David Iozzo
American lit
November 2, 2016
Prof, Vautour
“An American farmer” & “Common Sense”
In comparing the works “Common Sense” by Thomas Paine and “Letters from an
American farmer” by J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur the reader is shown two sides of what is
to become the United States: the ideal, and the actual. The contrast between these two is what
helps to define early Americanism as shaped by what is was meant to be and what it actually was
during the founding of this new country. It is Paine who set out to encourage what he felt was an
inevitable independence from England to form a country founded on the natural rights of man,
but is Crevecoeur who puts Paine’s idea of natural law into a practical application in society,
through his narration of a ‘typical’ American farmer. Through both these works we see that that
underlying theme is the desire for natural rights, but the interpretation of how these natural rights
will maintain the virtuousness of America is what ultimately divides these two authors.