blog 15

While reading “Border Patrol state”, I found myself agreeing and disagreeing with a few things that Silko talked about.  I found myself becoming angry while reading her descriptions of how the Border Patrol was treating her and just assuming that she was participating in illegal actives or how they pulled over an elderly man who had just gotten confused and search him.  I completely agree with her that is a power trip among those who are searching for evil in order to protect the U.S.  People who gain a little bit of power completely abuse in ways that make them seem inhumane.  We need these people to help protect us and keep our country safe, but they should be properly trained and be held accountable for their behavior and not be allowed to do as they please. I began to disagree with Silko as she starts to talk about racism and says that “’Immigration,’ like ‘street crime’ and ‘welfare fraud,’ is a political euphemism that refers to people of color”. I understand that she is frustrated, but colored people are not the only people who experience racism for immigration. Many people who speak with an accent or different language, but are white, are discriminated against. Many times that my brothers and I have been given ugly looks by strangers who overheard us speaking Spanish with a little Hispanic lady, who was our family nanny.  She is from Mexico and speaks some English now, but still struggles with learning the language.  She started working for my family when my older brother was 10 months old and through her we learned to speak Spanish fluently.  When we go out to restaurants at home or out in public many people give us a look of disapproval or do not help us immediately because we are speaking a different language that they are familiar with and are different from their stereotypes.

Blog 14

If I were a soldier in Lieutenant Jimmy Cross’s unit I would carry a variety of different items.  I would carry what was provided to me by the military, like a weapon, helmet, boots, and other battle gear because that is what would give me protection and help me better defend myself against the enemy.   I would also carry everyday necessities like a can opener, lighter, canteens, soap, and toothbrush and toothpaste, and ointments, bandages, and antibacterial medicines because I feel like I would really need these little thing to get by in the jungle, especially with all of the diseases and infections they contracted in the jungle.  I think most importantly though, I would want to carry letter, pictures, and the Bible.  While reading this, I thought of my dad who served in Vietnam and what he would have carried during his time in the war. I also thought of my brothers, who are both enlisted in the military, and what they would carry in the event that they were sent off to war.  And while thinking of them and the rest of my family, I realized that having part of them with me would be more important than an extra lighter or an extra can of peaches.  Their pictures would always be a reminder of what was at home waiting for me and how close we all are as a family.  My mother’s letters would remind me of how she always told us to be strong and never give up.  They would remind me of all the times she told me that saying “I can’t” or “I don’t know” were never acceptable and that you always strive to do your best.  The Bible would remind me that through the good and the bad, the Lord is always with me.  O’Brien said that all of the soldiers “carried themselves with poise, a kind of dignity” (O’Brien 1468) and I think that with the three reminders of my family, the lessons in life that I was taught growing up, and my faith I would be able to do the same.

blog 13

After reading Zitkala-Sa’s writings about her life on the Indian Reservation in South Dakota and her life in the white man’s world, I do not think that this exemplifies a story of the American Dream coming true.  The American Dream is defined as “the ideals of freedom, equality, and opportunity traditionally held to be available to every American and as a life of personal happiness and material comfort as traditionally sought by individuals in the U.S.” on dictionary.reference.com. Zitkala-Sa did not originally have to freedom to do what she wanted.  She was forced to cut her hair and lean the white man’s way in the Whites Manual Institute, but she was eventually able to choose if she wanted to go to college in the white man’s world.  Although she was not originally accepted in this world, she eventually gained the support of her peers and became successful in this world.  Some may see this as fulfilling the American Dream but towards the end of her story she writes “the little taste of victory did not satisfy a hunger in my heart (438)”.  With this statement, Zitkala-Sa is letting readers know that even though she overcame a lot of obstacles in her life and was successful in college career, she did not have personal happiness which is one of the aspects of the American Dream.  She did not have the support of her mother and could not be happy knowing that her mother did not approve of her continuing her education.  I think this statement at the end of her story allows readers to understand that the America n Dream is not only about success and equality, but also about personal accomplishments and happiness, and without satisfying all aspects of the American Dream, there is no success in making this dream come true.

Blog #12

My favorite sentence from “Hawaii`i’s Story by Hawaii`i’s Queen” is the sentence in which she describes the house that her husband took her to after they were married. “It is a large square, white house, with pillars and porticos on all sides, really a palatial dwelling, as comfortable in its appointments as it is inviting in its aspects; its front is distant from the street far enough to avoid the dust and noise.”  This sentence is my favorite because she describes the house in way that allowed me to picture it as if I were actually there. I love plantation homes and as I was reading this I was able to vividly imagine this house and its location.  This is the style of home that I would love to live in with rocking chairs in the front by the pillars and set back on the property so that there is a real sense of privacy.  I did find the way that she described it to be a palatial dwelling a little confusing because I did not know the exact meaning of palatial and thought that most people who read this would find it a bit confusing if they did not know the meaning of this word either. This sentence stuck out the most to me because of the details and the image I was able to make from it.

blog #11

After the civil war, many whites blamed the African Americans for their hardships and many whites sought out lynching to deal with that.  Although many African Americans were innocently killed, many whites felt that it was appropriate to use the newly freed people as a scapegoat for their problems.  As I was reading, I kept thinking about what it would be like to be a slave for so long and finally have my freedom, but not fully be free.  African Americans were tortured for so long as slaves, but even as freed men and women, they still had to suffer through all the prejudice towards them.  I also thought about how frightening it much have been to walk through the streets of what is suppose to be your home, but still have to look over your shoulder because people were out looking for a reason to kill you.  In Claude McKay’s poem “If We Must Die’” he says “Haunted and penned in an inglorious spot, While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs (McKay, stanza 2, 3).”  With these stanzas, McKay allows readers to imagine what it would be like to be cornered by a mad mob of people that are accusing you of a crime and in turn are going to hang you without a fair trial. But McKay also writes, “Though far outnumbered let us show us brave, And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow!” to encourage the African Americans to not fall victims to the mobs of white people.  But instead to be brave and let the whites know that they are not going to be easily defeated. I never really knew the definition of lynching, but after learning its definition and reading the poems of Claude McKay, I can only imagine how the African Americans felt to see their family members innocently killed due to the extreme prejudice and hatred that the white Americans had towards them.

Blog 10

After reading Frances EW Harper’s poem, “Learning to Read” I realized how important learning to read and write was to slaves and to the newly freed African Americans. Throughout the poem, Harper talks about how the southerners hated the thought of African Americans learning to read because it was against their “rule” (Harper, 1) and how unhappy they were with northerners for coming down to the south to teach the newly freed people to read and write.  The poem also tells readers that slave masters tried to keep slaves from learning to read and write, but some slaves, like “Mr. Turner’s Bell, Who heard the children spell, and picked the words right up by heart, and learned to read ‘em well. (Harper, stanza 6), were fortunate enough to find creative ways around the system and acquire the skills needed to read.  This poem really helped me see the importance of reading and writing from a different perspective.  For most slaves and freed African Americans, reading and writing was a luxury and it was a privilege to have to opportunity to be taught these skills.    Today students feel burdened when teachers and professors assign reading assignments from a text book or ask us to write a paper on something we have recently read.  We tend to forget that not everyone has the ability to read and write and not everyone is fortunate enough to attend a school that has the resources to teach students the proper way to read and write.  What seems like a simple, daily task is a struggle for many people around the world today, even in the United States.  This poem really helped me see that my peers and I are truly privileged and that we should not take the ability to read and write for granted.  Instead we should encourage others to continue to read novels and write their own novels or poems, to ensure that the art will not die.

blog #9

After reading the introduction of American Literature from 1865-1914 I noticed a lot of connections from the entertainment people had during this time period to the entertainment people enjoy in today’s culture.  Besides having novels, poetry, and newspapers to read, people were introduced to magazines which “exploded, from 700 during the Civil War to 2400 in 1880 to roughly 3,500 at the turn of the century… (p.26). Today, people still read magazines religiously.  At every grocery store you can find a multitude of magazines ranging from politics to health guides to gossip magazines.  Magazines are even in the hair or beauty salons we go to or in the lobby of the car repair shop.  I found it interesting that some magazines have survived for over 125 years, specifically the magazine Good Housekeeping. The text also describes how people were “attracted by the colorful covers, lavish illustrations, and modest cost of magazines… (p.26)” when they first became popular in the late nineteen hundreds.  Today people are still drawn to purchase magazines due to the catchy titles of the articles on the cover or because of what celebrity is on the cover.  The illustrations in magazines are still a big influence on people buying magazines, but now the photos we see are professionally done by photographers and have most likely been altered to make the person being photographed look their best and their body shape has been “touched up” to make them look a little more tone or thin.  Illustrations in magazines also consist of a wide variety of advertisement and coupons for what is hot and trendy in our current culture, but the original influence is still present.  Although not all magazines are “modestly priced” today, I think the magazine is one of the biggest connections from the reading to our day and time.

Blog #8

After reading, I felt as though Jefferson Davis’ Inaugural Address and President Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address were speaking to each other.  It seems as though President Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address was a response to Jefferson Davis’ Inaugural Address, but he was not agreeing with Davis, but voicing ideas and opinions that were opposite of what Davis has said in his Address a few years earlier.

 In Davis’ Address he talks a lot about the rights that citizens were given in the Declaration of Independence and how the Union states were trying to take away those rights and end the original purpose for which the southern states were created.  Throughout his whole address it seems as though he is blaming the succession of the Southern states on the Union, by saying “We are doubly justified by the absence of wrong on our part, and by a wanton aggression on the parts of others (1360)”, Jefferson is putting confidence in southerners that there is nothing wrong with their way of life and that all the succeeding and revolting is a result of the northerners actions.  I think this speech is appealing to the southerners because Davis himself is a southern and he is defending the culture of the south.  He is defending slavery without actually saying anything about the topic but by talking about the “agricultural pursuits” of the south and that their “…policy is peace (1361)”.

In President Lincolns Address, he talks about the Civil War and the actions of the South that caused the Civil War to begin.  Lincoln states that “Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than it perish (1374)”. Without directly saying the north or the south, Lincoln’s readers or listeners understand that south is the cause of the war in his eyes.  He also says that “It may seem strange that any men should dare ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces (1375)”, with this statement he is calling out the Southerners on greatly benefiting from the slaves hard work while they sit around and do nothing.  This speech probably enraged Northerners more than they already were because they worked hard for what they earned and believed that slavery was wrong and inhumane.  Lincoln’s audience probably agreed with him blaming the act of war on the South and that the South was responsible for the devastation of the Civil War.

I think that both Davis and Lincoln were persuasive and did a good job of persuading their audience in their way of thinking because they both wrote in a way that was appealing to their audiences.  I think that Lincoln may have been more persuasive to an audience that extended into the south because there were some Southerners that felt that slavery was wrong and that it was against the will of God. 

blog #7

After reading Frances E.W. Harpers poem “The Slave Mother” and “Ethiopia” and John Green Whittier “The Hunters of Men” and “The Farewell of a Virginia Slave Mother to Her Daughters Sold into Southern Bondage” I found the element of imagery most appealing to analyze these four poems.  In the poem “The Slave Mother” I thought the images Harper painted for readers really allowed them to feel what stress and sorrows a mother and child went through during slavery.  I think a great example is where Harper writes “She is a mother, pale with fear, Her boy clings to her side, And in her kirtle vainly tried His trembling form to hide. He is not hers. Although she bore, For him a mother’s pains; He is not hers, although her blood Is coursing through his veins! (p.1231)”.   Here readers can see the little boy clinging to his mother and his mothers sorrow that her child is the property of another human and that she has no way to protect him or keep him from danger.  I think this imagery probably pulled on the heart strings of mothers who could never imagine having one of her children taken from her or not being able to protect her own flesh and blood and persuaded them to see slavery in a more negative light than they already did.  Another form of imagery that I found moving was in the poem “The Farewell of a Virginia Slave Mother to Her Daughters Sold into Southern Bondage” by Whittier.  Throughout the whole poem he writes about daughters of a slave being sold in slavery and being gone forever from their family.  I think Whittier persuades a younger audience when he writes “Never, when the torturing lash Seams their back with many a gash, Shall a mother’s kindness bless them, Or a mother’s arms caress them (1223).” By describing how a young girl will never be comforted by her mother again, I think Whittier changes the views of slavery in a younger audience because when a child gets hurt or doesn’t feel well the first person they cry for is their mom and with this statement younger people are able to think and feel what that would be like to be taken from the person that they cherish most. 

Blog #6

While reading Jacob’s “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” and Child’s “The Quadroons” this issues that the characters faced due to their race and culture really stood out to me.  In the story “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” Linda is caught in between the culture of slaves and of the African Americans that were free in the South.  She had fallen in love with a free African American and wanted to be married to him.  Although there were no laws against free African Americans marrying one another, she as a slave had no rights to be married unless their owners gave her permission.  Unfortunately for Linda, she was scolded and even “struck” for asking permission to be married to the man she loved.  Although free African Americans did not have many rights, they still had the right to love as they wanted.  Linda asks “why does the slave ever love? (p.772)” and then quotes Dr. Flint when he said “If you must have a husband, you may take up with one of my slaves (p. 773)” allowing us to see that in the slaves culture they weren’t even allowed to love or marry who they wanted.

In “The Quadroons” I noticed the conflict between Xarifa and the society that she lived in.  Child’s writes that during “summer walks with her beautiful mother, her young cheek often mantled at the rude gaze of the young men, and her dark eye flashed fire, when some contemptuous epithet met her ear, as white ladies passed them by, in scornful pride and ill-concealed envy (120)”.   Child’s illustrates a young girl growing up in a home filled with love and that this little girl’s safe world was broken apart after being insulted in public.  Society didn’t accept Xarifa for the person she was, maybe it was because she was so beautiful or maybe it was because she was the child of a white southern man and an African American woman, but that day she experienced judgment and hatred towards her, which in turn created conflict between her and society.

Blog #5

After reading “An Indian’s Looking Glass for the White Man” and “Indian Names” I realized that a major theme in both stories is how the white people took over a land that already belonged to another race. In Apess story he writes a lot about how the Indians were forced to retreat from the land that their families had lived on for many years and how now the red skins are forced to live without food or shelter. “…With the females who are left alone, children half-starved and some almost as naked as they came into the world… while the female are left without protection, and are seduced by white men, and are finally left to be common prostitutes for them and to be destroyed by that burning, fiery curse… rum”.  He also calls out the white race on how they destroyed a race and ask if the Indians ever did what the white people did to the red skins. “Can you charge the Indians with robbing a nation almost of their whole continent, and murdering their women and children, and then depriving the remainder of their lawful rights, that nature and God require them to have? And to cap the climax, rob another nation to till their grounds welter out their days under the lash with hunger and fatigue under the scorching rays of a burning sun?” Apess describes how the white race has taken something that is not theirs to take. He tells the story of how the Indians have been robbed of their God given rights and that the white race has left the Indian civilization with nothing, making their survival almost impossible

 In “Indian Names” Sigourney describes where and how the Indians had an influence on the country before the white people ever arrived.  She rights “their name is on your waters” and “your mountains build their monument”. She also gives the names of states that still hold the influence and names of the Indians. She then goes further to say “though ye destroy their dust” to describe how the whites have tried to destroy the race of the Indians and erase their cultural remains that still are part of the land that they lived in. But she writes “Wachuset hides its lingering voice within his rocky heart, And Alleghany graves its tone throughout his lofty chart; Monadnock on his forehead hoar doth seal the scared trust” to allows readers to see that the Indians are in the American landscape forever and that their race will not be forgotten because we will be reminded of it in our rivers, lakes, valleys and mountainsides.

Blog #3: The Wife

I think Irving’s story, “The Wife”, helps readers really understand what marriage is about.  When you marry someone, it should be because you love them to such an extent that words cannot describe, they have become you best friend, and are you backbone in life.  In most traditional marriage ceremonies people recite the vows “For Richer or Pourer”, I think this story is a great example of what that means.  Marriage isn’t about the money or the opportunities a persons name or family can give you, it’s about sharing your life with someone that you care so deeply for that you would sacrifice anything for them.  The wife, Mary, shows that when she doesn’t care where they live or how much or little they have, just as long as they have each other.  I think this story also allows readers to see that women are not just arm candy or housewives, but that they are there in times of need to support and comfort their families through the good and the bad.  This story also shows that there is too much pressure on people to keep up with “The Joneses”.  We put too much emphasis on where people live and what kind of fabulous lifestyle the lead.  People are too busy worrying about money to enjoy the finer things in life.  Irving tells his friend that he is not poor, but rich because of the wonderful wife he has and the gifts of life that he has been given, I think we should take more focus off of money, cars, and clothes, and pay more attentions to the gifts that surround us.

Blog #2

I have never given much thought to how important newspapers, magazines, and literature were to the colonist.  Thinking that newspapers and magazines were their main source of news seems strange to me because today we have access to national and world news through many different outlets, such as the daily and nightly news on TV and Google.   It is also shocking to me to know that ten of the twelve newspapers were printed in three major cities, it makes me wonder how long it took for the rest of the colonist to receive the news that the more urbanized colonist were reading weekly.  Realizing how far literature and national news has come since the 17 and 1800s is amazing.   Today we have the ability to listen to the news on TV while we get ready for work or bed, we have electronic versions of books and there are numerous magazines available at any grocery store you go to.  Although these advancements are amazing, it saddens me to think that we are losing our roots.  Not many people can say that they take the time to sit and read the newspaper in the morning or that they have gone to the bookstore and purchased a new novel.  Major bookstores are shutting their doors because Americans would rather see the movie than read the book and magazines are bought more today for juicy celebrity gossip than for educational purposes. The quick changes in technology make me wonder what the world of literature will be like in ten or twenty years from now.

Blog #1

Growing up I was always told that America was the land of hopes and dreams.  I thought Americans were known globally as hard workers striving for the American Dream.  But hearing that people all around the world think that Americans are slovenly and lazy, has caused me to take a step back and examine what America has become.  America started off with people wanting to make a better life for themselves and their families.  People migrated from all over the world to the USA to find new opportunity and hope.  I believe that hard working was an understatement for those who came here with nothing.  Families stayed together and fought threw the hard times to insure a better life for the generations to follow.  Now, I believe that for many new to this country, pulling families together to achieve success in America is still their approach and they can still be successful.  Sadly, those of us that have been here for generations appear to have become lazy and acquired a sense of entitlement.  We have become a country of individuals living beyond our means, trying to keep up with neighbors that may or may not be able to afford the lifestyle they are living.  Yes, we can blame Wall Street and banks for the mortgage crisis but who was responsible for taking out the mega mortgages that they could not afford? Yes there is a credit crisis, but who is responsible for the excessive spending and running up individual credit limits far beyond their annual incomes?  At some point, Middle America disappeared and everyone decided they were entitled to live like reality stars and athletes.  Saving for a big ticket item became a thing of the past; we had instant credit and a mindset that we would worry about paying for it later.  Americans are suppose to be strong willed, intelligent, and have the drive to give every challenge in life their absolute everything, but I think America has lost the ideas and values that our founding fathers originally had for us.