Jonathan Harrison January 30, 2009

Sui Sin Far

"While working as a legal secretary she continued to write and although her appearance and manners would have allowed her to easily pass as a dignified Englishwoman, she asserted her Chinese heritage and wrote articles that told what life was like for a Chinese woman in white America." (wikipedia)

Sui Sun Far had to deal with racism towards her Asian heritage her whole life and this quote is a symbol of the fact that she will not give away her Asian culture so easily. America is a place of false hopes in her eyes and the way it functions as a conforming machine, gives us a warning that all culture is in trouble once one sets foot on American soil and this quote was Far's way of fighting back.

This story was a depressing realization of real life for Chinese-American immigrants. Its starts out with a boy and his mother returning home to America where they had left 20 moons ago. Upon arrival the boy is refused admittance much to the dismay of his parents. The months drag on and the Chinese parents spirits slowly start to fade. They feel that their is a whole in their heart that can't be fixed. They are offered the services of a lawyer for 500 dollars who promises to get their son back. The proud parents sell all their jewelry in attempt to raise the money. When the boy is reunited with his parents, instead of it being a jubilant situation the boy instead shies away from his mother pleading with her to go away, while hiding behind the legs of a white nurse.

This story is heartbreaking when you realize that it is not some fictional tale that is far off from the truth but instead it hits close to home in capturing the atrocities that many asian-american immigrants had to go through. Far is all to familiar with the American experience, or becoming Americanized, and she really disdains the thought of the whole idea. Once one sets foot on American soil it is an ongoing process of assimilation that bleeds ones old self right out him. The thought of being old school or acting out the old ways of life is now looked down upon instead of rewarded. Fitting in is applauded amongst all these new immigrants while staying true to one's self and his people is thought to be boorish and most of the first generation recognizing this would rather see these ways become extinct rather than flourish in their new country. It is really sad that this is the case, for variety is the spice of life and when this element is taken out the world will become scarily boring. The parents in this story go to great lengths in trying help their son avoid this fate. The husband goes as far as to send his pregnant wife to china to have the baby, in attempts to render the child in a more traditional Chinese way. There attempts are futile though for the minute the boy reenters the United States the machine starts working and the assimilation starts to take place. The boy's youth can't help him escape these perils and by the end of the story his culture is gone. He is the same as any white kid would be and sadly the parents realize this. I hope that this story helps people savor and value their ethnicity for it is one thing that no one should ever be able to take away from one self and should thus be treated like the valuable commodity that it is.

Jonathan Harrison January,28,2009

Abraham Cahan

Cahan quickly mastered the English language, and four years after his arrival in New York taught immigrants in one of the evening schools. Later he began to contribute articles to the Sun and other newspapers printed in English, and was for several years employed in a literary capacity by the Commercial Advertiser, where we was a regular contributor. (Wikipedia)

This quote is an example of how brilliant and influential a man that Abraham Cahan really was. He is a link from the old world to the new and his writings simply reflected this. His writings have opened a door of insight, which was previously shut, towards the lifestyles of Jewish immigrants in the 1900's

Every generation battles with the conflict of my way is better than yours. I think every child is lucky enough to hear from some adult the world renowned line of, " back in my day things were better... or Whats wrong with kids these days." These lines of thought are a natural instinct of human nature. One is brought up to believe that the way he was raised is the best and only way. The only problem with this theory is the fact that we live in an ever changing world where out with the old in with the new is not frowned upon yet applauded. One will always see the newer generation as a deteriorating culture lost from the purity of their own, but this view is taken without regards to the changing world. Flora is Stuck right in the middle of this conundrum as her father wishes his son-in-law to be a devout Jewish man while she herself desires, or feels she desires, a modern Americanized man. Flora, hell bent on fulfilling this dream, turns Shaya away from the pious, old way of living, into a man desiring the knowledge of the new western ways. She feels as though she is living her life the way she has always dreamed of until she is thrust amongst educated peoples, for witch she has nothing in common with. Flora feels more out of place with these new found friends than she does with the old devout ways of the old system. Thus, the major question that faced many of these new immigrants is thrust upon Flora. Where do I fit in? Abraham's story " The imported Bridgroom" is not a happy nor sad description of Life as a Jewish immigrant just a real depiction of the dilemma that many of these people faced and the reminder that that it's not easy to fit into a new world.

Jonathan Harrison Jan 22, 2009

Zitkala Sa (Gertrude Simmons Bonnin)

"It was next to impossible to leave the iron routine after the civilizing machine had once begun its day’s buzzing; and as it was inbred in me to suffer in silence rather than to appeal to the ears of one whose open eyes could not see my pain, I have many times trudged in the day’s harness heavy-footed, like a dumb sick brute."

This quote is a general summary of how Zitkala Za really feels. She feels stuck in a system that can't be stopped, and their is no reasoning with people who think they are doing you a favor by forcing a European education upon them. She is really fed up but because her own culture has taught her to be obedient and polite, there is nothing to do it seems except follow the palemans ways. Her people are slowly dying yet their is nothing she feels she can do.

The stories compiled by Zitkala Za are a depressing reality about Native American survival in post civil war time period which was hectic and unruly. I feel that the 3 stories were laid out in the order they were presented for a reason. The first story about her childhood and learning the Paleface's knowledge starts off real promising before turning horribly wrong. As a young child she was juiced to explore the east and eat all the red apples,knowledge, that the white man had to offer yet she is quickly disappointed as the illusion of the kind and caring paleface slips away and the reality of being treated like a sideshow began. In the end that story she wishes she had never left the reservation. In story number two the young man comes back after being taught the Christian ways and upon his return he realizes that he sticks out like a sore thumb. He chastises the old Indian ways and preaches enlightenment to people who don't want to hear it. In the end he is robbed of his manhood for he can not feed his ailing father any meat, the mother preached that a good man hunts plenty and has plenty of buckskin, and thus he too feels he has made a mistake. One gets the sense that he misses the old ways and wishes he still had the connection to his people that he somehow lost along the way. The 3rd story finally left me with a smile on my face. The fact that the Indian man would not sell out any of his old ways, and thought of the new christian ways to be silly seemed to be his saving grace. Unlike the rest of his counterparts he is still extremely happy and content. This ending of the story shows Zitkala Za's true feelings, the fact that she wished the old ways would come back. She found no happiness with her new knowledge and way of life and longed for the pleasantries of the old.

sara winnemucca

Jonathan Harrison, January 21, 2009

Sarah Winnemucca

"I am a shell flower, who could be as strong or beautiful as me."

This quote embodies the mindset that Sarah Winnemucca truely had. It is a simple phrase yet it is also very empowering as well. The quote symbolizes not just herself but her whole native American peoples as well. While ignorant white men looked upon Native Americans as savages and beasts, the quote reminds the Native American population of the true beauty of their culture and the strength of oneself.

Sarah Winnemucca is an interesting character to observe. She is granddaughter and daughter to two powerful forces in the Piutes society. She is around the decision making process of the native leaders and this puts her in a procotious postion of trying to figure out whats best for her people. She must have been torn at all angles for her grandfather fighting along side of white men looks like a sell out to all piutes, yet she still wants their respect. Sarah is living in a time period of violent change. Her old way of life is being forcefully uplifted from her and the new invading palefaces are putting in place a new and foreign lifestyle that none of the piutes are too happy too accept. Sarah is stuck because change is happening no matter what. Their is nothing to be done in oppostion but if no action is taken then her own people look at her as if she herself is a white devil. I don't envy Sarah in anyway. Her life was not simple and through all this she persued to become the first Native American woman to be published and her writings still envoke thought and debate till this day. One might not agree with Sara winnemucca or even feel she was a sellout but no one can deny the true determination and brillance of such a gritty woman forced into a world of turmoil where there seems to be no right anwser to the unsolveable problem.

Jonathan Harrison Jan 15, 2009

W.E.B Du Bois

"For it is the Jim Crow car, and the fact that he may not smoke a cigar and drink a cup of tea with the white man in the South, that most galls William E. Burghardt Du Bois of the Atlanta College for Negroes." (wikipedia)

This quote summerizes the main point that Dubois, in his lifetime of work, strived to get across, the fact that all men are equal and deserve the same natural rights. The example of Jim crow car gives us insight towards the books message that the Jim Crow laws are rediculous and inherintly unfair. Dubois was outraged about the fact that African Americans were good enough to plow the fields but couldn't partake in ordinary pleasentries such as dining or smoking and this problem was the major foundation for the politcal activism in which Dubois took place in the rest of his life.

W. E. B. Dubois " The Souls of Black Folk" was an intricate look into the real problem of racism and assimilation at an inferior level which faced the United States. The politcal movement of Booker T Washington, although inspiring at the time, seems to be nothing more than a sell out or compromise due to the horrable nature of the time. Its easy for me to look back now and criticise Washington's stance for I am one hundred years removed from the situation, yet Dubois is fully addressing the glaring issues that stand out to all of us with a reasonable sense of right and wrong. How can a man be called free if he can't vote to elect the officials that are to represent him. He's not free at all is the anwser, and one learns from a young age that knowledge equals power, and all the great tyrants of the past have known this and forced their will by controling the knowledge available to the general public. Washingtons strategy of elimanting the stepping stones towards higher learning for all African Americans is not a realistic plan to go forward yet a map to keep African Americans at a stand still in a Society that is built on moving forward and making progress. Dubois realized all this right away and this book is a definate cry if not challenge to Booker T and all people of the African American decent to not settle but strive to reach high places and set goals that would be suitable for not only a black child but a white child as well. Their should not be two levels of dreaming and wanting and until every Black man in America starts to want and aspire to be, if not at the same level but even hire, than every white man Dubois would argue that The color issue will never go away and the African American people will never progress to the level that they rightfully should. Dubois definately holds the more modern and more likeable opinion between himself and Washington, yet I am born Hundred years after the fact and can not be a true judge just give education opinions on who's right and who's wrong.

Jonathan Harrison Jan 13, 2009

Booker T. Washington

"Washington believed that education was a crucial key to African American citizens rising within the social and economic structure of the United States. He rose into a nationally prominent role as spokesman and leader for them." (wikipedia)

This quote sums up why Booker T. Wasahington is such an important figure, not only in African American History but U.S, history overall. He grew up as a kid desireing and valueing education above all else. He felt that education was a way out of poverty and a means to a better life. These values and ideas are present throughout the teachings and the life of Booker T.

In his autobiography "Up from Slavery" it becomes clear that the biggest priority in Washington's life was his ability to aquire and education. He felt that education was the key to open any door and without it their is only so far a people can rise. If one looks at any civilization that was run by a tyrant or a tyranical government the main thing that they try to control is education because knowledge is power and anybody with power knows this. I found this story to be perticularly inspiring due to all the obstacles in which ashington had to overcome. The fact that he couldn't go to school and had to work, yet still spent hours reading an alphabet book, that I'm sure he could recite without even looking at it, makes me question and even strive to improve my own drive. I try to put myself in his shoes but there is no way I could see myself, after slaving in the salt mines, come home and read the same dingy book over and over again. To go go from such simple beginnings to write a speech such as the one presented at the Atlanta Expostion boggles my mind. I could only hope to one day write something as b eautfully written as that. Is enlightened theory on what success really is, not what you have accompished but the obstacles you went over to get their, is now my new theory on life. From Washington I take an energized work ethic and a new belief that life should be lived one day at a time and any obstacl that will be thrown my way is not too big for me to handle.

Jonathan Harrison Jan 10, 2009


Charlotte Perkins Gilman






"Charlotte Perkins Gilman suffered a very serious bout of post-partum depression in the months after Katharine's birth. This was an age in which woman were seen as "hysterical" and "nervous" beings; thus, when a woman claimed to be seriously ill after giving birth, her claims were sometimes dismissed as being invalid. Doctors at the time referred to this as “nervous prostration." (wikipedia)

This quote is significant for it gives us a real life insight into the mind of Charlotte Perkins Gilman. She did not make up the circumstances in the Yellow Wallpaper, unfortunately they were all too real. To realize that the author actually dealt with the awful situation bestowed upon her gives the story that much more credability.

This quote seems to be a direct influence into Gilman's thought process while writing the short story " The Yellow Wall-paper" for the main character undergoes the exact same symptoms that afflict Gilman in real life. The story itself is a cry for attention to the unequal treatment of women in the late 1800's. Women were considered at the time to be the weaker sex and thus their rights and opportunities were extremely limited. The Yellow Wall-paper is an angonizing story where you slowly watch the main character go crazy. She begins to have illusions and instead of getting better the forced rest she is undertaking is making her expontentally worse. She begins to see herself in the wall trapped behind the stripes which in turn become jail bars and the visual of the lady shaking the bars signifies not only herself being trapped and confined to a crazy house but to the confinement of all women kind at that time. "and she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb through the pattern- it strangles so; I think that is why it has so many heads." This quote again reitterates the fact that women are being held down and are almost prisoners of their own home. Too much thinking or even activity being looked down upon, it is almost hard not to look at the situation that society puts women into at the time, as a jail. Gilman is definately writing to get our attention about a gross injustice that needed to be changed. The whole womens rights movement was a slow moving beast but without the writings of peope such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman noned of the events that followed would have been possable at all.

Bierce Journal

Jonathan Harrison Jan 10, 2009
Author Ambrose Bierce

"The sardonic view of human nature that informed his work- along with his vehemence as a critic- earned him the nickname of Bitter Bierce." (wikipedia)

The story " An Occurance at Owl Creek Ridge" had an overall depressing tone to it. One follows the main character and once he sees the light he is killed. The tone definately reflects the authors opinions of the time and the quote shows that This story is most not an aborition but a prime example of the style in which Bierce embraces.

This nickname, of Bitter Bierce, seems to fit Ambrose like a glove as the story "An occurance at Owl Creek Ridge," shows that it takes extreme situations for human beings to realize what they have, and the ending, in which Peyton Farquhar realizes too late all the beauties that life beholds, is an example of this bitterness as one starts to feel the joy that Peyton does only to have it ripped away by his death. It is clear that the main point Bierce is trying to get humankind to notice by writing this story is to appreciate all the little things that life has to offer. He would like the human race to enjoy what they have instead of always wanting more. After Peyton brakes free from his noose, or so he thinks, everything around him changes. He picks up the sand and it looks like diamonds, rubies and emaralds. he glances up at the trees and they looked like a giant beautiful garden rich with all sorts of naturall fragrances. The point Ambrose is making is that we shouldn't have to be put to the brink of death to start to appreciate such little pleasentries that life presents us with. We should play the hand of cards that we are all dealt and play them to the fullest instead of what some people do by immediately folding. Ambrose Bierce may be nicknamed Bitter Bierce but he has some good thoughts and ideas that all humankind should think about. If greed and the want for more disappered would their still be wars, famine or other majoir problems, maybe maybe not, but most people would be a little bit happier if they realized what they had instead of longing for what they don't.