I am about five months into my junior year and the concept of the American Experience is becoming increasingly complex. Throughout first quarter, I was highly convinced that the American Experience had only one side: a positive, if not, sugarcoated one. The Revolutionary War era and early years of America invoked a spirit of brotherhood, unity, and American ingenuity. I believed America was a unique nation with patrons of a common goal: democracy. Despite the obvious prejudice in America during that time, I still was under the false impression that the American Experience was an embodiment of a wholesome, determined colonist in a powdered wig.
However, as the first semester draws to a close, my opinion of the American Experience and Americans in general has vastly altered. Analyzing Antebellum and Gilded Age texts has made me wonder if the American Experience is more about survival to find justice rather than justice itself. While reading Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, a reoccurring theme was survival of the fittest. The big businessmen and steel tycoons were ruthless figureheads of cities, leaving immigrants, poor whites, and freedmen struggling to make ends meet. The less fortunate often immigrated from Europe, in search of “The American Dream” only to be thrown into what can only be described as “The American Nightmare.”
(This image clearly portrays the motivation and inspiration of Americans during the Gilded Age: money. Wealthy stockbrokers, such as the man pictured below, had various political connections, often making politics during this time extremely corrupt and only representing the higher social classes. This commonplace practice reiterates that only those with connections and money could survive and live a happy life in America. ) Image found on shmoop.com 
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