This is the concept of faith, broken down into logical steps. He continues, using Christianity as his main focus, breaking down the Virgin Mary in the same manner, “such a circumstance [her supernatural conception] required a much stronger evidence than their bare word for it”(1004). He explains that the story of the Virgin Mary was written not by Mary and Joseph (which would bolster their argument), but by people who heard the story from other people, or, as Paine explains it, “hearsay upon hearsay, and I do not chuse to rest my belief upon such evidence”(1004). This idea of intense scrutiny is a key factor of the ideal American.

America was founded with the goal of starting a new society. It was, in fact, the New World. Such a world needed new ideas, and new thinkers, and new leaders. Paine and Crevecoeur were only the beginning of a new mindset and society that would persist for centuries to come.

*as a side note, if one were to believe in the concept of Heaven and Hell, having analyzed all religions, it is impossible for one to enter Heaven, considering that there are more than one religion that believe the idea that everyone else is damned for not practicing their religion.