Austin Bednarz – Page 4 – American Society and Culture

Tocqueville Chapter 1: Response

After reading the first chapter of Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America Chapter 1, it was very interesting to me how he set the scene for the reader. If you think about it, Tocqueville is a French man who is producing this book for people all around the world to be informed about North America, most of whom have never been to the continent before. So the amount of detail Tocqueville adds to the first chapter of the book to give the reader the most information that he can about the lay of the land, the typography of the mountains, the life giving Mississippi River, and the triangular shape of the continent, all give great imagery to paint for the reader the great landscape of North America. This sets the scene perfectly for someone who has never stepped foot on North American soil and wants just a taste of what it feels like.

I also wanted to mention that I would like to know and understand what the “Indians” first impressions of the Europeans coming to their land made them feel. These people have been isolated on the continent for 10’s of thousands of years with no communication or means of it to any other groups of people. It must have felt like how we picture greeting aliens for the first time, mainly form the movie Independence Day, with their never before seen technology that overshadows even our greatest inventions. I wonder how the first Indian described to the other members of his tribe what he saw, some huge ship with white sails heading towards them with white men on board.

Just some detailed imagery and questions can be conjectured from the first chapter of his book, and I am very interested to learn how he will continue to challenge and cause me to think throughout the book.

Alexis de Tocqueville- Bednarz Expository

Alexis de Tocqueville talks about man having no where to go beside the path of their parents, that people are born into who they are and cannot stray from that path, they have no control over their destiny. I find it also very interesting that he mentions that the aristocrats of the society understand that man can change and mold himself into whatever they want, but they do not allow the lower classes to do so, by assigning classes and ranks that are given for life and for their future generations. Alexis says that one can improve in their way of life but cannot stray from it.

This falsity is then followed by the belief that these members of the lower classes have already achieved their peak and cannot reach any higher on the ladder of success. They become content and thusly even tell their children, as society does, that they cannot become anything that they not already are.

Alexis then goes on to state that when the classes of society are removed man strives for growth in his own personal life. He realizes that there is no way to distinguish himself from others besides the materialistic items that he has accumulated. When there is no bar set for him to reach, he is always searching for the next rung on the ladder to get closer to the non-existent ceiling of life.

I believe that the story of the sailor, at the end of the piece, relates directly to the greedy perception of man today. This is why car companies are always coming out with new models. If the previous year’s model was the “best” “most luxurious” “most advanced” car they ever made. It is because man’s realization of progress and success has him wanting better than he already has.

Alexis de Tocqueville has shined light on the issues of the perfection of man. He demonstrates that once in his sights man will not stop looking for the next peak to climb, whether it be social or economic. Now that man has broken from the social constructs of defined classes, he is able to determine his own fate.