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Thoma Essay

Spring 2006

Your essay is to be based on a careful reading of and thoughtful response to Sarah Vowell’s “The Partly Cloudy Patriot.” Vowell’s essay is wide-ranging; your essay will focus on the parts that interest and affect you the most. The questions below (most of which were written by Professor Hass-Birky for a campus-wide discussion of the book) are meant to stimulate discussion and informal writing in preparation for the essay. No single essay should attempt to address them all, of course.

What is a patriot? What’s the difference between being “patriotic” and being “jingoistic”? Does it differ according to the country in which a person lives? What is an American patriot? How does your definition of patriot differ from or resemble Vowell’s definition?

Vowell writes, “American history is a quagmire, and the more one knows the quaggier the mire.” How does Vowell’s interpretation of history affect her feelings of patriotism? To what extent do you think a knowledge of American history will increase or decrease one’s patriotism?

What does the flag mean, according to Vowell? What does the flag mean to you? Why does Vowell decide not to display the flag that arrived with her newspaper? Why does Vowell demand that the flag planted in her yard be removed? To what extent do you agree with her attitudes and her actions?

Did September 11th have the effect on American patriotism and democracy that Vowell suggests? Why or why not?

Vowell suggests that the “suspicion of Washington” is “one of the most American emotions an American can have” (159). Why would Vowell say this, and do you agree? Is it possible--or at times even necessary, as Vowell suggests—to be a patriot and strongly to oppose the actions of the government?

The title of this book and of this essay comes from a reference to the “summer soldier and the sunshine patriot” in the writings of Thomas Paine (162). What did Paine mean by these terms? What does Vowell mean by “the partly cloudy patriot” (163)? What caused her to coin this term?

Vowell suggests that her “ideal picture of citizenship will always be an argument” (169). What does she mean by this? What is your “ideal picture of citizenship” or the citizen? What are the responsibilities and rights of a citizen?