The Contemporary Connection 10/20/11

There have been events in American history that play large roles in defining our nation. Most often, the reason these events define us is because of how people decided to progress afterward. The Civil War is one of those events. It changed so many lives and people in our country, and it cut our nation in half. Another one of these events was 9/11. On page 2 of the introduction, it says, "the gulf between life before and after the war continued to expand during the following decades." Life changed for people after the Civil War, and all of our lives changed after 9/11. I was not directly affected by this event, but I do remember that it was the last time I truly felt safe.
In our country today, there is a deepening split between Middle Eastern Americans and all other Americans. It's out of fear that people have begun to discriminate against Middle Eastern Americans, and it's because no one wants to see such a devastating event take place again. It must be a lot like the aftermath of the Civil War. No one knew quite what was going to happen, so they tried to go through their lives walking on eggshells so as not to cause such a great war again.
As they began healing from the Civil War, they ran into some issues that still exist in our nation today; immigration is still a problem in our country. America has been called a beacon of hope to the refugees of other nations, but even in over 100 years, the system is still majorly flawed. Is it really such a beacon of hope and promise if the people who come here have no promise of being able to stay? Americans in the 1880's struggled with an influx in immigrants, especially those from China. Many of the Chinese who immigrated worked on the transcontinental railroad, taking the physical labor jobs that other Americans didn't want. In our country today, this still happens. It's not Chinese men building the railroad, butsometimes it is stereotypically Mexican men and women doing yard work and cleaning houses. There is still a stereotype of the people who immigrate to our country, and they come here to try to achieve their dreams which become part of the American Dream. Wouldn't that make these people American through their ideals?

Journal #8 Response to Denzel Green

You brought up a lot of interesting points about using religion as a way that writers used to connect to audiences in the North and the South. To go off of what you mentioned in your post, I noticed that religion was also a common theme in Lincoln's second inaugural address. When says, "both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other," I think he levels the playing field between Northerners and Southerners. He shows that, although the two regions differ in their opinions of separation, there are a lot of beliefs they share. They hold the same religious beliefs and many of the same American values. The Civil War, in this way, was truly a war between brothers. They all lived in the same nation, but had beliefs about slavery and separation that drove them apart.
Religion is, and always has been, a strong symbol in America, and the fact that all three of these authors use different aspects of it shows that an argument based on religious interpretation is not a strong one in this context. Although I like how Lincoln brought up the common religious affiliations among Americans, I don't think that any author should base their whole pro- or anti-slavery argument on it. There is far too much room for interpretation on the subject, and people on both sides of the North-South border can use it to their advantage when talking about slavery.

Journal 7- Abolitionist Poetry

In Whittier's poem, The Farwell of a Virginia Slave Mother to her Daughters Sold into Southern Bondage, the most compelling element I saw was the use of sound. The rhyming pattern combined with the repetition of certain words made it a very memorable poem. The rhyming of each couplet in the poem could have made it easy for people to remember because each line foreshadows what will be said in the next line. Also, the number of syllables in each line gave it a rhythm that was carried throughout the poem. These two combined elements make it easier for people to remember the words of it once they've heard it, extending the poem's audience to the still prevalent illiterate population of America in the mid 1800's. The memorable quality of the poem also could have helped it reach another medium-- through song. The way the poem flows is very much like a song, which could have been another way for it to reach a greater audience.
A few lines that stood out to me were repeated throughout the writing: "Gone, gone- sold and gone/ To the rice swamp dank and lone./ From virginia's hills and waters;/ Woe is me, my stolen daughters!" This refrain appears, in its entirety, six times in the poem; and to me, this repetition gave the readers and listeners a chance to interpret the feelings with which the author wrote them. If someone read this poem out loud, the sound of these lines would change each of the six times it was said. I felt more emotional attachment to the lines each time I read them, and they really stuck in my mind. As the emotion builds throughout this poem, so does the reader's longing to be able to do something about it. This is the way Whittier calls his readers to action. By utilizing tools of sound to tell the reader that something needs to be done to end the system of slavery.

Journal 6

One of the elements in the last two readings changed the way I think of the history of American slavery. Since the first time I took a history class in school, I have been taught and told about the tragedies of slavery and how it affected (and still affects) African Americans in our country. However, I have never thought about the way it affected White people in our country. These readings opened my eyes to much of the suffering of female slaves, but in this entry, I want to discuss the way it opened my eyes to the White Americans who were caught between two cultures.
In Jacobs' piece, One of the characters who fits the role of a person struggling between Blacks and Whites is Mrs. Bruce. She is a character who supported the efforts of African American slaves, and she was the one who eventually freed Jacobs. On page 791, when she says, "I should, at least, have the satisfaction of knowing that you left me a free woman," it shows that she was more than just Jacobs' slaveholder. She was her friend. She saw Jacobs and her children as people, not just as pieces of property. At a time in American history when so many wealthy White people depended on slaves to carry out their hard work, Mrs. Bruce was one of the people who went against the beliefs of many of her fellow White Americans and did what she thought was right. From this, I also assume that she fought for more than one cause at the time.
In "The Quadroons," Edward is the character who was conflicted by the cultural and ethnic gap between him, his true love and his daughter. Edward, unlike Mrs. Bruce, wasn't strong enough to break down that barrier. Even after he realized his mistake when Rosalie died, he didn't bring his daughter to his level in society. He tried to make her life more comfortable, but in the end his regrets for not staying with Rosalie got the better of him.

Journal 5- Common Themes

One of the common themes in our past few readings has been the idea of using writing as a portal for societal reform. We saw this in Phelps' short story, "The Tenth of January," and we see it again in the writings of Apess and Sigourney. In the last two readings, we see specifically a theme of reform for the treatment of Native Americans. When I began reading William Apess' "An Indian's Looking-glass for the White Man," I saw Apess as an assimilated Native American who had abandoned his culture. He used Christian ideals in his piece, and he spoke ill of the culture from which he came. He said that one reason they were uncivilized was because "they have no education" (Belasco 641). At first, I took this as a bash on the Native American lifestyle, but when I looked closer and thought about his life a little more, I realized that his overall mission in saying this was to advocate for assimilation. He was able to address the White Men of the time because he was a product of their society, not his Native American one. He was educated and was converted to Christianity, giving opportunities that he would not have had if not for his adaptation to the white culture. He seems caught between two worlds in his writing; he wants to take steps to bring his fellow Native Americans out of the lack of civilization he sees in their society, but he still wants to be accepted by white men.
Lydia Sigourney, however, was on the other side of the river fighting for better treatment of Native Americans. Like Apess, she wanted Native Americans to be treated humanely, but unlike him she didn't want them to be treated as equals to the white men. She didn't want them to lose their culture or their territory or be forced to assimilate to the white man's culture. Her poem, "Indian Names," shows that she sees a never-ending presence of Native American culture in America; all of the places she names in the poem were named by the Native Americans, and many of the names have withstood the test of time. It is also evident in her poem that she blames the presence of white people for the poor treatment of Native Americans when she says, "Your mountains build their monument, Though ye destroy their dust" (1205). In a way, she is saying that Native Americans held onto this land we live in for so long, but now white people came in and tried to erase the Native Americans completely. She sees the error in this, but she also sees that their contributions to America (even before it was called America) will never be completely forgotten.
Just from these two readings, we can see that many different people fought for better treatment of Native Americans. However, there was not a united effort, nor was there a common concept of what "better" treatment was. Should they be forced to assimilate? Or, would it be better to leave them alone and give them back their land?

Journal 4- "The Tenth of February"

In Elizabeth Phelps' story, "The Tenth of February," there are several symbols that represent the idea of imprisonment. The female characters in the story all, at one point or another, seem imprisoned by something. For Asenath, the symbol of imprisonment throughout the story is her disability. During this time period, it seems like marriage is a very important goal of life, especially for women; and Asenath's deformity keeps her from living a normal life and finding love. At one point, her pretty friend Del says, "'Who do you suppose would ever marry you?'" Asenath throughout her life is kept from believing that she could ever find love and marriage. Because of this, she mentions over and over throughout the story that she sees death as a way out. Asenath was not blessed with the good looks of her friends, and she sees no real way to be happy in life without achieving this goal of getting married.
For Del, the imprisoned feeling comes from having to work in the factory. Unlike Asenath, it seems like Del sees marriage not as something to strive and work for, but as something to wait for. After all, with her appearance, in the society she lives in, it would only be a matter of time before she was married off and could stop working. Throughout the story, it seems that both girls think of marriage as something that must happen in order for their lives to be complete. It shows the importance of marriage during this time period as a woman's way out of the work force. And it seems like many women wanted to get out of the work force because all of the work available to them was manual labor in factories.

Journal 3 (Question 1)

In Irving's short story, I was upset a little bit by the way he talks about women in the beginning. His writing suggested that marriage really wasn't about the woman, but that its purpose was so that a man could have someone to comfort him. I think that is still a very important part of marriage today, but there is so much more to it. When I think of a marriage, I think of a partnership, but this piece of writing especially hwne they talk about money, shows that marriage was almost completely about the man. When Irving said that Leslie didn't want to break the news about their economic situation to Mary, he said that he didn't want to "overwhelm her with the news" (527). It was like he thought she couldn't handle hearing about the trials of the real world; like she was so fragile that it would ruin her spirit.
The other part of the story that made me question it was when Leslie was talking about how he wanted to spoil Mary with gifts and make her life into a fairytale. At first, I really didn't see any love in the story; it seemed more like the adoring husband put his wife on a pedastal. He felt like she was too helpless to get what she wanted on her own, and maybe she was at that time because women socially didn't stand a chance in the work force.
However, in the end of the story, when Mary welcomes her new lifestyle with open arms, I really felt the love between her and her husband. At first, I thought marriage in this time period was shallow, but the end of the story showed that marriage was pretty similar to what it is now. There was real love in marriage that kept people together, and the wives played a very important role supporting their husbands so that they could accomplish what they did at the time.