A Letter To America

Margartet Atwood talks about America and how it is changing. She starts out by reminiscing about the past and how she remembers it when she was younger and better in a sense. She remembers some of her old favorite books like Huckleberry Finn and Little Women. She remembers how we used to have a connection with our past, “We’ve always been close, you and us. History, that old entangler, has twisted us together since the early 17th century” (566). She talks about all of the old classic things that were so unique and she doesn’t think that we have that anymore. Our history is fading and we are letting it fade? I agree with this for example I think about the music that is popular now days and I wonder what we will show our kids when they ask us what kind of music we listened to. What singers are going to be considered classics? Our stars come to fame just as quickly as some of them leave and then forgotten about.
She also talks about the invasion of privacy that America has been faced with now days. “Your business is no longer merely your business. The paraphrase Marley’s Ghost, who figured it out too late, mankind is your business” (567). I agree with this because the government is allowed to look into our private lives a lot more then they used to be able to. It seems that our country is moving away from the older personalized ways of society and leaning more towards industry. “You’re torching the American economy. How soon before the answer to that will be, not to produce anything ourselves, but to grab stuff other people produce, at the gunboat-diplomacy prices?” (567). I think our society is built around business and success these days. I think this was one of the main points that Atwood was trying to point out in the differences in America. She tells about what we seem to care about these days is money and spending money. “You’re running up a record level of debt. Keep spending at this rate and pretty soon you won’t be able to afford any big military adventures” (567). People seem to want to make more money so they can spend more money so they can look good by outward appearance. Society tells us that we can judge how successful someone is by his or her assets. This is one thing she thinks America is turning into and she doesn’t like it and neither do I. I think that the success of a person is only self-measurable.