Hetalia Analysis – America and Canada’s Relationship
The relationship between America and Canada is something that I love about Hetalia, however, I think that it’s often misinterpreted in fandom so I’ve decided to write a more detailed post about it.
Note: This is just my interpretation. I’ll try to show what I’ve gathered from the canon material, however, other people could’ve come to different conclusions, I’m not trying to claim that my view is the only valid one. I’m just trying to explain why I see the dynamic in this light.
A misconception I see running around is that America and Canada hate each other. This couldn’t be further from the truth, as they actually spend a lot of time together (in fact, I’d dare to say that America is the nation Canada interacts with the most) behaving like the two dorky brothers they are.
Source: Hetalia World ☆ Stars – Chapter 272
This isn’t only something recent, either – from other panels, it’s implied that, in spite of a somehow rocky start, they used to spend a lot of time together as children, as well.
Source: Hetalia World ☆ Stars – Chapter 180
This doesn’t mean that their relationship is idyllic, however. The reason so many people seem to believe that America and Canada can’t stand each other (in particular on Canada’s side), sometimes going as far as saying that Canada is a bully, is because America and Canada have been shown having two extremely heated arguments. This is true – however, I think that it would be important to analyse the context and the dynamics of these arguments.
A big clash happens right after the Revolutionary War. America goes to Canada’s house, asking to see England, and the two end up arguing when Canada refuses to grant his wish.
Source: Hetalia World ☆ Stars – Chapter 197
Now, I think that it’s extremely important to contextualize this scene. Canada may look cruel and selfish in his refusal to let America see England – America surely reads it this way.
Canada, however, isn’t being selfish at all, he’s simply trying to protect England – who, in the previous chapter, collapsed when Canada pretended to be America to cheer him up [x]. With that experience fresh in his mind, Canada knows that England isn’t in any condition to see America, and the fact that America keeps insisting angers him. There’s one thing to consider, though – Canada never explicitly states the reason he doesn’t want America to see England, the discussion immediately takes a turn for the worse.
If we have a look at this conversation, we can see that it clearly outlines how America and Canada have two completely different – almost opposite – mentalities, and the failure to communicate properly and understand each other’s point of view leads them to clash.
America is self-centred: he means well, but he starts by considering his own needs above everything else and communicates them very clearly. In this case, America’s wish to see England isn’t dictated by a concern for him, but by America’s desire to calm his own internal turmoil.
This is where he clashes with Canada: unlike America, Canada is extremely selfless and places other people’s needs before his own – in this instance, his main concern goes to England, who is sick. Canada is angered by America’s boldness because he expects his brother to do the same, to put England’s needs (not seeing America) before his own. In his mentality, America’s actions frame him as selfish, and so does the fact that he doesn’t give any thought to Canada himself, he just wants to accomplish his goal to feel better himself.
The following argument once again shows quite clearly how America and Canada have extremely different personalities. Canada has troubles expressing his own ideas because he’s mindful of other people’s feelings, so he tends to go with what they want to make them happy – however, America doesn’t understand it and simply sees Canada as weak-willed because of this.
In the end, what happens here is that both Canada and America fail to communicate properly because they assume the other to automatically see things from their point of view, but he doesn’t. They’re simply too different for that.
In more recent times, Canada seems to be actually aware of this:
Source: Hetalia World ☆ Stars – Chapter 178
In the same panel, however, he also states that he and America are extremely close, not only brothers but also best friends. It goes without saying that he doesn’t hate America in the slightest – he’s merely annoyed by America’s too forceful and domineering attitude.
Source: Hetalia World ☆ Stars – Chapter 207
In spite of this, Canada clearly cares a lot for America and enjoys his company. During the Revolutionary War, Canada sides with England, but he’s saddened by the fact that he has to fight America.
Source: Hetalia World ☆ Stars – Chapter 181
Another important thing to point out is that Canada doesn’t completely consider America in a negative light, as evidenced by the fact that he trusts him enough to ask for advice when he needs to.
Source: Fly, Mr. Canada, fly! (hetarchive.net)
(On his part, America’s immediate willingness to help clearly states that he cares for Canada, too.)
Even more, in spite of the occasional outbursts, Canada has a high consideration of America, to the point that he believes to be inferior to him.
Source: Hetalia World ☆ Stars – Chapter 178
Now, Canada generally has an extremely low self-esteem and it doesn’t come out only in relation to America [x], however, I think that this influences a lot the way they interact with each other.
The rift starts forming when America grows up faster than Canada.
Source: Hetalia World ☆ Stars – Chapter 180
What’s peculiar here is that, while America certainly has no ill intentions, due to his low self-esteem Canada perceives their difference (and the way America dismisses him) as a proof of his inferiority against America.
(An interesting note on this is that Canada actually grows up only a couple of years after America since he was shown as a young teen during the Revolutionary War. He doesn’t grow as old as America, but he still grows out of his toddler age not long after him.)
On his part, America doesn’t hold back from expressing what he thinks of Canada’s views and mark him as too naïve when they don’t line up with his expectations.
Source: Hetalia World ☆ Stars – Chapter 208
Due to his low self-esteem, Canada clearly internalizes this, believing that America doesn’t have a high consideration for him in general. In other instances, he believes the gap between him and America to be so large that he can’t even talk to him face to face.
Source: Hetalia World ☆ Stars – Chapter 182
Because of this, Canada ends up using England as a speaker to make America listen to him. America’s reaction, however, isn’t anything like the one Canada had imagined.
America can’t understand why Canada wouldn’t talk to him, signalling that he thinks of him as an equal.
As I’ve already evidenced, this is a more recent developement. Right after the Revolutionary War, America is still quite immature and believes his attitude to be the only way to obtain independence (or, in broader terms, to obtain anything), so he consideres Canada weaker than him and dismisses his brother’s opinion as too naïve.
In spite of this, America still wants to spend time with Canada, he obviously cares for him.
Source: Hetalia World ☆ Stars – Chapter 200
Things change when America hears the news that Canada has been granted some autonomy in his own way, without fighting against England at all.
Source: Hetalia World ☆ Stars – Chapter 213
At first, America can’t believe it. For once, however, he decides to keep silent instead of ranting against Canada and his unrealistic views.
Source: Hetalia World ☆ Stars – Chapter 214
As Himaruya explicitly states, America is becoming more mature. In particular, I think that this is an important step for him towards realizing that his way is not the only way to accomplish things, and even Canada is quite strong, even if in a completely different way.
Source: Hetalia World ☆ Stars – Chapter 227
In the end, America comes to terms with the fact that Canada has managed to gain his autonomy and starts respecting his approach, for how different it was.
In modern times, America has quite a high consideration of Canada, and he doesn’t seem to realize how deep Canada’s self-esteem issues run.
Source: Hetalia World ☆ Stars – Chapter 177
Now, I don’t think that America is properly jealous of Canada’s personality. Part of America’s maturation was recognizing that different behaviours can both bring results and be right in a different way, and he has evidenced other times the ability to see positive aspects in different approaches [x]. America is a bit jealous of the fact that Canada seems to be liked by so many people, but he doesn’t believe that Canada’s personality is better than his own – he simply recognizes the positive aspects.
Canada, however, doesn’t listen to America’s words. We must not forget that his self-esteem is almost non-existent, and he has internalized so much America’s initial opinion on his different personality that he doesn’t realize it has changed.
This is another small evidence showing that, for how much they might care for each other, America and Canada still have almost opposite personalities and fail to communicate properly – which, once again, brings them to clash.
Source: Fly, Mr. Canada, fly! (hetarchive.net)
I’m sure that everybody is already familiar with this scene – I have personally seen it brought up many times by people claiming that Canada treats America horribly. I would like to point out that this is absolutely not the case.
Looking at the first panel, it can be evidenced that, once again, the argument starts because of America’s and Canada’s completely different views. In particular, Canada gets fed up with America demanding him to do something (his words imply that it’s a recurring occurrence, too), while America is annoyed by Canada’s reaction.
It’s incredible how much this argument mirrors the one I showed at the beginning of the post: once again neither of them understands the other’s intentions. With his low self-esteem and selfless demeanour, Canada doesn’t know how to say ‘no’. Once again, he expects America to realize on his own when he’s demanding too much, but America is just too self-centred and direct for that – in his mind, Canada would be perfectly able to refuse something he doesn’t want to do, and he doesn’t understand why he wouldn’t.
An interesting note is that, while America and Canada start with insulting each other (more precisely, America’s the one who starts with the insults), America quickly runs out of things to say while Canada keeps going on and on until England eventually stops him.
I think that this makes perfect sense. Trying to get closer to America (and probably, being more observant by nature), Canada has gotten to know him extremely well, he takes interest in everything America likes and does.
Source: Hetalia World ☆ Stars – Chapter 179
This is clearly an effort to connect with America on Canada’s part, however, knowing America so well would also make it easier for Canada to hit his weak points.
On the other hand, this isn’t reciprocated by America:
Once again, this isn’t because America doesn’t care about Canada, it’s merely because he’s self-centred. Canada, however, certainly perceives it as America actually not caring for him, which could explain why he dismisses America’s attempts to cheer him up.
Does this mean that America and Canada have a negative relationship, however? Absolutely not. If I focused on the negative sides, it was only because I was trying to explain how their different personalities easily lead to misunderstandings – however, they’re brothers. It’s normal for brothers to have fights, but they don’t care for each other any less. Don’t forget what I stated at the beginning of the post: America and Canada spend a lot of time together and most of it is in amicable terms. Moreover, in spite of the occasional clashes, their relationship has evolved a lot over the years and as both of them matured. In modern days, both of them not only care of each other, but also hold the other one in high consideration. I hope I have been able to explain that properly!
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