Journal # 11

After reading Hopkin's As the Lord Lives, He is One of our Mother's Children, and Mckay's poems I decided to focus my question of perplexity on how African Americans truly felt about America and what their views were on living here.

In Mckay's If We Must Die poem, it states that African Americans are "hunted" and "penned" by angry dogs (white men). He refers to white men as a "cowardly pack" and states Africans accomplished a difficult task by fighting back even though they were outnumbered. This poem conveys that African Americans were treated unjustly and extremely cruel; they wished to be treated nobly and with respect but America did not give offer them any of those qualities.

In the poem America Mckay gives mixed emotions about how African Americans felt about America. In the beginning he explains how America "feeds me bread of bitterness," "sinks into my throat her tiger's tooth," and steals people's breath of life. This negative connotation describing America definitely shows that blacks did not enjoy living in America. But later in the poem Mckay changes his view and talks about how he loved "this cultured hell," and that people stand within America's walls with no fear.

In Outcast Mckay describes how African Americans were born far away from their home and wish that they could experience living in their native land. He says that "his soul would sing forgotten jungle songs," but how he was never able to hear those native songs and how something within him was lost.  He uses strong diction to describe how awful it was to live in America; he says he'll never hope for full release, and how he is "under the white man's menace." He also states how the "western world holds me in a fee."

These three different poems portray that, overall, African Americans probably hated living in America where they didn't have their own rights and freedom and because it made them grow a part from their native origins. But a part of them may have liked it according to the poem Ameirca because it gave them protection or some sense of opportunity to learn about new cultures and ideas.

Journal # 10 The Aha! Moment

Both Chesnutt's story, The Wife of His Youth and Harper's poem, Learning to read, had "aha moments." Aha moments are when the reader discovers a hidden meaning behind the story that gives the story an even greater significance than it once had, and the reader an even greater insight to the story.

When reading The Wife of His Youth, I was extremely surprised after I read, "permit me to introduce to you the wife of my youth." That moment was definitely the aha moment for me because I did not expect that the visitor looking for her long lost love would of been Mr. Ryder. Throughout the story I was convinced that he was going to propose to Ms. Dixon at the grand ball as he said he was going to. But after he explained his story to everyone at the ball and confessed his true love for the old woman, it was a turning point in the story. There was one moment in the text that said, "he went upstairs to his bedroom, and stood for a long time before the mirror of his dressing-case, gazing thoughtfully at the reflection of his own face," and after finishing the story I realize that it was foreshadowing what was to come. At that moment he had knew that the man in the picture the old woman gave him was himself, and that after 25 years, she was still faithful to the man she once loved.

In Harper's Learning to read the reader is influenced to believe that the old freed slave was not able to read because she explains different ways in which slaves would try to learn how to read. One by greasing the pages of his book and hiding them in his hat, another by listening in on the children spelling. She describes that the slave owners would not allow them to read or write because it would make the slaves "too wise." So I, the reader, wouldn't of never expected the end stanza of the poem. She says, "and never stopped til i could read, the hymns and testament," from The Bible. At that moment I understood that she was actually able to read. This hidden meaning established just how important literacy was to slaves, and that once they were able to read it enabled them to finally be independent and sit "upon [their] throne."

Both of these stories were very interesting, I really enjoyed reading them because the endings were unexpected. I've always thought that a sense of surprise or a twist in a story makes it better, and now I know that it also deepens the readers understanding.

Journal # 9

America experienced great changes from 1865 to 1914. This time after the Civil War was even called the "loss of innocence" for America, and even after that brutal war America continued to have problems such as the Mexican War, the Chinese Exclusionary rule, and uniting the North and South. However, this was a time where America greatly expanded not only population wise, but in technology, marketing, and innovations too. America's industrialization boomed during this time period; Abraham Lincoln created the Pacific Railway stretching across the country, and people such as Rockafeller helped the oil industry prosper. And reading increased throughout the country through newspapers, magazines, poetry but most of all short stories. These innovations assisted in creating the country we know America as today.

The the main connection I saw between the present day and this time period was entertainment.  Back then, entertainment applied to novels, magazines, and newspapers printed in the country. It was a huge business that grew rapidly making publishing a big business. Fiction was popular at this time and short stories were people's favorite literary feature. Although today's entertainment is a little different due to television and movies, we still have thousands of books in America that people read. Reading has always been and will always be a prime source of entertainment for people.

Another strong connection I found between today and 1865 to 1914 was the political aspect. In the past, the North and South had extremely different views and did not get along, but after Abraham's death, they started to unite, but this was not the end of conflict for America. The Americans fought in the Mexican War and also had conflict with too many immigrants coming in from China and Europe. I believe America will always have its political conflicts with other countries no matter what because today just like in the past, we are in another war, the war with Iraq.

America has grown so much from its past, reading this introduction I found it interesting that people were still fighting for their rights. African Americans were fighting for the 14th amendment which established equality and their right to vote, and women fighting for the 19th amendment for equality too. But today we have our first African American president, Obama. I think this conveys how much of a progress we have made and I am blessed to call this country my home.

Blog #8: Response to Denzel's Blog

After reading the excerpts assigned I too noticed how much religion was used throughout the texts. Denzel's blog talks about, "John Browns Last Speech," and Garnet's, "From a Memorial Discourse." These two texts in-particular stood out to me because they used God to relate to their audience. When describing the cruelty slaves went through and the hardships they faced, they each bring up God in a similar way. Like Denzel said Brown describes how the new testament taught him many valuable lessons and also says, "God is a respecter of persons." And Garnet states, "in the name of God, the universal Father, we demand the right to live." I completely agree with Denzel when he says those texts were, "equally persuasive by involving the religion that the entire country was familiar with." In my opinion, by using a common religion as a way to argue that slavery is unjust and cruel would really speak to people everywhere because, back then, most people were Christians. It would connect with people in a new light and maybe allow people who had slaves to finally see how wrong it was. I also agree with Denzel when he says these two excerpts criticized the, "American Dream." They portray a slaves life was no where near the true "American Dream," that many Americans lived, but in fact, laborers treated inhumanely. In conclusion, Brown's and Garnet's Christian faith conveyed in their speeches were excellent ways to influence slave holders to think of slavery differently, and I also thoroughly enjoyed reading and responding to Denzel's post.