The purpose of Letters from an American Farmer
             During the period of time the United States were first trying to defy themselves as a nation through texts, at the end of the 18th century, Hector St. John de Crevecoeur wrote his Letters from an American Farmer. Crevecoeur originally was a Frenchman, but he went to Canada as a young man, and soon after he settled on the American frontier. His Letters from an American Farmer, in which he describes the American, new society as an ideal for all people: a society in which there is no aristocratic class, and no religious intolerance; where people are hardworking and disciplined, part of America's beautiful nature, became a most influential work. It enjoyed great popularity with Europe's reformers, as well as with American citizens throughout the centuries. It described the American nation in a way its citizens felt it had to be; these people h ad (and still have) just arrived in a completely new part of the world, where they have tried, and still are trying, to build a society far better than the ones their ancestors came from.
             Because Letters from an American Farmer gave the Americans the confidence they needed to believe in their country, and in their future, it is necessary to be critical about the circumstances under which it was written, and about its contents. The story itself has been used to prove the perfect nature of the New World to people of other nationalities, and to the immigrants themselves. It has helped the last to build up their self-confidence, and it has made them believe in a certain image of the American society during the founding years: an image that sets America apart from Europe, that proves America to be a better, if not perfect place. The purpose of the book, therefore, is obvious.
             However, when operating from the relatively new school of criticism, the New Historicism, one will soon realize Letters from an American Farmer is a myth, a so-call...