One of the most salient themes Quindlen explores is how to define patriotism and national identity—or rather, what these concepts actually mean in the American context. The essay proposes her own criteria for national pride and patriotism.

In his seminal and oft-cited book on the subject, Imagined Communities, Benedict Anderson defines the nation as “imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion” (Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Verso, 1991). This concept of belonging to a nation emerged with and through a common language and discourse that itself resulted from the 15th-century proliferation of the printing press. Anderson employs the term “imagined” not to mean that the nation does not exist but to argue that it exists because of its members reading the same texts and inhabiting a shared mental landscape. More recently, the media and national news have come to occupy the role of “texts,” shaping a common perception of the nation.

Thus, despite their seemingly infinite differences, Americans ostensibly perceive themselves as part of a common group.