Alan McLawhorn

Aaron Kashtan

UWRT 1102

7 May 2017

Major Assignment #2 Reflection

For my major assignment #2, I wrote about how South Park represents American identity.

To be specific, I wrote about how South Park views religion, which is an important part that

shapes American identity. To present this information I used ethos, by interpreting what South

Park says about religion in America. I appealed to ethics, by explaining what I thought these

particular episodes said about American identity. As mentioned in my other reflections, I view

what qualifies as American as living in America for some time, and being fluent in English.

While writing this assignment, I realized that the American identity has been varied, and

that some has been here since the beginning, when various groups came to America to escape

religious persecution. Some were created in this country, including Scientology and

Mormonism. The fact that we have some many religions in this country is a product of our varied

American identity. There is no one American identity, but many different views and experiences

that make up American identity. Most, if not all, religions have something ludicrous, and South

Park makes fun of religions, including Christianity, Mormonism, and Scientology.

Upon reflection, I noticed another thing that represents American identity: South Park

uses humor to ridicule certain topics. Anything is game on the show, and the freedom to make

fun of anything and everything is part of American identity. In our society, we have the freedom

to use humor, even if it is in bad taste.

 While writing this paper, I gained the skill of researching something that I enjoyed,

which, to be honest, has not been common in my education, especially when writing papers. I

think a lot of it has to do with that I enjoyed what I was writing about. I was starting to think

more about the American identity and how much it is directly related to history. As mentioned in

major assignment #1, my identity is also directly related to my history as well. Overall, major

assignment #2 showed me that religion also played a big role in America and its identity. I also

learned, looking back on it now, that humor has played a big role in making American identity.