8/3/2019 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
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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
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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.