Mr. Priest
Great Books Period 7
22 October 2009
Why Americans Are Restless Interpretive Questions
1. When a society tries to create equal opportunity for every individual, it weakens each of
them because of the competition they face. De Toqueville states, “ When men are more or less equal and are following the same path, it is very difficult for any of them to walk faster and get out beyond the uniform crowd surrounding and hemming them in.” (197) By this, de Toqueville is demonstrating the idea of running up a mountain with all these equal competitors around you. It makes it very difficult to get ahead when everyone is running the same race at equal odds.
2. De Toqueville thinks that Americans are restless because their desires are always changing, or because they only want things better than what they have. De Toqueville speaks of the freest and best educated of men when he states, “…whereas the latter never stop thinking of the good things they have not got.” (164) He goes on to speak of their changing desires, and he writes, “They clutch everything but hold nothing fast, and so lose grip as they hurry after some new delight.” (165) Americans always strive for the best, and once they reach it, they quickly move onto something better, never being satisfied with what they have, which makes them become restless.
