Blog #15: Interrogation Addiction

I definitely found myself agreeing with Ms. Silko even before I began reading her essay. I have heard so many horror stories about Border Patrol and I have experienced and seen them in action. I do agree that Border Patrol puts people into stereotypes and immediately jumps on those who match it or even those who don’t. It’s this “dehumanizing” and “demonizing” that is striking fear into people. I know that the Border Patrol officers probably are more prone to asking colored people to “step out” or strip down for the officers or to have dogs search their trunks. When Silko talked about the patrol’s dog and the dog’s expressions and how “it was if she were embarrassed to be associated with them” made me feel like this dog was a way of dehumanizing Silko. She feels so violated of her human rights by the officers that the only thing she can connect and find sympathy with is an animal, not a human. The part about the patrollers allowing white people to just be waved through the checkpoint is true from my understanding. Last Spring, I went to a dance convention called ACDFA in Las Cruses, New Mexico with some dancers in the TCU Dance department. We were in a huge charter bus that TCU paid for and the bus driver was a middle aged, clean cut, white man. As the bus neared the Border Patrol station my heart sank as I feared a patrol man would come onto the bus and inspect all that was inside. Luckily, the driver just rolled down the window he told the men where we from, where we were going and we went right through without any problem. On the other hand, as we sitting there, I noticed a green, old, beat up, van with the trunk open and patrol men gathered around. We departed before anything interesting happened, but I could only imagine what the people inside the car were thinking and what happened to them. When thinking about this image I instantly clicked with Silko’s story about her and Gus and the old man who were pulled over and had his car searched. I’ve always found this issue so dehumanizing and a violation of human rights. Yes we live in a free country, but are we really “free?” This even happens at airports now as the TSA can search anyone for no reason just as Border Patrol. My dad is ALWAYS picked to be searched and I suspect it’s because he is very tall, domineering looking, and German, you wouldn’t want to make him mad, but he’s no convict. This frustrates him more than anything especially since he is an upper class, white male, which I guess all comes back around to Silko’s finding that “ no person, no citizen, is free to travel without the scrutiny of the Border Patrol.”

Blog #14: The Things I'd Carry

If I were in Lieutenant Jimmy Cross’s army I wouldn’t want to bring much since I know I would not want to carry much, but it’s difficult for me to say what I’d carry. I have often though about what few things I’d take from my house if it were burning down and I can never give a straight forward answer. However, if I had had to pick a few tangible items for this army situation I probably carry letters, pictures, gum, soap, knife, gun, lighter, nylon-covered flak jacket, ammunition, water container, chapstick, some form of a good luck charm, and an iPod or music device. I’d carry gum because it would help my breath and I chew gum when I am nervous. I’d carry soap because I am a very clean and hygienic person. I’d carry a knife, gun, and ammunition for protection as well as the flak jacket because O’Brien said everyone had to carry one of these due to booby-traps and mines. I’d carry a lighter to make a fire or light up a dark place. I’d carry a water container because everyone needs water to stay hydrated. As for the letters, pictures, and good luck charm it would be for sentimental reasons. I love pictures, they allow me escape the moment and remember back to when the picture took place and it fills me up with joy and hope. I also love reading old text messages and letters would be a form of a text that I could reminisce over, and it would allow me to feel like that person was with me. The good luck charm (whatever it may be) would also allow me to escape the world in which I was in and transport to the other world where I wanted to be with that person. Lastly, I’d carry and iPod or music device because music calms me, and has a way to help me cope with any situation I am in or whatever emotion I am dealing with at the time. However, along with these tangible items I’d carry some intangible things as well such as fear, terror, love, longing, my life, and other emotional baggage that O’Brien mentioned. The thought of fighting in a war fills me with terror beyond anything in this world, and I would constantly be afraid that something would happen to me. Then, like Lt. Cross I’d get distracted from the war by daydreaming and floating into limbo about the pictures, letters, and music I was carrying.  

Blog #13: To Achieve or Not to Achieve

In Zitkala-Sa’s story The School Days Of An India Girl I interpreted that at the beginning of her story she was living the American Dream, but didn’t want to partake in it. Throughout parts I-VI she seemed to be resisting her education and she wanted no part in the assimilation of the white culture. She admits, “I had arrived in the wonderful land of rosy skies, but I was not happy, as I thought I should be” (430). The way the “palefaces” cut off all the Indian girl’s hair felt like they were dehumanizing her and taking away her culture forcing her to submit to the white culture. She says, “Our mothers had taught us that only unskilled warriors who were captured had their hair shingled by the enemy” (431). This dehumanization forces her to “loose her spirit” and she feels like “one of many animals driven by a herder” (431). Although she is receiving an education, which is a huge part of achieving the American Dream, I don’t think being forced into an education qualifies “living the American Dream.” She says multiple times how this new school is affecting her in negative ways. She refers to “chains which tightly bound [her] individuality like a mummy for burial” (434). I think the American Dream is something that people made a conscience decision to achieve, they knew what they wanted, and knew how to achieve it whereas Zitkala-Sa is being forced into education and what the white man views as the American Dream while sacrificing her beliefs, culture, and ways of life. However, I think this changes in part VII as she receives a diploma and is in college about to compete in a competition for which her mother is against. This time Zitkala-Sa wants to achieve the American Dream and is even willing to go against her mother’s will to achieve it. She even ends up winning prizes in both competitions even though some audience members show prejudice against her. I think that in this part of her story the American Dream is prevalent as she is fighting against all odds to achieve her dream.    

Blog #12: Favorite Sentence

My favorite sentence in Hawaii’s Story is, “Shakespeare has said it is excellent to have a giant’s strength, but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant.” This quote reminded me of the picture of McKinley washing the Philippine baby and the concept of imperialism that we talked about in class on Tuesday. America is this large, dominating, super power and they were constantly trying to get people and nations to change their ways and cultures so that they would become American like. Instead of trying to use American influence, technology, and knowledge as power and use it as an opportunity to help educate these Hawaiians, the American government instead forced them to change their way of life and government, thus creating this “tyrannous” image to the native Hawaiians.    

Blog #11: Response to Paige Well's Blog

I definitely agree with you that this “awful sin” McKay speaks of is referring to the Biblical sin of all mankind, but I also think it is referring to the observers who watched Jesus being crucified. In the context of McKay’s “The Lynching” this could refer to the people or citizens watching the lynching. However I looked up Luke 23:46 that is in the footnote at the end of the poem and this verse reads, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. When he said he had said this, he breathed his last.” So I now understand and agree with you that your point about irony in McKay’s meaning makes sense. In Luke 23 “Father” is capitalized while “spirit” is not, but in McKay’s poem “father” is not capitalized while “Spirit” is. In my opinion I think that the reason McKay might have capitalized “Spirit” is because the black men who were being hung were like Jesus and had no reason to hang. Therefore maybe their Spirit is like Jesus and needs to be capitalized to show that they were like Jesus. So this “awful sin” again may refer to the people who watched the lynching. Luke 23:47-49 says that after the deed was done those who didn’t believe “beat their breasts and went away. But all those who knew him…stood at a distance, watching these things.” At the end of McKay’s poem he even mentions that the next day after the lynching people would come back and look the man swinging there and no one (not even the women) “showed sorrow in her eyes of steely blue.” I think this whole poem could be translated into Jesus’ crucifixion as it speaks of the “cruelest way of pain” because back then being crucified was the ultimate form of death, in today’s criminal justice system it would be equal to capital punishment with lethal injections or the electric chair. Lastly, I think that the “star” could refer to “His father” as in God. Maybe McKay chose not to capitalize “father” and “star” to show the irony you spoke of. How could a “star” allow this to happen just as us who are Christian still wonder why God would let Jesus die for mankind when he was pure and perfect.

Blog #10: "Education and slavery were incompatible with each other"

I experienced an immediate “AHA!” connection between Frances Harper’s “Learning to Read” and Fredrick Douglass’s slave narrative. The first stanza establishes how the North (Yankees) was sending teachers down the South to educate people, and the South (Rebels) hated this idea. The next stanza is what instantly connected this poem with Fredrick Douglass’s narrative. It says how the slave masters didn’t want their slaves to learn to read as “knowledge did’nt agree with slavery/’Twould make us all too wise.” This is the same concept in Douglass’s narrative when Mr. Auld forbids Douglass to continue reading and writing lessons with Mrs. Auld as it was “unlawful, as well as unsafe to teach a slave to read” (Vol. I, pg. 879). Masters were afraid that giving a slave education would make them wise enough to realize how horribly they were being treated and that they might rebel or disobey their masters and mass hysteria would occur. The third stanza talks about how some slaves would learn to read from other sources and “some of [them] would try to steal a little from the book/And put words together.” I found a connection with Douglass learning to read from the little children or “urchins” off the streets in his spare time. In exchange for bread, the children helped teach him to read and write. The next two stanzas describes a man named Uncle Caldwell who “took pot liquor fat/And greased the pages of his book/And hid it in his hat.” This reminded me of when Douglass would be sent out to run errands and he’d take his book with him so that he could read while he was out of his master’s sight. Stanza six talks of Ben who listened to people spelling and reading and he tried to listen and retain as many words as he could. This is also like Douglass when he found his “meat and drink” The Liberator. It was during this time that Douglass learned of abolition for the first time, and he’d try to listen to people’s conversations about slavery. It was also during this moment that he realized just how bad things were and that he then wanted freedom more than he ever had before. The next stanzas, through the end of the poem, reinforce the desire of the South not to educate the slaves, but they did it anyways. Finally, in stanza eleven, after the war when slavery was abolished the narrator took hold her new found freedom and bought her own “…little cabin/A place to call home/And [she] felt independent/As the queen upon her throne.” With her new found knowledge and independence the author was allowed to live freely and gain as much knowledge and hope for a better life, and have a better chance of achieving the “American Dream” just as Douglass had done by the end of his narrative.

Blog #9: Magazines Sweep the Nation

Between the time span of 1865-1914 several inventions were introduced such as the lightbulb, telephone, typewriter, radio, the motion picture, automobile and the airplane. These inventions in turn created changes in print culture such as new methods for printing, making paper, and methods of distribution. The literacy, education, and library rates also grew and more people had access to books and means of reading through libraries and bookstores. However, deep poetry diminished at this time and the short story and magazine became the prevalent source of reading material. Fiction also thrived and was the most popular literary genre of the time. Stories of rags-to-riches, tales of adventure, and historical romances filled novels and short stories. One of the contemporary connections from this time period that is still in relationship with today’s culture is that of the magazine. Magazines took flight as “readers were attracted by the colorful covers, lavish illustrations, and modest cost” they provided. All kinds of stories were published in magazines from short stories to periodicals empowering women. I think that this relates to today’s culture as I think that magazines are still the most read literature. Every time we walk into the waiting room of a doctor’s office, dentist office, dance studio, or wherever they have magazines spread out across the table. Not novels or book of poetry or fiction, but magazines. I feel that magazines are a colorful and creative way of grabbing someone’s attention and telling a story with pictures and illustrations with few words. They provide sources of gossip, news, style, home, and lifestyle information. In 1870, magazines published readings that focused attention on the right for women to vote and their struggle for political rights and social equality. Now a days, it’s who is dating who, who got voted off of Dancing with the Stars, and what new celebrity marriage or divorces is sweeping the nation. Even though the content of magazines has developed and changed over time the layout and purpose are still similar. Magazines are also cheaper than books and novels so this also sways people to buy magazines rather than other forms of literature. Magazines can also be read within an hour or so while novels may take anywhere from a whole day to months.