The American Character 美国人的性格 (Bradford Smith 布拉德福德·史密斯)
摘自：英语泛读教程
The following is part of an essay taken from Bradford Smith's book, Why We Behave Like Americans. Success as a goal and materialism, according to Smith, are among the underlying factors that make up the American character.
以下节选自布拉德福德所著《为什么我们的举止象美国人》里的一篇文章。据布拉德福德所说，目标 为成功和物质享乐主义，构成美国人性格的内在因素。
When visitors from abroad undertake to describe the American Character, the results are frequently puzzling to Americans. "All Americans are Puritans; that's what's wrong with them," says one. "They're always thinking about enjoying themselves," says another. "They spend too much time at work," a distinguished visitor tells us. "They don't know how to play." "Americans don't know what work is, " retorts another." Their machines do it all." "American women are shameless sirens." － "No, they're prudes." "The children here are wonderful － outgoing and natural." － "Natural as little beasts. They have no manners, no respect for their elders."
要是让国外来客描述美国人的性格，结果常常令美国人感到奇怪。一个人说：“所有的美国人都是清教徒；所以他们与众不同。”另一个人说：“他们总是想方设法让自己开心。”一位尊贵的客人告诉我们：“他们花在工作上的时间太多。他们不懂如何玩乐。”另一个人反驳说：“他们不懂什么是工作。因为机器替他们做了一切。”“美国女人是不知廉耻的，妖艳而危险的女人。”--“不，她们假正经。”“这里的孩子真好－－外向，自然。”----“象小小的野兽一样自然。他们没礼貌，不尊敬长辈。”
There is, of course, no single pattern of American character any more than there is a single English or Turkish or Chinese character. Personality in America is further complicated by our diverse racial and cultural origins, by successive waves of immigration from all parts of the world, by our regional diversities. It is complicated by several hundred varieties of religious belief with their varying impact on the believers. It is further diversified by the generation to which the person belongs － first generation immigrant, second generation child of immigrants, and on down the line.
当然，世上既没有单一模式的美国人性格，也没有单一的英国人性格或土耳其人性格或是中国人性格。个性的定义在美国变得更为复杂，因为我们有不同的种族和文化背景，因为来自世界各地连续不断的移民浪潮，因为我们区域的多样性。个性的定义变得复杂，因为几百种不同的宗教信仰及其对各自的信奉者的影响不同。个性的定义也由于每个人所处的年代不同而趋多样化 －－第一代是移民，第二代是移民的孩子，一直照此延续下去。
The temptation is strong to lump all Americans together. Yet those who look a little deeper are puzzled by the seeming contradictions in American life. It is true that Americans as a whole work hard. But they also play hard. They spend more time and money in traveling, camping, hunting, watching sports, drinking, smoking, going to movies, watching television and reading newspapers and magazines than any other people in the world. Yet they also spend more money on churches, social services, hospitals and all kinds of charities. They are always in a hurry, yet they spend more time relaxing. They are at the same time sensitive to the rights of the individual and habitual conformist. They worship bigness yet idealize the little man, whether he be the small business man as opposed to the big one or the plain citizen as opposed to the big wheel.
强大的吸引力把众多的美国人聚集在了一起。然而那些想再了解深入一点的人弄不懂美国人生活中各种似乎自相矛盾的东西。的确，美国人总体上工作努力。但他们也拼命地玩。他们去旅游、露营、打猎、看体育比赛、喝酒、抽烟、看电影电视、读报纸杂志，花的时间和金钱比世界任何地方的人都多。而他们还把更多的时间花在教会、社会服务、医院和各种各样的慈善活动上。他们总是忙来忙去，又总是花更多的时间休闲。他们十分在乎个人的权利，又习惯于墨守陈规。他们崇拜大人物，也把小人物理想化 ，不论他是和大商人形成对照的小商人，还是和大权在握的人形成对照的平民百姓。
Success as a Goal 成功作为目标
One thing almost everyone is agreed on, including Americans, is that they place a very high valuation upon success. Success does not necessarily mean material rewards, but recognition of some sort － preferably measurable. If the boy turns out to be a preacher instead of a business man, that's all right. But the bigger his church and congregation, the more successful he is judged to be.
包括美国人在内几乎每一个人都会赞同的一点是，美国人极为看重成功。成功不一定是物质上的回报，而是得到某种认可， 最好是可以衡量的那种。如果一个男孩后来没有从商，而是做了布道的教士，那也没什么。但是他的教堂规模越大，教堂会众越多，别人就认为他越成功。
A good many things contributed to this accent on success. There was the Puritan belief in the virtue of work, both for its own sake and because the rewards it brought were regarded as signs of God's love. There was the richness of opportunity in a land waiting to be settled. There was the lack of a settled society with fixed ranks and classes, so that a man was certain to rise through achievement.
好多事情都说明，成功是美国人生活的重点。清教徒相信工作带来的好处，既有工作本身的乐趣，还因为工作的回报是上帝之爱的体现。一片富饶的土地到处都是机遇，等待着人们到来。在一个不固守陈规的社会，没有严格的等级和阶级，这样人就一定能通过成功提升自己的社会地位。
There was the determination of the immigrant to gain in the new world what had been denied to him in the old, and the part of his children an urge to throw off the immigrant onus by still more success and still more rise in a fluid, classless society. Brothers did not compete within the family for the favor of the parents as in Europe, but strove for success in the outer world, along paths of their own choosing.
凡是旧的世界拒绝给的，移民决心都要在新的世界得到。对于他的后代而言，要摆脱作为移民的负担，只有在一个灵活自由的无阶级社会里取得更多的成功，升至更高的地位。他们的兄弟之间不象欧洲人那样为获得父母的欢心而相互 倾轧，他们都在外面的世界 沿着各自选择的道路为成功而奋力拚搏。
The English anthropologist, Geoffrey Gorer, sees the whole situation in Freudian terms. Europe is the father rejected by every immigrant who turned his back on his own culture in order to make a new life in America. The immigrant's struggle for success never ends, because there is no limit to the possible goal. The second generation child, in turn, rejects the alien parents because they cannot measure up to American standards. The only way he can soften the blow is to achieve a still greater success. All over America the lawyers, doctors, professors and politicians with Italian, Irish, German or Polish names testify to the urgency of this drive.
英国的人类学家杰弗里·戈罗尔用弗罗伊德的说法来解释这一切。欧洲是被所有的移民抛弃的父亲，移民为了在美国过上新生活，背离了自己的文化。移民为了要成功从未停止过奋斗，因为目标 的内容没有限制。同样，第二代移民拒绝接受移民过来的父母，因为后者无法适应美国标准。他能减轻压力的唯一方式 ，就是取得更大的成功。在整个美国，有意大利人、爱尔兰人、德国人或波兰人名字的律师、医生、教授和政治家，都能证明这种成功欲望的强烈。
Not to strive, not to take advantage of the opportunities in such a world, not to succeed where success was so available － these things naturally became a sort of crime against the state. To develop the resources of a new country required energetic people, bent upon using their energies － not only for the rewards that would result to themselves, but even more important, to the community. So material success in the United States is not looked upon as selfish. Its results are seen to have communal value.
要是不奋斗，不利用这个世界的各种机会去成功而不能成功---这些无疑都是对国家的一种犯罪。开发一个新国家的各种资源，需要精力充沛的人不遗余力地发挥他们的充沛精力---不仅仅是为了他们会得到的回报，更重要的是给社会带来的回报。所以在美国，没有人把物质上的成功看成是自私的。成功的果实被看作具有全民共享的价值 。
Ford, Carnegie, Rockefeller built great fortunes for themselves. But they also built an economy which has brought a great deal of material well-being, higher health standards and better educational opportunities to millions of Americans. This is how it looks to us, anyway, from inside.
福特、卡耐基、洛克菲勒，都为自己创造了极大的财富。但他们也建立起一种经济，既可以带来许多物质上的幸福，更高的健康水平，也可以给上千万的美国人创造更好地受教育的机会。无论怎样，这就是成功的内涵。
A society which values competition so highly is inevitably an aggressive one, even though the laws carefully limit the forms aggression may take. It has a toughness about it which is good for the muscle tone of the economy but hard on some individuals. In our pioneering days this aggressiveness was essential to survival. Now it can be a menace to society. The factory worker who reaches a dead end and sees himself stuck in the same job year after year may take out his aggressive feelings in race hatred or fighting management, or he may even turn it against himself by way of alcoholism, proneness to accident, or neurotic behavior.
一个如此注重竞争的社会必定是攻击性的社会，尽管法律严格限制各种攻击形式。这种对攻击的严格限制对 完善经济的肌体有益，但对某些个人却过于严格。在拓荒时代，这种攻击性是生存所必需的，但现在可能是一种对社会的威胁。走投无路、常年被同一工作所困的工人可能会将这样的攻击性用于种族仇恨或反对管理，或 开始酗酒、滋事、神经质、和自己过不去。
Since a high regard is felt for success, the rewards are high. Money is rarely cherished for itself in America; it is rather a symbol and a tool. As a man's status rises, the demands upon him also increase. He is expected to give liberally to the hundreds of voluntary associations which nourish and minister to the community. Look at the Who's Who entry for any prominent business man, and you are likely to find him involved in an amazing number of committees and associations organized for the public good.
既然高度注重成功，回报也就很高。在美国，人们很少看重金钱本身，它更多的是一种标志，一种工具。当一个人的地位提高，人们对他的要求也相应提高。成百上千各种各样的志愿者协会有益于社会并服务于社会，人们期望他能慷慨捐钱给这些协会。你去看看《名人录》，随便一个知名商人的条目，就会发现他参加的公益性委员会和协会多得令人吃惊。
This striving for success and prestige, according to psychologists, is a way of overcoming fears and a sense of inner emptiness. In a mobile society an energetic person can hardly help matching himself against others and seeing how far he can go.
这种为成功和名望而奋斗的心理，按心理学家的说法，是一种克服恐惧和内心空虚感的方式。在一个时刻变化着的社会，一个有进取精神的人难免会拿自己与别人相比，知道自己能达到的目标是什么。
Such a system is fine for those who have it in them to succeed. It is not so good for the mediocre. The fear of failure, the fear of competitors, the loss of self esteem － these arouse tensions that some people cannot handle. In their turn they produce an excessive craving for love. So love and success are linked. Gorer believes that most Americans by the time they are adolescents have confused two ideas: to be successful is to be loved, and to be loved is to be successful. Mothers help to impose the pattern by showing affection and admiration when their children do well at school and by withholding affection when they fail.
这种思维方式对于那些本来就这样想的人是有利的。但对不求上进的人却没什么好处。害怕失败，害怕竞争对手，丧失自尊---都导致了一些人无力应付的紧张情绪。然后，这种紧张情绪就产生了对爱的极度渴望。因此爱和成功是密不可分的。戈罗尔认为 ，许多美国人在少年时期就被两个问题困扰：成功就是要得到爱，要得到爱就要成功。母亲们把这个模式成功地灌输给孩子：孩子们在学校里表现好，她们就对他们显示出无限的疼爱和喜爱；孩子们要是做得不好，她们就拒绝给予关爱。
Since there are no limits of class, inherited occupation or education to hold a child back, there are, in theory, no limits to what he can achieve. Consequently there is no point at which he can say: "There, I've done it. From now on all I have to do is to hold on." Since any boy can, in theory, become President, striving is a moral obligation. Achievement, not class, is the standard by which men are judged. There is little or no glory attached to being born wealthy or privileged; the real test is how far you climb from where you started.
既然没有阶级限制、世袭职业或教育来阻碍孩子的发展，所以从理论上说，他所能取得的成就也没有限制。如果他说：“哦，我已经做到了。从现在起我要做的就是继续保持，”这样的话毫无意义。因为，理论上，任何孩子都可以做总统，奋斗是一种道德上的义务。评价人的标准是成功而不是阶级。不论出身豪门还是出身显赫，都没有什么可炫耀的；真正的考验就是：从你的起点你能爬多高。
Americans love work. It is meat and drink to them. In recent years they have learned how to play, but they make work of that too. If it's skiing, they throw themselves at it with an effort that would kill a horse. If it's a vacation, they travel five or six hundred miles a day, take in the sights at sixty miles an hour, pause only long enough to snap pictures, and then discover what it was they went to see when they get home and look at the photographs.
美国人热爱工作。工作就是他们的命根子。近年来他们已经学会玩，但是将玩也当成了工作。要是去滑雪， 他们就在雪地上猛冲，那样子连马都会累死。如果去度假，他们就每天开车五六百公里，以每小时60英里的速度观光，沿途只停下来拍些快照。然后 ，发现了自己要看的东西是怎么一回事，就打道回府，回去看照片。
Until very recently there has always been a great deal of work to do in this country, a great deal that needed doing. At the beginning men of all sorts and conditions had to pitch in. The preacher had to fell trees and plough fields. The teacher, the doctor and the magistrate had to shoulder guns for the common defense. The farmer made his own tools, harness, household equipment. He was blacksmith, carpenter, tinsmith, brewer and veterinary all rolled into one, as his wife was spinster, weaver and doctor.
直到最近，这个国家还总是有许多事要做，还有许多事情必须要做。以前不管什么人都工作得很辛苦。传教士要伐树、犁田。教师、医生 ，还有地方法官得扛着当民兵。农场主自己动手做工具、马鞍和家用器具。他集铁匠、木匠、白铁匠、啤酒酿造者和兽医于一身。他的妻子既是纺纱工、织布工，又是医生。
Americans still like to be handy at all things. College professors go in for making furniture or remodeling an old house in the country. Bankers don aprons and become expert barbecue chefs. Nearly everyone knows how to use tools, make simple repairs to plumbing or electrical fixtures, refinish furniture or paint a wall. Far from being thought a disgrace if he performs these "menial" tasks, a man is thought ridiculous if he does not know how to perform them.
美国人仍然喜欢什么都学着做。大学教授喜欢做家具或是改造乡下的老房子。 银行家穿上围裙，就成了专业的烧烤厨师。几乎每一个人都懂得使用工具，懂得简单的下水道或电力装置的修理，还会修家具，刷墙。做这些“粗活”绝不会让人认为不体面，不会做才是让人觉得不可思议呢。
Along with this urge to be jack-of-all-trades goes a willingness to change from one occupation to another. It surprises no one in America when the banker's son becomes a farmer or vice versa. Or when a college professor shifts into industry, or a young man who starts out with a truck purchased on credit ends up running an enterprise with fleets of trucks spanning several states. President Truman was a farmer, an operator of a haberdashery and an army officer before he turned to law and politics. James Bryant Conant, first a chemist, then President of Harvard University, resigned this highest post in the academic world to become High Commissioner and then Ambassador to Germany.
与这种成为万事通愿望并存的是变换职业的愿望。在美国，不管是银行家的儿子当了农场主还是农场主的儿子做了银行家，都不会让人吃惊。更不用说大学教授转行干上了实业。 一个年轻人靠一辆贷款买来的卡车起家，后来当上了公司的老板，拥有卡车车队，行驶在好几个州。杜鲁门总统经营过农场，开过男装店，当过陆军军官，后来才转学法律和政治。詹姆斯·布莱恩特·克兰特原先是化学家，后来担任哈佛大学的校长，辞去了这个学术界的最高职位后担任了高级公共事务官员，后被任命为驻德大使。
"For a European," writes Andre Maurois, "life is a career; for an American, it is a succession of hazards."
安德鲁·莫里斯写道“对于欧洲人来说，生活是生命的历程，而对于美国人，生活就是一个接一个的危险。”
A single individual can be at once an intellectual, a Boy Scout leader, a business man, a sportsman, a dabbler in music or painting, a nature-lover, and one who does many of his own household chores. An employer, he may go hunting with his own or someone else's employees. A shopkeeper, he may run for local office and be on familiar terms with professional men and government officials. He will live on several levels which in other countries might be separated by class distinctions.
一个人可以同时是知识分子，童子军首领，商人，运动健将，音乐绘画的爱好者，热爱大自然的人，做大部分家务的人。当老板的也许会和自己的或别人的雇员一起打猎。经营商店的可能会竞选当地的政府职位， 熟悉专业人士和政府官员。他可以同时位于别的国家也许会用等级的概念来划分的不同社会阶层。
The emphasis on success and achievement, coupled as it is with a desire to be loved and admired, leads to a critical dilemma of personality. To succeed one must be aggressive; to be liked, one must be easy-going and friendly.
强调成功和成就，再加上要得到爱和赞赏的强烈愿望，会导致个性发展的两难境地：要成功，人就必须好斗；要别人喜欢自己，人就得宽容、友好。
One way out of the difficulty is to acquire groups of friends － lodge brothers, members of the same church, a veteran's organization － towards whom you are pledged in friendship. Having thus acquired assured friends, you can practice your aggression on those who don't belong. This pattern explains to some extent the suspicion or hostility towards those of other races or religions.
走出困境的一个办法就是有成的朋友---会社支部的会员，堂的成员，退伍军人组织---他们一定会给你友谊。有了这些可以信赖的朋友，你就可以对那些不在朋友之列的人表现出你的攻击力。这种模式也或多或少地解释了 ，为什么会对其他的种族或教会的人持怀疑敌视的态度。
Materialism 物质享乐主义
The men and women who staked everything on America were for the most part poor. They struggled hard, went without, and saved in order to build up a business or buy a farm of their own. The freedom to own rather than the freedom to vote was the magnet that drew the majority of them across oceans. Naturally enough they put a high value upon the land or the business they acquired through their own efforts.
把赌注都押在美国的男男女女绝大多数是穷人。他们努力挣扎，忍气吞声，努力存钱，目的就是做点买卖，买个属于自己的农场。像磁铁一般吸引着他们大多数人远涉重洋的，是拥有财产的自由而不是投票的自由。所以他们很看重靠自己的努力得来的土地和做的买卖。
In contrast with this natural acquisitiveness of the new arrivals, the American attitude toward money is quite different. As the German psychologist Hugo Munsterberg observed, the American "prizes the gold he gets primarily as an indication of It is, therefore, fundamentally false to stigmatize the American as a materialist, and to deny The American merchant works for money in exactly the sense that a great painter works for money －" as a mark of appreciation for his work.
和初来者自然的获取思想相比，美国人对钱的态度是很不一样的。就象德国心理学家休格·爱斯特伯格所指出的，美国人“很看重他挖到的金子 ，主要是因为金子是他的能力的体现……因此把美国人定义为物质享乐主义者而否认他的理想主义，从根本上就是错误的……美国的商人为钱工作，伟大的画家为钱绘画， 意义是完全一样的——”，都是是对自己的工作欣赏的标志。
The acquisition of money is important as the clearest proof of success, though there are other acceptable proofs － prominence, public notice, good works, fame. But the retention of money is not important at all. Indeed, it may be frowned upon if it keeps the owner from living well, subscribing generously to a long list of charities, and providing for members of the family who may have been less fortunate.
获得金钱是重要的，因为钱最能证明成功。当然还有人们可以接受的其他的证明---卓越，公众瞩目， 工作优秀，名声，等等。 但是存钱并不重要。事实上，钱的主人留着钱，不过好日子，不慷慨地捐款给大串的慈善机构，不接济家里没钱的人，人们也会不喜欢。
So the materialism that strikes a visitor to America is not that of loving and hoarding wealth; it is a love of making and consuming wealth. It is probably a middle-class rather than a distinctively American phenomenon, for most Americans are middle-class.
所以，到美国的人感到震惊的不是物质享乐主义的爱财和守财，而是美国人的既喜欢赚钱又喜欢花钱。这可能不是美国人特有的性格，而是中产阶级才有的现象，因为大多数美国人都是中产阶级。
America has been blessed with a rich supply of raw materials. It learned during the depression that even a rich country can become impoverished if it fails to use its wealth to benefit the majority. And it does not propose to make that error again. A sizable portion of what it produces goes overseas, including agricultural and industrial machinery sent with the hope that standards of production and consumption can be raised in other parts of the world too.
上天赋予美国丰富的自然资源。但在大萧条时期美国人懂得了，如果一个国家不把财富造福社会，再富有也会遭受贫困。它再也不会重蹈覆辙。美国生产的产品相当一部分到了国外，其中有工农业用的机械设备，就是希望世界其他地方的生产水平和消费水平能得到提高。
There is no denying the fact that the high level of production does lead to a high level of material comfort, and that Americans are mighty fond of having things that are new, shine, softly padded, conveniently arranged, efficient, and so far as may be, effortless. The bread comes already sliced so that the housewife need not exert herself to slice it. It used to be that when she put the bread in the toaster, she had to turn it once to toast both sides. Then came the toaster which did both sides at once, then the toaster which popped the toast out when it was done, so that she did not have to turn a handle to raise it. Soon, no doubt, there will be a toaster which butters the toast, cuts it in quarters, and puts it on a plate. Perhaps there is one even now.
无法否认这样一个事实：高水平的生产一定会带来高水平的物质享受，所以美国人非常喜欢把东西做得新颖、光亮，有柔软的衬垫，使用 起来方便，这样就可以不费气力。买回来的面包已经切好片，主妇就省得再切。 以前她把面包放进烤面包机，还要翻转一次面包，才能烤另一面。于是就有了可以同时烤两面的烤面包机，烤完了还会把烤的面包送出来。所以她不必转手柄就能拿到烤面包。过不久，肯定会有更新的烤面包机，可以把烤面包涂上黄油，切成四分之一块，然后放到盘子上。说不定现在就已经有这样的烤面包机了。
Food comes ready-cooked and frozen, vegetables already washed. Floor wax must be self-polishing, pens write for years without having to be filled. Storm windows change to summer screens at a touch. Heat is thoroughly automatic, and air conditioning keeps the house equally comfortable in summer. Automation now promises to put a final end to all drudgery, even to building in the controls which will keep the machines from making mistakes.
食物买的时候是煮熟的、冰冻的，蔬菜是已经洗干净的。地板蜡肯定是自动上光的，钢笔写上几年都不用上墨水。轻轻一按，防暴风雪的窗子就变成了夏天的屏幕。暖气是自动的，冷气使房子即使在夏天也一样舒适。自动化现在可以让人再也不用做单调乏味的工作，自动装置用在控制器中，机器再也不会出错。
Why is it that, having created a world in which he could live without raising a hand or taking a step, the American habitually seeks ways of letting off steam? His towns are full of bowling alleys, golf clubs, tennis courts, clubs, lodges, churches and associations into which he pours energy both physical and mental. The labor-saving gadgets, the love of comfort turn out to be ways of saving his time and energy for something else.
美国人创造了一个不用举手投足就能过得舒舒服服的世界，为什么还是习惯于用各种方式放松自己呢？他们住的地方到处都是保龄球馆，高尔夫俱乐部，网球场，俱乐部，房子，教堂，以及各种可以让他们全身心投入的协会。他们制造省时省力的小器具，喜欢舒适，就是为了节约时间和精力做其他的事情。
(2476 words) | The Influence of the Frontier 边疆的影响
The special quality of American culture arises from what the American land and climate did to men who brought with them the glories and the burdens of European culture. Released from the feudal restraints which still clung to ownership even in the seventeenth century, they were driven by long hunger to possess land of their own. The hazards of settling that land － taking it from the Indian by treaty or battle, struggling through trackless forests to find it, hewing out homes and raising crops with nothing but a few simple tools, dying sometimes in battle or from weather or hunger － these hazards quickly changed into Americans the Europeans who survived. It was struggle that shaped the American spirit.
美国文化的特殊性质来自美国的土地和气候对人的影响，而这些人带到美国的，既有欧洲文化辉煌 的一面和也有其落后的一面。从十七世纪封建所有制桎梏中解脱出来后，他们渴望拥有自己的土地。他们要得到那片梦想的土地就要冒各种各样的风险--通过协商或战斗的方式从印地安人那里得到土地；或者跋涉人迹罕至的森林到土地；用简陋的工具砍树盖房开荒种地；有时会死在战斗中，有时死于天灾或饥饿---这些危险很快地把活下来的欧洲人改变成美国人。正是努力拚搏造就了美国精神。
The frontier experience, so strong in its impact, so harsh a teacher, brought new traits to the fore. The hard conditions of the daily life made for crudeness in manners. The competition for favorable land (or later for gold), the need to kill in order to stay alive, the absence of law and order made men touch, brutal sometimes, and quick to resort to brute strength. This violence has continued in such aspects of our life as gangsterism, race riots, corrupt politics, union racketeering and the violent political attack.
边疆的经验影响很大，象一位非常严厉的教师，突出了一些新的特点。日常生活的艰苦使人的态度也粗鲁起来。而他们为了一块好土地争得你死我活（后来争的是金子），必须杀人才能活下来，没有法律和秩序 ，人变得粗暴残忍，动不动就使用暴力。这种暴力还继续存在于我们生活中的各个方面，比如盗匪、种族骚乱、政治腐败、有组织的 、暴力性政治攻击。
Hard as the life was, it also offered great riches, sometimes for a small return. Hence the "get rich quick" philosophy － the belief that hard work and a little luck would turn all things into gold. Traders got rich furs from the Indians for mere trinkets. Out of the earth came gold, silver, oil －other than the shower of gold Zeus rained down upon Danae. Then came the robber barons to make vast fortunes by manipulating railroads, and finally the gambling in stocks which affected everyone until the Wall Street collapse in 1929.
尽管生活曾如此艰难，还是提供了大量的财富，有时只要付出很少的代价。于是有了“快速致富”的人生哲学---相信努力工作加上一点点运气就能把一切都变成金子。做买卖的人用廉价的小首饰从印地安人那儿买到了值钱的毛皮。地里可以挖出金子，银子，石油---而不是宙斯在达那厄下的金雨。抢劫头目靠着操纵铁路发了横财，再有就是在股票上的赌博，影响了所有的人，直到1929年华尔街股市崩溃。
But the frontier fostered positive traits too. It encouraged energetic activity and dignified labor with the hands. It made of the independent, self-reliant farmer a symbol which still influences our national life. It produced a resourceful, inquisitive, practical-minded type, able to turn his hand to any sort of work, preferring to govern himself in small, easily adaptable to a new environment, relatively free of class distinctions, full of optimism and faith in the country which had rewarded him so well.
但是边疆也培养了好的品质。它鼓励积极行动，尊重用双手劳动。它使独立自主、自力更生的农场主成为一个象征，至今仍影响着我们国家的生活。它造就了随机应变、爱钻研、想法实际的性格，能做任何工作，喜欢从小事做起，容易适应新的环境，相对不受阶级划分的影响，对让他得到好的回报的国家充满乐观主义和信心。
All these traits live on, one way or another, in the contemporary American. The frontier has not disappeared with the spanning of the continent, or the end of homesteading. As a matter of fact, the government still has lands for homesteading which it disposes of at the rate of forty thousand to fifty thousand acres a year. More important, the pioneer spirit is deeply embedded in the American's concept of himself.
所有这些品质还以这样或那样的形式存在于当代美国人身上。边疆没有随着大陆的联合或自耕农场的消失而消失。实际上，政府仍有土地用于自耕农场，每年大约卖掉四五万英亩。更为重要的是，开拓精神已经深深地根植于美国人的自我概念中。
The American Creed 美国人的信条
What then are the ideas or beliefs that shape American character?
那么是什么样的思想或信念塑造了美国人的性格呢？
Says George Satayana: "This national faith and morality are vague in idea, but inexorable in spirit; they are the gospel of work and the belief in progress."
乔治·沙塔亚纳说：“民族的信仰和道德在观念上是含糊的，但在精神上有不可阻挡的力量；它们是工作的原则，是对进步的信念。”
Clyde Kluckhohn finds implicit in the American creed a faith in the rational, a need for moralistic rationalization, an optimistic conviction that rational effort counts, faith in the individual and his rights, the cult of the common man (not only as to his rights, but as to his massed political wisdom), the high valuation put on change and progress, and on pleasure consciously pursued as a good.
克莱德·克鲁克恩认为，美国人的信条中含有坚信理性，对道德合理化的需要，对理 性的努力重要这一点抱乐观态度和深信不疑，坚信个人及其权利，崇拜普通人（不仅崇拜他的权利，也崇拜他积累的政治智慧），高度评价改革和进步，有意识地把善作为一种快乐来追求。
Equally strong is the American's faith in his institutions. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution lay down the fundamental principles of self-government with such clarity and finality that we are prone to regard them as an American invention, or at any rate as principles and rights which are peculiarly ours. These hallowed documents provide us with basic principles which, thanks to their deistic background, are presented as coeval with creation and incapable of being questioned or upset. Therefore we do not have to agonize over basic principles; they are given us, once for all.
同样，美国人笃信自己的制度。《独立宣言》和《宪法》用明确和结论式的语言记载下自治政府的基本原则，所以我们就很容易把它们当成是美国人的发明，至少是 看成我们独有的原则和权利。这些被视为神圣的文献能给我们提供基本的原则，由于它们的自然神论的背景，所以人们认为它们和创造性处于同一时代，不会受到质疑，也不会被推翻。因此我们无需为基本原则感到痛苦；这些原则 被赐给我们，能伴我们到永远。
The lack of reflectiveness which observers find in us arises partly from this conviction that our goals are set and do not need to be debated; we have only to work hard in order to reach them. To create, to build － to clear a new field, sink a new mine, start a new civic organization, develop a new business － this is what Americans admire. This is what they dream of. Like all creators, they are suspicious of critics.
观察者们发现，我们缺乏思考，而这部分原因是认为我们的目标是既定的，无须再讨论；我们只要努力达到目标即可。创造，建设---开辟一个新领域，挖掘新矿，建立新的市民组织，发展一项新的事业---这才是美国人崇拜的。也是他们梦寐以求的。与所有的创造者一样，他们不信任批评家。
For this reason, and because they are active participants rather than passive observers, they feel obliged to defend the country against any outside censures, no matter how bitterly they attack its shortcomings themselves. De Tocqueville, much as he admired the United States, found this patriotism irritating. If you stop praising them, he complains, the Americans fall to praising themselves. What he observed, of course, was part of the love and be loved pattern which in spite of its naivete has obvious advantages over the hate and be hated regimen which has determined so much of human history.
基于这个原因，也因为他们是积极的参与者而不是消极的观察家，他们觉得有义务使国家不受外界责难，尽管他们自己抨击起国家毫不留情。德托奎叶尔虽然十分崇拜美国，但觉得美国人的爱国主义让人难以忍受。他抱怨说 ，如果你停止对他们的赞美，美国人就会自己夸自己。他所看到的当然就是爱与被爱模式的部分表现，虽然这个模式缺乏智慧，但比对人类历史产生重大影响的恨与被恨的制度有显而易见的长处。
Humor 幽默
The sense of humor is often the most revealing aspect of a culture. Surely humor has never been valued more highly in any civilization than in this one. Will Rogers is venerated as a national hero for his pungent, earthy comment on the American scene － for his gift of making Americans see what is ridiculous in themselves. Mark Twain, in many ways our most representative writer, is admired not so much because of his skill at picturing American life as for his humor. It is part of the optimism of our outlook that we prefer comedy to tragedy, and that the funny men get top billing and top salaries on television.
幽默感常常最能体现一种文化真正的一面。无疑，幽默从来没有象在美国文化中这样重要。维尔·罗杰斯被尊为民族英雄就是因为他以幽默的方式对美国社会生活尖锐而且朴实的批评---因为他的天才幽默让美国人看到了自己的荒唐可笑之处。马克·吐温，从各个方面来说都是最能代表美国的作家，人们钦佩他善于描绘美国人生活的技巧，但更佩服他的幽默。我们喜欢喜剧甚于悲剧，搞笑演员上演节目最多，在电视台的工资最高，这能部分地说明我们的乐观的处世态度。
Humor is the great reliever of tension, the counterbalance to the dash and roar of our fastpaced industrialized life with its whirring machines, traffic snarls and frayed tempers. Humor shows these very things to us in such a way that we can laugh about them.
幽默能很好地消除紧张，调节我们繁忙的工业化生活的快节奏。这种工业化的生活中 ，机器飞转，车辆轰鸣，人心浮躁。幽默让我们以笑的方式看待生活中这些不开心的事。
Nothing is too sacred for the comic transformation; in fact, the more sacred the topic, the stronger the impact. Jokes about the minister are legion. Says the parishioner to the minister who explains that while shaving he was thinking about his sermon and cut his chin: "You should have been thinking about you chin and cut the sermon."
没有什么东西过于神圣，因而不能改编成喜剧；实际上，越是神圣的话题，给人的影响也越大。关于牧师的笑话数不胜数。牧师说刮胡子的时候他想着布道所以划破了下巴，于是教区的居民说：“你应该想着自己的下巴，划掉布道辞。”
That tensions exist in the home life, however, the humorist loves to point out. No joke has the changes rung on it more frequently than that of the woman driver who is usually pictured sitting in the midst of a wrecked car. ("Didn't you see me signal that I'd changed my mind?") Men probably wreck far more cars than women, but it satisfies the male ego to think that women have not yet mastered the machine.
家庭生活中存在的矛盾，幽默者最喜欢指出这些。最违背常理的笑话，是一位女司机坐在一辆撞得一塌糊涂的汽车里。（“难道你没看见我发信号 表示我已经改变主意了吗？”）男人可能撞坏的汽车比女人撞坏得多得多，但是想到女人连车都不会开，就能满足男性的自尊。
The shop which advertised that it would "Oil sewing machines and adjust tension in the home for $1" had already relieved the tension through humor once the unintentional double-entendre was recognized.
商店的广告上写“缝纫机上油，调节家中的紧张气氛，收费一美元”，一旦看出广告中 不经意中造成的双关语，这个商店已经用幽默缓解了紧张。
A popular variant of the dominant female is the mother-in-law. Year after year the jokes about her continue － evidence not so much of any serious tension as of the Freudian implications －projection of marital friction onto an associated but less immediate object, seeing in the wife's mother the inevitable approach of the mate's old age and hence one's own.
悍妇的一种流行变体是丈母娘。年复一年，关于她的笑话层出不穷——与其说是证明有什么矛盾，不如说是证明弗洛伊德的观点——婚姻矛盾在相关的但不那么直接的对象上的反映，在妻子的母亲身上看到了配偶以及自身老年的到来的不可避免。
Humor reveals our attitude toward children － our love of their innocently wise comments on life, our delight in the evidences they give of being fully formed individuals with rights and spunk of their own, even to the point of talking back to their parents. (Says the little girl at the table, urged by her mother to eat up her broccol: "I say it's spinach, and I say the hell with it.")
幽默显示我们对孩子的态度——我们喜欢他们对生活天真睿智的评价，我们喜欢他们是全面发展的个体，有自己的权利意识和勇气，甚至能反驳自己的父母。（小女孩坐在饭桌边，妈妈强迫她吃完花椰菜，她说：“我说它是菠菜，我恨死它了。”）
Can psychiatry help to overcome the frustrations of life? "There's nothing wrong with the average person that a good psychiatrist can't exaggerate," said the comedian, thus confirming our suspicions and making it a little easier for us to put up with ourselves.
精神疗法能有助于克服生活中不称心的事吗？“普通人的一点点小问题到了负责任的精神病医生那里，就被夸大。”滑稽演员说的话证实了我们的怀疑，使我们宽容自己容易了一些。
The thirst for humor drives advertisers to resort to it, in the hope of catching an audience long since jaded by all the other appeals. "You die － we do the rest," an undertaker advertises. What welcome relief from the usual unctuousness of his kind!
人们渴望幽默，促使广告商利用这一点，以期长时间吸引观众，而对其他广告都不感兴趣。“你——剩下的交给我们”，是殡仪馆的广告。平常这类广告虚情假意，现在多么受人欢迎，令人轻松！
American humor, in short, confirms the importance of mating and the family, the high status of women and children, the pace and tension of life, and above all the love of humor itself as an approach to life more to be prized than riches, a gift to be cherished and applauded. The minister uses it in his sermons, the doctor in his healing, the lawyer in his pleading, the teacher in his teaching. About the worst thing we can say of a man is that he has no sense of humor. For humor is regarded as an essential part of "the American way."
总之，美国人的幽默强调婚姻和家庭的重要性，妇女儿童的地位，生活的节奏和紧张，并且首要的是强调热爱幽默本身，将其看成一种生活态度，比财富更珍贵；看成一种天赋，值得珍视和为之喝彩。牧师布道，医生治病，律师辩护，教师讲课，都离不开幽默。我们对一个人最差的评语，就是他没有幽默感。因为幽默被认为“美国方式”最重要的方面。
It helps to equalize, and we believe in equality. It is often a symbol of freedom, for it permits the common man to speak freely of his leaders; it helps him cut them down to size. It deflates stuffed shirts. It allows us to look at ourselves in perspective, for when we laugh at ourselves we have surmounted our shortcomings. And in a land where new contacts are always being made, humor provides a quickly available emotional unity － not subtle or regional but universal, one which lets us feel immediately at home anywhere. It is the grammar of confidence, the rhetoric of optimism, the music of brotherhood.
幽默可以让大家平等，而我们相信平等。幽默常常是自由的象征，因为它可以使老百姓无所顾忌 地跟领导说话；幽默使他能把领导降低到与自己平等的地位。幽默让自命不凡的人无地自容。幽默让我们能透视自己，因为自嘲就是克服自己的缺点。我们总是要和新人打交道，幽默就提供了快速有效的情感上的和谐——不是微妙的，也不是地域性的，而是普遍的，让我们很快在任何地方都无拘无束。幽默是自信的法则，是乐观主义的修辞，是友谊的音乐。
What is an American? 美国人是什么？
"I can't make you out," Henry James has Mrs. Tristram say to the American, "whether you are very simple or very deep." This is a dilemma which has often confronted Europeans. Usually they conclude that Americans are childish. But one cannot accurately call one society mature, another immature. Each has its own logic.
亨利·詹姆斯让特里斯瑞姆太太对美国人说，“我真搞不懂你，是太幼稚还是太深沉。”这是欧洲人经常碰到的难题。通常他们的结论就是美国人很孩子气。可是没人能说准确地说一个社会成熟，另一个社会不成熟。每一个社会都有自己的逻辑。
What is it then that makes Americans recognizable wherever they go? It is not, we hope, the noisy, boasting, critical, money-scattering impression made by one class of tourists. The only thing to be said in their defense is that, released from the social restraints which would make them act very differently at home, they are bent on making the most of this freedom.
那么是什么东西使得美国人无论走到哪里都能被人认出来呢？我们希望，不是一种美国游客给人留下的印象，吵吵嚷嚷，自吹自擂，挑三 拈四，挥金如土。唯一可以为他们开脱的说法是：一旦脱离了使他们在国内以非常不同的方式行事的种种社会约束，他们就下定决心充分享受这种自由。
Americans carry with them an appearance which is more a result of attitude than of clothing. This attitude combines a lack of class consciousness, a somewhat jaunty optimism and an inquisitiveness which in combination look to the European like naivete. Also a liking for facts and figures, an alertness more muscular and ocular than intellectual, and above all a desire to be friendly. (Let us, for the moment, leave out of the picture such stigmata as gum chewing, too much smoking, and an urge to compare everything with Kansas City or Keokuk.)
美国人有一种外观，与其说是衣着的结果，不如说是态度的结果。这种态度中，有对阶级的不屑，有洋洋得意的乐观主义，还有一种求知欲，加在一起就被欧洲人认为是幼稚浅薄的人。还有，他们喜欢用事实和数字说话，虽然身手敏捷，但头脑相对迟钝，最重要的是他们喜欢结交朋友。（让我们暂时不去想他们嚼口香糖，抽香烟太多的样子，还有他们总是把每一样东西都和美国的堪萨斯城比一比的欲望。）
To boil it down to the briefest summary, American characteristics are the product of response to an unusually competitive situation combined with unusual opportunity.
归根结底，最简洁地说，美国人的性格，就是对具有非常机遇的非常竞争环境作出反应的结果。
Americans are a peculiar people. They work like mad, then give away much of what they earn. They play until they are exhausted, and call this a vacation. They live to think of themselves as tough-minded business men, yet they are push-overs for any hard luck story. They have the biggest of nearly everything including government, motor cars and debts, yet they are afraid of bigness. They are always trying to chip away at big government, big business, big unions, big influence. They like to think of themselves as little people, average men, and they would like to cut everything down to their own size. Yet they boast of their tall buildings, high mountains, long rivers, big state, the best country, the best world, the best heaven. They also have the most traffic deaths, the most waste, the most racketeering.
美国人是一个与众不同的民族。他们拼命地工作，然后花掉了大量辛苦赚来的钱。他们玩得筋疲力尽，并称之为度假。他们向来把自己想成硬心肠的商人，可是任何不幸的故事都会使他们受骗。几乎所有最大的东西他们都有 ：政府，汽车和债务，可他们害怕庞大。所以他们总是要想办法除去大的政府，大的买卖，大的团体，大的影响力。他们愿意把自己看成是小人物，平平常常的人，喜欢一切都是平等的。他们吹嘘自己的高楼大厦，高山，大河，吹嘘自己是大国，是最好的国家，是最好的世界，最好的天堂。 同时，他们的车祸最多，浪费最多，骗子也最多。
When they meet, they are always telling each other, "Take it easy," then they rush off like crazy in opposite directions. They play games as if they were fighting a war, and fight wars as if playing a game. They marry more, go broke more often, and make more money than any other people. They love children, animals, gadgets, mother, work, excitement, noise, nature, television shows, comedy, installment buying, fast motion, spectator sports, the underdog, the flag, Christmas, jazz, shapely women and muscular men, classical recordings, crowds, comics, cigarettes, warm houses in winter and cool ones in summer, thick beefsteaks, coffee, ice cream, informal dress, plenty of running water, do-it-yourself, and a working week trimmed to forty hours or less.
美国人一见面就对彼此说：“放轻松点，”然后就向相反的方向狂奔。他们做游戏象打仗一样，打起仗来象做游戏。跟任何人相比，他们结婚次数更多，离婚的频率更高，赚的钱更多。他们爱孩子，爱动物，爱小玩艺，爱母亲，爱工作，爱激动，爱吵吵嚷嚷，爱大自然，爱看电视节目，爱看喜剧，买东西喜欢分期付款，喜欢快节奏，爱买票看体育比赛，同情弱者，热爱国旗，爱过圣诞节，听爵士乐，爱看身材好的女子和肌肉发达的男人，爱收藏经典唱片，爱凑热闹，看连环画，抽烟，喜欢房子冬暖夏凉，爱吃切得厚厚的牛排，爱喝咖啡，吃冰淇淋，穿着随便，喜欢自来水一直淌着，一切自己动手，一周工作时间限制在40小时以内。
They crowd their highways with cars while complaining about the traffic, flock to movies and television while griping about the quality and the commercials, go to church but don't care much for sermons, and drink too much in the hope of relaxing － only to find themselves stimulated to even bigger dreams.
他们一边抱怨交通拥挤，一边把车都挤到高速公路上；一边抱怨影视质量不好，商业化气息太浓，却成结队地去看电影电视；常去教堂却不大关心布道，酒喝得太多， 为的是要放松——结果却发现酒精使他们更想入非非。
There is of course, no typical American. But if you added them all together and then divided by 226 000 000 they would look something like what this chapter has tried to portray.
当然没有典型的美国人。但是如果你把他们加在一起，然后用226 000 000来除，他们的样子就象这一章要描述的。
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