Created by Kathleen O

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Getting to Know the USA

• Land of the Free
• Home of the Brave
• Known to the Few

By Miss Kathleen OConnor Fulbright Teaching
Assistant Lessius Hogeschool English Week 2007
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When you think of America

• What comes to mind???

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People
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Places
Philadelphia, PA
New York City, NY
Washington, DC
St. Louis, MO
Black Hills, SD
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Particularly Poignant
Benjamin Franklin
Martin Luther King, Jr.
September 11th
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Stereotypes

• American Image Abroad
• Loud
• Obnoxious
• Rude
• Politically incompetent

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Americans on Americans

• American Image Within
• Southerners
• Yankees
• Midwesterners
• Westerners

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Are you an American Know-It-All?

• Geography
• How many states are there?
• Borders?
• Coastlines?
• How many states can you correctly locate?
• Place the State
• Do you need a tutorial?
• Sheppard Software Map Games

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Regional Dynamics
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A New England Lighthouse
Bostons Harbor
Central Park, Manhattan Island
The Northeast is known for colorful fall foliage
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Birthplace of a Nation

• Plymouth Rock
• The Boston Tea Party
• Declaration of Independence
• Constitution

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Religious (In)tolerance

• Seeking religious freedom
• Puritans
• City on a Hill
• Salem Witch Trials
• Roger Williams

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Educational Epicenter
The Gates into Harvard
On the campus of Brown University

• The Ivy League

Move-In Day!
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Financial Center

• Northeast booming
• Small overall area
• Densely populated
• Large urban centers
• WEALTHY
• New York City comprises 8 of gross domestic
  product (GDP)
• World Trade Center
• Stock Exchange
• Wall Street

New York Stock Exchange
Philadelphia, a.k.a. Philly
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New York City

• The Big Apple
• the city that never sleeps
• Multi-cultural mega-city
• Cultural center
• Fashion
• Art
• Museums
• Performance

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South of the Mason-Dixon Line

• Historically agricultural
• Cotton and tobacco
• Traditionally more rural and relaxed
• Retirement
• Colorful
• History
• Culture
• Population
• Diverse and Proud!

Magnolias in bloom
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Colorful Culture

• small-town America
• Yall come back now, ya here!
• Old-fashioned, home-cooked meals
• Bible Belt

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Miss (Southern) Manners

• Politeness and Propreity
• Maam and sir
• After you
• Social Etiquette
• The Southern Belle
• Chivalry is not dead!
• Southern Hospitality

Southern Belles always behave themselves in
public!
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Historical Hang-Ups

• Civil War
• Slavery
• Cultural divide
• Confederacy
• Re-inactments
• Preserving pride

"Furling of the Flags" painting by Richard Norris
Brooke
Re-inactment Soldiers
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History in the making

• Civil rights
• Rosa Parks
• Martin Luther King, Jr
• Desegregation
• Racism
• KKK

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A Powerful Population
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Music and Lyrics
Louis Armstrong
Nashville, Tennessee Music City
Billie Holiday
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Auntie Em, Auntie Em!
The Heartland
Tornado Season
Wizard of Oz makes houses fly!
Plain States
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The Lay of the Land

• Spacious surroundings
• Prairies, plains, rolling hills
• Badlands National Park
• Mississippi River
• Urban sprawl

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The Breadbasket

• Majority farmlands
• Fertile soil
• Feeding a nation
• Americas Dairyland
• 1,248,000 dairy cows
• Wisconsin Cheeseheads

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Little House on the Prairie

• Northern European immigrants
• Scandinavian
• Dutch
• German
• Pioneer Life
• Harsh climate
• Isolation
• Conflicts
• Mississippi River

The family-oriented television series Little
House on the Prairie depicts pioneer life
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Cultural Climate

• Family Values
• Conservatism
• Patriotism
• Isolationism

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The Windy City
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Late one night, when we were all in bed,Mrs.
O'Leary lit a lantern in the shed.Her cow kicked
it over,Then winked her eye and said,"There'll
be a hot time in the old town tonight!"
The Sears Tower
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Indigenous Culture

• 4.5 million
• Reservation life
• Battle weary
• Cultural remnants

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Westward Ho!

• Opportunity
• Adventure!
• Boom towns
• Becoming ghost towns
• Leaving it all behind
• Sacrifice
• Unknown future
• Difficult journey

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Frontier Spirit

• Self-reliance
• Resourcefulness
• Pushing the envelope

This perennial rebirth, this expansion westward
with its new opportunities, its continuous touch
with the simplicity of primitive society, furnish
the forces dominating American character.
historian Frederick Jackson Turner (1890)
Destruction in the wake
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Natural Beauty
Yellowstone Old Faithful
Redwood Forest, California
Grand Canyon, Arizona
Glacier National Park, Montana
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This land is your land
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Outdoor Playground
Surfing in California
Catching Trout in Idaho
Rafting in the Grand Canyon
Hiking the Rockies
Skiing in Utah
Swimming at Lake Tahoe
Fly Fishing in Montana
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Live and Let Live!
South by Southwest Music Festival
Albuquerques International Balloon Festival
What happens in Vegas
Coffee Shop Culture
stays in Vegas
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Frisco

• San Fran
• Liberal values
• Large gay population
• Funky atmosphere
• Trolleys
• Golden Gate Bridge
• The Rock

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As summer into autumn slips

• Seasonal Shift
• New England
• Temperature drops
• Wardrobe shifts
• Leaves changing
• Cuisine
• Heavier dishes
• Hot dishes
• Sports seasons
• Baseball ends
• Football begins

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A little this side of snow

• Fall Fairs
• Apples
• Pumpkins
• Hay rides
• Scarecrows
• Corn mazes

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In the autumn moonbeams...
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Halloweens Pagan Past

• Samhain/Samhein/Sauin
• La Samhna (Modern Irish)
• La Samon
• Feast of the Sun
• Nos Galen-Gaeof (Welsh)
• Night of the Winter Calends
• Laa Houney (Manx)
• Hollantide Day

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Fire Festival

• Sacred protection
• Consuming miseries
• Connecting the community

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Do as the Romans

• Feralia
• Pomona

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Hallowmas
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Christian Twist on a Celtic Tradition
Witches
Idolatry
Blasphemy
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The Witches Caldron

• "Eye of newt, and toe of frog,Wool of bat, and
  tongue of dog""Adder's fork, and blind-worm's
  sting,Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing""For a
  charm of powerful trouble,Like a hell-broth boil
  and bubble""Double, double, toil and
  trouble,Fire burn, and caldron bubble"
  William Shakespeare

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Jack OLantern

• Story of Stingy Jack
• Pumpkins on Parade!
• Fruit
• Western hemisphere
• 101 million
• Culinary cuisine

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Ghosts and Goblins
Spirits of the Deceased
El Dia de Los Muertos
Commercialized Culture Created Characters
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Vampires

• History of Vampires

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Trick or Treating

• Samhain celebrations
• going-a-souling
• American bribery
• Community collaboration

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Greenwich Village Halloween Parade
The Village Halloween Parade plays an important
part in the life of the City. It is the only
Parade in the country that has at its heart an
artistic base. It's generous spirit has nurtured
hundreds of thousands of people who reach into
their imaginations and take themselves physically
out into public to perform and to celebrate. We
believe public events of this sort give people
the opportunity to claim the open spaces of their
City for purposes other than work to inhabit
them with a sense of freedom and spontaneity to
play, thus renew their relationship to the
environment. Official Parade Website
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Big and Small

• Community bonding
• Embracing the strange
• and scary
• Playing make-believe
• Challenging mortality
• Letting loose!

Loved by all!!!
On this night on this street the rules of
everyday are set aside. Rules about fitting in,
about acting like everyone else to avoid sticking
out, rules about assimilation. The margins and
center are somehow connected. I see people giving
expression to the creative life-affirming parts
of their soul. NYU Professor Greg Steinbrenner
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Edible Engagements

• From candy.
• to turkey!!!

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Lets Talk Turkey

• Turkey Quiz

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Thanksgiving
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Mayflower Myths

• Thursday in November?
• Three days of thanks
• Turkey and cranberries?
• Indians brought five deer
• Fish, fowl, venison
• Peas, pumpkins, plums
• Puritan parlance?
• Religious meaning
• Table manners

The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth By Jennie A.
Brownscombe
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History of Thanksgiving

• True, the white man brought great change. But
  the varied fruits of his civilization, though
  highly colored and inviting, are sickening and
  deadening. And if it be the part of civilization
  to maim, rob, and thwart, then what is progress?
• I am going to venture that the man who sat on the
  ground in his tipi meditating on life and its
  meaning, accepting the kinship of all creatures,
  and acknowledging unity with the universe of
  things, was infusing into his being the true
  essence of civilization
• Chief Luther Standing Bear
• in his 1933 autobiography,
• From the Land of Spotted Eagle

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Family Traditions
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Macys Parade

• Tradition began in 1924
• Rain or shine!
• 1927 live animals replaced by helium balloons
• More than 300,000 Macys employees
• Clowns, bands, floats, dance numbers
• In addition to the signature balloons!

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A Helping Hand
Gratitude goes a long way
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Cultural Diversity
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Questions? Comments?
What do you think about the USA now?