US History From a Brasilian's Perspective

Sad, sad day. Apparently I can't read and/or copy and paste from a website so I ended up doing different questions then the ones we were required to do. *sigh* I'm just gonna stick my head out there and do this.

Philbrick shows us that many of the classic images that shape our current view of the Pilgrims—from Plymouth Rock to the usual iconography of the first Thanksgiving—have been highly fictionalized. Why has America forsaken the truth about these times in exchange for a misleading and often somewhat hokey mythology?

America, like any other country in this world, needs to show itself off in the best light possible. Who cares if the settlers drove Natives off of their land for a few pieces of clothing and tools? As long as "America" remains glorious no one will bother to question how things really happened. It's interesting to think that Thanksgiving isn't the only story that has been fictionalized into a sweet story that portrays America's ancestors as brave, kind, and charitable. All the other stories - Johnny Appleseed, Daniel Boone, etc - are probably just as fabricated with bits and pieces of the truth infused in them. These heroic men and women are the perfect role models for any American child. I wonder, if the truth became widely known, how would Americans view their ancestors?