Crevecoeur`s was a French-American writer. He wrote Letters from an American Farmer in 1782 and published it in London. His book became an instant hit. He was the first American to achieve literary success in Europe. In his book, he detailed information to promote understanding of the "New World". It helped formed an American identity in the minds of Europeans by describing an entire country rather than another regional colony. The writing celebrated American ingenuousness and its uncomplicated lifestyle and spelled out the acceptance of religious diversity in a melting pot being created from a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
Thomas Paine is one writer who used the pen to influence change. He proved the pen is mightier than the sword. His writings have united the spirit of the nation. These include Common Sense, The Crisis, The Rights of Man, The Age of Reason, and Other Pamphlets, Articles, and Letters.
Crevecoeur and Thomas Paine's writings bore some striking resemblance. For instance, both authors are very outspoken in their point of views. They both love to get into the heart of the matter as exemplified in their essays in Thomas Paine "Common Sense" and Crevecoeur "Letters from an American Farmer". And they both can write complex ideas and present them into simple, vivid and clear form.
Nationalism or love of country is greatly steeped in their bones and is apparent in the topics they write. Thomas Paine in Common Sense said “The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. Many circumstances hath, and will arise, which
are not local, but universal, and through which the principles of all Lovers of Mankind are affected, and in the Event of which, their Affections are interested.”
While both authors shared a common love of country, their views and their approach in writing differs. Crevecoeur espoused the American Dream and all that is good in America. Paine, on the other hand, held liberal, even to the point of being radical, views on governance. He was vocal and fearless on his views against monarchy, government and slavery.
Paine's outspoken nature is obvious in his work In The Age of Reason. He writes: 'The religion that approaches the nearest of all others to true deism, in the moral and benign part thereof, is that professed by the Quakers … though I revere their philanthropy, I cannot help smiling at [their] conceit; … if the taste of a Quaker [had] been consulted at the Creation, what a silent and drab-colored Creation it would have been! Not a flower would have blossomed its gaieties, nor a bird been permitted to sing,'
Their contrasting view on the “New Adam” is what makes it more interesting. While, Crevecoeur espoused the idea of contentment and pursuit of American dream, Paine demanded to see more changes and was very dissatisfied with the way things went during his time. And these contrasting views are as applicable today, the way they found acceptance centuries ago.
