The constant learning that occurs in the everyday lives of humans can often be applied to many aspects in life. This proves true in Patricia Limerick's essay, "Haunted America." Inside Limerick's essay she explains how we should learn a great deal from war, how we learn from others and our own mistakes. When thinking about her title, "Haunted America", the first thing that comes to mind is war and people dying. As Limerick says, "We live on haunted land, on land that is layers deep in human passion and memory" (503). This quote says that the people who fought at war and died had great consequences that united our nation and we will remember that. .
Although Americans have often viewed our nation as being free from tradition and on the cutting edge of progress, the past nevertheless shadows our nation and its peoples. Although many wars have taken place with Americans, we some times seem to forget about those who we fought with to gain land. Like the Indians, we still today don't really recognize them for who they are, we just seem to shove them to the side and forget about them. Today in time you never hear about the Indians accomplishments, it seems as if we just take their land over and never talk about them again. From knowing the real facts on war against the natives, it helps us learn not what to do next time. In Limerick's essay she has a twelve point guide to war, that has many important issues at stake. In these patterns it teaches us what not to do next time, but they will always be there and remind us what did happen. For instance, like in any class, such as English we might not do something right the first time, but after a while we catch on and begin to do whats right, we learn from our own mistakes. As Limerick says, "a whole range of people who see each other as alien and who feel that they have no common ground, benefit from the tragic events of conquest" (503).