"The Conscience Of The American Public"

As a popular writer, critic and intellectual in American contemporary, Susan Sontag draws more attention to the academic community at home and abroad. After regularizing plenty of documents, we can find it is new to consider Susan Sontag as a"public intellectual", which can help to study her especially mental characteristics. Susan Sontag, as a knowledgeable and successful writer, is a real intellectual. It is valuable of her to live an active life. She is brave to escape from her egocentrism and the narrow career, in order to write for the people and plead for the people. Naturally, Susan Sontag has become a public intellectual.What Susan Sontag has said and done quietly indicate the qualities of the public intellectual. Firstly, it is her thoughts of independence. She strongly pursues the independence of economic and spirit. The second is her liberal thought. She pursues national freedom, free speech and feminism. The last is her critical spirit. It is a kind of rational criticism, which not only criticizes the intellectuals but her homeland the United States of American. And also the criticism is brave and strong in that she hasn't afraid of the pressure from power and common customs.There are three reasons that Susan Sontag has grown up to a world famous public intellectual. First of all, that closely related the convention of American public intellectual. Next, she has been affected by the social environment. The opened cultural environment gives her good conditions to speech, and Left-wing literature edifies her to write. Moreover, there is a close relationship between her special experiences and her success. Hard life makes her cultivated the saturnine characteristic. And many good teachers and friends give her many kindnesses.