Blog #1 Letter to America by Margaret Atwood
Within the first couple of sentences of Letter to America you could simply tell that the tone of the story was serious. Right from the start I had an idea of what Margaret was going to address in her letter. From when she said "I'm no longer sure who you are." was clearly about how the US has changed a great deal from a couple of years ago to now. That might not have been as obvious to others as it was to me. The main idea of the letter is how Americans used to do the right thing but as time went on they seem to have fallen apart. Margaret Atwood was trying to get at the fact that she had once followed and accepted the Americans choices. But now no longer agrees with them, as she thinks it is time for a change or America is going to destroy itself. As indicated when she said " Let's talk, then, not about what you're doing to other people but about what you're doing to yourselves."
The audience that I think Margaret Atwood was trying to address is the Americans as well as the politicians, and even Canadians. The American politicians play an enormous role in the letter as they are part of America's overall decision making. What they do and have done affected the people and the economy. She suggests that it's time for a change in the way things are being run. Otherwise all the good that has been done will then be forgotten and the people will just remember the bad decisions that have happened. Even though this was written a couple of years ago, change is slowly happening the first step was choosing Obama, which already has had an impact on America. Canada is also a part of Margaret’s audience she was trying to address “You are not only our Neighbors.” So everything America does seems to affect us, before she had mentioned that it’s not just Americas business is when I realize also that Canada was also her audience.
The purpose of the letter was to inform people about what America is doing and how it’s affecting people as well as what needs to be done in order to change. Without change America may never come out of the hole they dug themselves in. Margaret Atwood was trying to explain to people how badly America has fallen and if they keep this up things will only get worse. I completely agree with every point she made in order to get her point across. When she said “If you proceed much further down the slippery slope, people around the world will stop admiring the good things about you” it is so true. She said a number of times during the letter that better decisions must be made in order to keep the supporters of America. It’s also about the support of Canadians. We are also involved in the US’s decisions, “Your business is no longer merely your business.” All of Margaret’s points were very effective and the message was clearly received. One that had stood out was when she made the comment about America and Canada being connected “We know perfectly well that if you go down the plughole, we’re going with you. That is exactly what will happen if the US doesn’t change its ways.
Question for the class: Do you think Margaret Atwood’s opinion on America has changed at all since writing “Letter to America” in 2003?