The Philosophy of de Crèvecœur
Early in the text, before he gets down to the business of describing the various places and the people who inhabit them in America, the author enages imagery to lay out an all-encompassing guiding philosophy to which he will fairly meticulously adhere as the narrative progresses:
“Men are like plants; the goodness and flavour of the fruit proceeds from the peculiar soil and exposition in which they grow. We are nothing but what we derive from the air we breathe, the climate we inhabit, the government we obey, the system of religion we profess, and the nature of our employment.”
The Melting Pot
The most famous image found in Letters from an American Farmer is one of the most metaphors for America ever conceived; perhaps, indeed, the ultimate iconic metaphor. Most historians agree that de Crèvecœur was the first to refer to it in print:
“Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world”
Slavery
The imagery that the author uses to indict the system of slavery is some of the most powerful in the history of colonial literature. In remarkably efficient language, he gets right to the heart of the overriding injustice at the bottom of the entire abomination, creating an image of the slaveholder that strikes at both the heart and the mind of any rational person:
“And for whom must they work? For persons they know not, and who have no other power over them than that of violence, no other right than what this accursed metal has given them! Strange order of things! Oh, Nature, where art thou?—Are not these blacks thy children as well as we? On the other side, nothing is to be seen but the most diffusive misery and wretchedness, unrelieved even in thought or wish! Day after day they drudge on without any prospect of ever reaping for themselves; they are obliged to devote their lives, their limbs, their will, and every vital exertion to swell the wealth of masters; who look not upon them with half the kindness and affection with which they consider their dogs and horses.”
Nantucket
During that period when whaling was to the economy of the world what oil drilling is today, the center of that industry on the American continent is deemed a company town in rich, vivid imagery that eventually sums it all up in a robust metaphor sees the island more in terms of greenhouse or perhaps a farm or a maternity ward:
“Nantucket is a great nursery of seamen, pilots, coasters, and bank-fishermen”
