Comparison Essay Sample on We Are America and Little Fires Everywhere

📌Category: Entertainment, Television
📌Words: 775
📌Pages: 3
📌Published: 18 January 2022

In “We Are America” and Little Fires Everywhere, we hear from both John Cena and Celeste Ng about their ideas of community and family. Both Cena and Ng pull apart the idea of an average American community and family by highlighting the individuality and differences that exist within it. Both ask us to abandon labels and what is typical about community and family. Ng conveys her point that we can avoid the destruction of a family, by seeing and loving individuals for their unique contribution to a group. Cena expresses his point through details and misconceptions about what makes America. Both highlighting that a community cannot be strong without accepting and loving the individuality of the members within it. 

John Cena and Celeste Ng both emphasize the idea that though we like to think of the perfectly average or dream family, communities are made up of individuals. In “We Are America”, the watcher is asked to close their eyes, and “picture the average U.S. citizen” (Love Has No Labels ad). When you do this, your mind goes down a path of what average is and before you know it you’re in front of a big suburban house with “the sharp lines of mortar between the bricks,” (Ng 33) and a big, white family like the Richardsons. Ng’s use of the word “sharp” (33) reflects Mrs. Richardson's life and expectations--one of strict rules and distinct lines. Ng also highlights the truth of individuality within a community and the conformity so many follow. Shakers Heights embodies the idea of conformity, so much so that it completely hides the individuals that live behind the facade of perfection. Standing “[f]rom the outside you only [see] one front door, one front-door light, one mailbox, one house number” (9), leading you to believe there is one happy family inhabiting the house instead of the reality of a duplex. Only upon entering that house, do you understand that Shaker Heights tries so hard to hide its multi-family nature. Behind that facade, exists a world of individuality. Similarly, John Cena describes the average American, and proceeds to explain that behind the idea of an ‘average American’ is a wealth of diversity and differences. Instead of thinking of an average white guy, he guides you into thinking about our differences. He does this through his language by asking us to change the “average Joe”, to “Joan, or Juan, or Jean-Luc” (Love Has No Labels ad). Both Cena and Ng explore the tension between the lack of individuality that comes with conformity, and encourage people to express that individuality to be part of a stronger family.

John Cena and Celeste Ng explore the idea that in order to keep a strong community, we need to love each other without the pressure of conformity. Cena states that love, while it’s a word that tries to unify our country, is also “pretty divisive” (Love Has No Labels ad). This suggests that if we live in a world where we all worry about “wearing the right things, saying the right things, being friends with the right people'' (Ng 79) then we all live in self-isolation. But if we can love without judgement, then we are capable of living in a community of individuals. Ng expresses this through Mrs. Richardson's relationship with her daughter. Mrs. Richardson's love for Izzy happened to be built on the foundations of fear turned to anger. Just as the mortar in their house is “sharp” (Ng 33),Mrs. Richardson's life is harsh and demanding, with rigorous rules and lines, leading to conflict with her daughter. So in the eyes of the Richardson family, Mrs. Richardson thought that Izzy was “a particular disappointment” (Ng 111), and that she “resented [Izzy]” (111) because Izzy didn’t fit Mrs. Richardson's perfectly shaped future  The judgement amidst Mrs. Richardson's love for Izzy led to the destruction of her and Izzy’s relationship and eventually their house. In the end, Mrs. Richardson loses her daughter as a result of requiring conformity, and labeling everyone in her perfect life. We even see Mrs. Richardson break her own conforming label of a perfect Shaker Heights wife, as she insists “she would look for Izzy herself. For as long as it took, for forever if need be.” (Ng 336).

John Cena and Celeste Ng both explore the concepts of community, family, and the individuals within. The tension between the conformity and rules that help a community run smoothly and orderly can result in violence and damage. Mrs. Richardson's love is trapped by her own perception of herself, and her own label. This limitation on herself makes it so she cannot love the other people in her life that do not fit in her plan.  Whether it is violence that we see in America or the fire at the Richardson’s house, both show us that to keep a community strong, we must love those around us for the reality of who they are. More than anything, the rewards of loving others for who they are, including ourselves, becomes clear.

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