T 1290.pdf - Pondicherry University DSpace Portal

minds of men/women acting under the conditions of liberty weresuch that it enabled people of different origins to acttogether and to recognize one another as Americans.As one unfolds the narrative of the origins of thesociety, the connection between national character andimmigrant experience becomes visible. The continuous migrationsto the frontier ensured that Americans from the earliest daysof settlement would live in perpetual transit. This life inmotion produced "a new man liberated from his past and free tolive as an individual by the rule of risks of his ownchoosing." (Handlin 1963,160) The lndlvidual who llved therisky, lnsecure life was sustained by a falth In hislhercapacity to mould the future. The willingness to accept riskshad originated in the very nature of the first settlement. Thishad been perpetuated by a society that allowed few individualsstability enough to relax. Everything remalns precarious.Ceaseless strlving and mobllity were necessary to hold on asonly expanslon could preserve what had already been achieved.Living in ongoing risky changes, Americans began to treatchange as a normal part of existence. Individuals, thusdeveloped a common stance towards llfe that created a sharedAmerican identity.Livlng the insecure llfe was the Amerlcan way, acceptednot by compulsion but in a splrit of adventure. Llke the