Appreciating Americana

State By State: A Panoramic Portrait of America, edited and compiled by Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey, aims to create one book containing 50 different essays, written by 50 different authors, about the 50 U.S. states. Each individual essay attempts to capture the notable features and gives a unique understanding to each place. Weiland states that “this book started with a hunch and a conviction.” He believed that though the states are “bound together today as tightly as any confederation on earth – [they] somehow stubbornly resist blending into a single undifferentiated whole.” So together, Weiland and Wilsey strived to create something that would unravel the differences and display the distinctive qualities of each state. This idea had been done before: the WPA American Guide series of the Federal Writers’ Project in the 1930s and a few other efforts, such as The Book of America edited by Neal Pierce and Jerry Hagstrom.

The FWP included the works of more than six thousand writers with over 500 pages per state bound in great thickly-bound volumes, one for each state.

Weiland and Wilsey wanted to create something more personal and more suitable than these larger efforts for people in America to learn about their country in one volume. State by State answers the big question: “What makes one state different from another?” The two aimed to create something that would showcase pride for their country. Their conviction, written in the preface, was that “despite drive-time radio and the nightly news and the Sunday paper, despite all the books and blog posts, the documentaries and songs, American and the lives lived here remain strangely and surprisingly under described”. Which then leads to their hunch: “for all the talk of identity in American life, the personal fact that defines American lives as much as gender, ethnicity, or class is where you’re from, which more than anything means your home state (my emphasis)”. Choosing mostly authors to write about their home states, they were able to deliver personal portraits of these places. Weiland and Wilsey therefore achieved their goal of creating a book compiled of all 50 of them. 

To understand America, it is important to understand the Declaration of Independence, the founding document of the United States of America or the formal cause of our nation. The Declaration of Independence, written based on the common goals of unity, freedom, and the protection of civil rights, is what brought to the world’s attention the importance of America. Part of having pride in our country means also having pride in our government, the people who lead the country (consent of the governed) and whose job is to do what is best for the people. The Declaration of Independence defines freedom as so important that “whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles”. From this, it is clear that the Declaration of Independence is a statement showing the other “powers of the Earth” (other nations) that this new government will be “of, by, and for the people”. The Declaration states this self-evident truth: “that all men are created equal, endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable rights”. While saying “all men are created equal,” it doesn’t necessarily mean everyone has the same things, possessions, strengths, etc, but that our “equality” is defined by each individual’s God-given rights to freedom. Being “born equal” means born human. In addition, Americans had to put their lives on the line: so much so that “we mutually pledge[d] to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our Sacred Honor”. Putting the fate of our lives into the formation of our country took major bravery and instills within each one of us a respect for our Founders.

To understand the type of federal republic the USA is, the idea of consent should be understood and is regarded in another section of the Declaration. Being an American comes with having equal rights, no matter who you are. A major topic in the document revolves around consent, meaning the mutual agreement between both parties, the governed and those who govern. Requiring consent brings the feeling the ability to have a say in what happens. The Declaration emphasizes the Consent of the Governed: the citizenry choose to have their leaders come from their own ranks, and choose to allow these men and women to exercise authority over them for a limited amount of time. The United States government is representative; though not everyone gets exactly everything they want, federal elections for president, for instance, require that the majority of the electors are in favor of the president. It becomes clear that the basic foundation of the country is run on the best interest of the people and reveals many reasons in which citizens of America take pride in their country, giving Americans a sense of importance and value. While each state of the USA gets an equal distribution of power in the Senate, one fiftieth, in relation to the country overall, the individual power distribution differs due to the difference in populations, and this is seen in the House of Representatives. In that sense, no state is alike, for the concentration of political voices does not necessarily match specific locations. However, as it is the United States of America, the way the system works regards each state as a whole and each as an equal part of the country. For example, the government is organized by equal representation so that each state has a ratio equal to their population. Delaware, a small state, has 2 Senators just as every other state, but only one Representative. On the other hand, California, which has a much larger population to represent, has the same two Senators but 53 Representatives. But both states have equal power in the sense that the Senate (the upper legislative chamber) is able to crush a proposal by a different state. So if California wanted to implement something new, Delaware has equal (one-fiftieth) power to let it pass or deny it. Different from other countries of the world, Americans can feel a sense of having an impact on their personal state, and through this, their country.

State by State’s subtitle is “Take Pride in your Country”. While reading through the preface, I noticed many references to American people, stories, achievements, etc. and decided to research them in hopes of learning more about my country, the USA. Weiland and Wilsey included these references to demonstrate Americana. What is Americana? Americana is art, statuary, writing, sculpture, dramatic art, paintings: the culture and history of America, specifically the United States. Here are a few references to Americana that I found interesting.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, written by Mark Twain, starts off with a small preface. Twain wrote to the readers that though his stories are aimed at a younger audience, he would be glad if adults read it as well. He writes “although my book is intended mainly for the entertainment of boys and girls, I hope it will not be shunned by men and women on that account, for part of my plan has been to try to pleasantly remind adults of what they once were.” In the first chapter of Adventures of Tom Sawyer, small additions of humor are added in that make the story more light-hearted. The beginning focuses on an old lady, Aunt Polly, who wears glasses but never looks through them, and Twain comments that “she could have seen through a pair of stove-lids just as well.” Written in 1876, the story contains some old terms that have a different definition than what most people are used to today. This book became one of Twain’s most famous novels and is also regarded as a masterpiece in American literature alongside Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

“You don’t know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain’t no matter.” Who is speaking here? It’s Huck Finn, Tom’s buddy, narrating a book of his own! The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn towers over the 19th century as one of the most important American novels. The widow, his foster mother, “cried over [him], and called [him] a poor lost lamb, and she called [him] a lot of other names, too, but she never meant no harm by it”. The widow helps him get dressed, feeds him, and teaches him. This book is considered to be one of the first major American novels to be written in vernacular English and is one of the three Great American Novels (along with Gone with the Wind and Moby-Dick) that form that elite club. This story is so important to American history and I hope in the future I get the chance to read this book and learn why this has made such a great impact.

John Cheever, another successful short story writer and novelist who is referenced, wrote several pieces in his career: “The Enormous Radio”, “The Swimmer” (there’s a film made of this as well), The Wapshot Chronicle, Bullet Park, and more. His short story collection, The Stories of John Cheever won him the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and a National Book Critics Circle Award. His major success of his career was recognized and just before his death, he was awarded the National Medal for Literature, and his complete oeuvre is published by the Library of America. I listened to the first couple of minutes of The Enormous Radio. Cheever does a fantastic job of going deep into descriptions of both objects and actions and providing a clear image of the events occurring. He hooks the reader by making everything sound very dramatic and turning a humdrum event into an action-packed retelling. He includes numerous similes comparing the radio to “an aggressive intruder” and others. 

Turning to the film side, Preston Sturges, a playwright, screenwriter, and film director, created screen art in the 1930s in the screwball comedy format. Sturges became the first person to win the Oscar for the Best Original Screenplay. His works, including The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek

and Hail the Conquering Hero earned him Oscar nominations. Sturges kicked off his career on Broadway which earned him much recognition. Later, he was able to make it to Hollywood where he wrote for Paramount. Between 1939-1944, he released some of his greatest works.

The Lady Eve, Sullivan’s Travels, The Palm Beach Story, and The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek which was noticed by the American Film Institute and chosen to be included in the 100 funniest American films. I was intrigued by this so I looked into two of Sturges’ films. The first being The French, They Are a Funny Race (1955), which takes place in Paris. The second was Palm Beach Story (1942) which takes place in New York City. Palm Beach Story, in my opinion, was very well filmed and it seemed like a movie that we would watch now, in 2023, however, in black and white. The audio was clear, the filming was perfect, the acting was amazing as well. Sturges, being a comedy filmmaker, included many humorous parts into this film. I had a good laugh in a couple of different moments. One of these moments being after a young lady kisses an old man, and he yells “Whoopee, hot diggity!” and scurries away. 

From these references and many more found in the preface, the readers receive an expanded knowledge of the term Americana.

Though the sense of Americana is constantly present in the preface, “Georgia” by Ha Jin, demonstrates the views of America through a foreign perspective. Jin emigrated from China and he became relatively familiar with the US state, Georgia, and was chosen to express his opinions on the state. 

According to Ha Jin, he does not “have a hometown” though he does admit that he lived in the northeast of China for his first twenty-one years. While this is his true native land, the only ties he associates with the place are the two or three happy childhood memories. On the other hand, he finds that he is “full of affectionate memories” from Georgia, a state in the USA. In the summer of 1993, Jin moved his family to Georgia in order to take a job at Emory University as a teacher of poetry. At first sight, he was met by the “good feng shui” of his new house in the suburbs of Lilburn, finding appreciation in the lake filled with waterfowl and a brook named, surprisingly, the Yellow River. Though being the only Asian family in this subdivision, Jin felt the friendliness of his neighbors and the warm welcome to the town. His family was even greeted with a vase of flowers and a kind note from an old woman living a couple of doors down. Indeed, Jin said that “[he] will stay in Georgia even if [he doesn’t] get the tenure.” When countered with the question “why?”, he responded “because life is easier down here,” and also because he loves his house. It is evidently seen that Ha Jin feels at ease and has a sense of comfort in Georgia that he had not mentioned he felt in his twenty-one years in China.

As a professor, Jin is a bibliomaniac. In just two years, Jin collected over forty boxes of books, running out of room to store them in his small apartment in Somerville, Massachusetts. Though forced to throw some of his library out due to limited space, he did not stop collecting more, and those, he took to Georgia with him. As he started teaching full time, his obsession grew, setting up dozens of bookshelves and buying boxes worth of books at local book sales. In addition, Jin would stop at Goodwill to search through the book section, finding things like The Word Finder and first editions of For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Heart of the Matter, and Beloved. Not only was his library growing, but he also found interest in religion. Living in Georgia, “churches were a major power” where advertisements with inspirational quotes could be found everywhere. He began to look deeper into the Bible which became “vital to [his] writings in those years.” Reading many different versions of the Bible, he found what he liked in each of them and memorized scripture in order to learn it in his heart. Additionally, Jin worked on his second short story collection, Under the Red Flag, which later earned him the Flannery O’Connor Prize for Short Fiction.

Jin writes of his time there, that “this step toward self-sufficiency came because my life in Georgia had made me turn to the Bible” and added that “[his] nine years in Georgia were crucial to [him] as a beginning writer.” Additionally, Jin mentioned that after the Tiananmen Square massacre, he and his wife decided to stay in the United States. 

The Tiananmen Square massacre, also known as the June Fourth Incident, was centered around demonstrations that lasted weeks and were led by students in China. These protests were in hopes of advancing democracy and obtaining more freedoms. Thousands of students staged protests which were eventually shut down violently by the Chinese government. Following this incident, the government tightened control over the country and ended the political reforms that first started in 1986. As mentioned, Ha Jin did not return to China after this and later became a U.S. citizen. As a nation, the USA provided Jin more freedoms and opportunities to express his ideas in his works and pursue his career. 

As a girl born in America, I have learned to be proud of my country and its achievements. Through researching the references that were mentioned in the preface of this book, I was able to discover and learn about the amazing things that have been accomplished in America. Having Chinese roots, like Jin, we have both experienced the freedoms and amazing opportunities offered in this country and through reading State by State, have grown in our knowledge of Americana.