Journal #13

The American Dream is one of that thousands of people dreamt of. Everyone who lived in America or moved to America had hoped of oppurtunity to start fresh and prosperity to become successful. I belive in Zitkala-Sa's story The School Days of an Indian Girl, she did not live the "American Dream."

The reason I believe Zitaka-Sa did not experience the American Dream is because she was forced away from her home native land to the "Land of Red Apples" as she calls it. If you were forced to leave your home to be civilized by the American people and educated and raised the way they wanted, than that is no where near living the American Dream. Zitaka-sa should have been able to choose her own future, isn't that what the American Dream is all about? She should of been able to decide whether or not she wanted to go to school and leave her hometown. She was humiliated throughout school, and felt very out of place. At one point she says, "they took their forefingers out of their mouths and pointed at my moccasined feet...this embarrassed me, and kept me constantly on the verge of tears." She also got her long hair cut off which made her "[lose] my spirit." Zitaka-Sa had every right to keep her long hair, for it completed part of her identity. The fact that these Americans were forcing her to change and causing her so much pain is why I believe she did not live the American Dream.

Yes Zitaka-Sa was given these oppuritunities to go to school and become educated and civilized which may appear to seem like she did live the American Dream, but truly, I believe that the American Dream was meant for people to prosper in their own way but in Zitaka-Sa's case, that was not true. Instead she was constrained, humiliated, and overcome by these Americans people who forced her to live their American Dream.

Journal #12

"I, LILIUOKALANI of Hawaii, by the will of God named heir apparent on the tenth day of April, A. D. 1877, and by the grace of God Queen of the Hawaiian Islands on the seventeenth day of January, A. D. 1893, do hereby protest against the ratification of a certain treaty, which, so I am informed, has been signed at Washington by Messrs. Hatch, Thurston, and Kinney, purporting to cede those Islands to the territory and dominion of the United States. I declare such a treaty to be an act of wrong toward the native and part-native people of Hawaii, an invasion of the rights of the ruling chiefs, in violation of international rights both toward my people and toward friendly nations with whom they have made treaties, the perpetuation of the fraud whereby the constitutional government was overthrown and, finally, an act of gross injustice to me.

This was my favorite quote from Liliuokalani's story. The formal language that she uses not only portrays how respectful she is to other people, but also conveys her courage and the true ambition she has to stand up for her native land and all the people that live there. She states that for the United States to take control and rule Hawaii is a "violation" towards the Hawaiian people but also says it is a violation towards her. I think the last sentence where she says, "injustice to me," has such an strong message because by including that it will effect her personally makes her argument much more influential.  By explaining how this "invasion" will be detrimental to herself, Hawaiians, and other nations connected to Hawaii, I believe she creates an exceptionally admired argument and really shows her passion for her native colony.

Bonus Blog # 2 Imperialism

Hawaiian Islands

The definition of the word "Imperialism" is described as "the policy of extending the rule or authority of an empire or a nation over foreign countries, or of acquiring and holding dependancies." But the word imperialism goes much deeper than just an empire ruling over a colony. Imperialism is not just connecting two different places by political status, it is when an empire changes the ways and culture of the new land they acquire; they influence the currency used, sports played, crops grown, and resources made.

The British Empire was one of the most successful empires throughout history; it was kingdoms from India, Australia, New Zealand, England, and Scotland all put togther. America also became an empire when it joined with Puerto Rico, Guatemala, The Philippine Islands, and certain parts of China.

After reading about the Hawaiian, Queen Liliuokalani, and her story of Hawaii being taken part of the American Empire it altered my views on the effect it made on these smaller countries and the people who lived there. The Queen was against becoming part of the new empire because she believed that it would be detrimental to their native islands which had such great independence. At one point, after America had successfully succeed Hawaii to become a part of their country, she says, "those poor Hawaiians, strangers on their native soil." She believed that their "crown lands" were not made to be for sale. I agree with Liliuokalani. Although what has happened in the past we cannot change, I think it was unjust for larger, more powerful countries, such as America and Britain, to take other dependencies and make them part of their own and force civilization on the people. Those people should have a right to do what they want and live as they please. But when a greater force comes in and conquers their land, the people have no choice but to adapt to the new lifestyles forced upon them. It is sad to know that many people, including Liliuokalani, we're distressed by this process and I wish that they could of kept their own identity and could of stayed independent as they hoped.

Overall, reading experts from this story has shown me new light to imperialism and how it changed our world from what it once was. Although Hawaii, and many other smaller colonies were succeed into larger empires, I hope their will always be a way to express their true native culture.

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.