Decleration of Independence: Critical Response

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Tyler Morgan

Professor Thompson

English 343

October 23, 2011

Critical Response Paper #2: Declaration of Independence

In this paper I will discuss the Declaration of Independence and some of the

important things I realized during and after reading it. First of all I have to admit

that this is the first time I read it and at the age of 21 I am somewhat ashamed of

that. It is not the most exciting thing to read, but I believe it is the most important

piece of literature in American history. It is after all the Declaration of Independence

and the birth of our country! In class we discussed many reasons why we believe

that all schools don’t make their students read this piece of literature; and I have

struggled since to find a legitimate reason as to why I haven’t read it.

Whenever I have discussed the Declaration of Independence in the past I

would think that it was a letter simply stating that the colonies wanting to form

their own union. Which is clearly not everything that goes into it. I never realized

that they were breaking away from King George III of Great Britain and all the

suffering that he caused among the people. I also never even knew that King George

III was at all related to America; although it was before “America” he was still

involved in the people of the land and a big reason why America broke away from

Europe.

At first when I think about how this is the first time I have read it I blame the

school system. I think it is the school system that has failed me by not forcing me to



read it. But then again is it their fault? After looking at it in a mature way I blame

myself. I consider myself American and I love this country, yet I have never thought

to sit down on my own and read it and truly understand and respect how my

country was born.

A quote that I believe to be most important is very near the beginning and it

says “We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal; that

they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among

these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;”(p.342) I have always heard that

America is about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness but I never knew that it

was in the Declaration of Independence, I just assumed it was a quote or something

that some president quoted back in the day. To find out that the base of the country

was born from this quote is amazing to me, because despite all the economic

problems in the last five years I truly believe that this still holds true to America in

the present. Some people are born into unfortunate circumstances and bad things

do happen to people everyday, yet everyone still has the right to life, everyone still

has liberty and if you pursue happiness and work hard for it, you can achieve true

happiness.

After trying to understand why I have never read the Declaration of

Independence, I think about what goes into the making of something of such

importance. The idea that a group of men could sit down and write up a document

that demands that their land become its own is mind blowing to me. Thinking about

something like this happening today seems nearly impossible, for example I imagine

Alaskan politicians sitting down and doing the same thing to become their own



country or union. If something of this nature were to be written today how many

people would jump on board? I imagine the creators would be removed before too

many people jumped on their bandwagon. Could millions of Obama haters get

together and demand they be set free from his rules? I doubt it; he would most likely

just get impeached. This generation seems to be too concerned with creating a new

status update or posting new pictures, and would most likely overthrow the likes of

a Mark Zuckerburg from Facebook before they would even listen or lead the charge

for such a change in history as the founding fathers did.

After considering all the things that this piece of literature has done I still

find it amazing that it was able to alter history in such a way. I cant imagine that in

the year 2311 people will be reading such documents from the years 1995-2011. I

don’t see anything being even remotely as important, but then again that could be

my ignorance since I never considered the real meaning of the Declaration of

Independence the first 21 years of my life. Only time will tell, but coming to the

realization that I don’t know hardly anything about the true roots of America, I am

going to make it a point to find out everything I can about America and get to know

the true meaning of what it is to be American.

Documents

Decleration of Independence: Critical Response