Native Son Essays (Examples)

(right, 1940, p. 334) Rather than Christian suffering and forbearance of societal ills, Marxism provides a clear contrast in its attempted explanation of suffering in the world as an economic as well as a racially-based class conflict. The chauffer and servant was placed near wealth, luxury, and a society that deemed him barbaric, and both hite and Black, wealthy and poor representatives of this unequal class and racial division were harmed as a result

hen right later renounced communism, he did so because he confessed that his infatuation with the ideology was more personal than economic. "It was not the economics of Communism, nor the great power of trade unionism, nor the excitement of underground politics that claimed me; my attention was caught by the similarity of the experiences of workers in other lands, by the possibility of uniting scattered but kindred peoples into a whole...In my concrete relations with…

"Hate and shame boiled in him against the people behind his back; he tried to think of words that would defy him...And at the same time he wanted those words to stop the tears of his mother and sister, to quiet and sooth the anger of his brother..." ith all that has happened and with his being incarcerated with little hope of surviving, he is able to think about the pain he has caused his mother and sister and brother, and this gives Bigger some depth in the mind of the reader.

The character Buckley, acting as state's attorney (prosecutor) in the courtroom, helps convey an impression for the reader of what life was like for an accused black man in the 1940s. Of course the evidence seems overwhelming against Bigger; and the lurid idea of a black man burning one woman, severing the head of another white woman is…

Native Son

Shards of a Man

Bigger Thomas was born from the recesses of the experience of Richard Wright, all throughout the varying stages of his life. The author encountered a number of individuals, beginning with his childhood in Mississippi, who were decidedly countercultural as well as antisocial, who thought only to do whatsoever they pleased, and who were fated to live with the consequences, whatsoever those may be. Oftentimes, these Bigger Thomas's who White would eventually base the protagonist in his novel Native Son upon, were African-American, and were reviled by and rebelled against the Jim Crow system that disenfranchised them. Later in the author's life, particularly when he spent some time in Chicago, he would contend that he met other Bigger Thomas's; these latter of which happened to be of a Caucasian nationality. Wright was able to make a composite for his protagonist out of all the Bigger…

The author does not include figurative language in this passage; instead, he uses descriptive language to get his point across. The language of this passage is lyrical and yet frightening at the same time. Wright uses this language to paint mental pictures of the Communists, but he also lays the groundwork for the two Communists that appear in the story, Max and Jan. Bigger does not understand Communism, but as his life disintegrates, he turns to two members of the Party for help, either by choice or by chance. These two men, however, do not understand him any more than he understands them. This indicates the gap between people that always exists, mo matter color or race, and it indicates that most people really do not take the time to understand each other. Figurative language would not have worked in this passage, because Wright was convening feeling and emotion, rather…

Native Son: The Psychological Effects of Racism

"Notes of a Native Son" is James Baldwin's true account of his experience as an African-American. ritten in 1943, it describes what society was like at that time and what place the African-American person had at that time. Most notably, the society of the time was one where African-Americans were separated from white people. Baldwin's essay describes his process of realizing his place in society and coming to terms with it. In short, it is an essay about a man realizing that he lives in a racist society and how this impacts him. As well as showing Baldwin's own experience, the essay also shows the experience of his father. It is also seen that there is a significant gap between Baldwin and his father, with this representing a division in the black community. By the combination of these three issues, "Notes of a…

Max is one of the central characters of the novel when it comes to the issues of Marxism because he blames capitalism entirely for the inequality of blacks; he believes that it is capitalism that has kept the black people oppressed. Max tries to show the jury that the case is not just about one black man and one black woman, but rather, it is about millions of blacks that have been kept down, all the while desperately trying to rise to the class status that white people have.

Marx and Engels speculated that literature reflects and sustains the material life of a society. To look at this idea and apply it Wright's use of the novel, we can see that the material conditions of igger's life -- what he ate, how he made money, what he did for work, determined his ideas. Furthermore, Mr. Dalton's material conditions determined his…

right therefore suggests that race and social class are intimately related.

In Part One of the novel, Bigger expresses his primitive understanding of class struggle when he states, "Sure, it was all a game and white people knew how to play it," (37). People with economic and political power are the main obstacles to racial equality; characters like Buckley also show how class conflict is even more important than race. Native Son is also a Marxist novel because Bigger demonstrates that class conflict is a deep problem in society. Poverty makes Bigger feel anxious, afraid, mistrustful, and powerless. The only reason why he accepts the chauffeur job is because he is poor. Bigger's unfortunate string of murders occurred as a result of Bigger's sense of powerlessness. The only characters who speak to Bigger as if he were an equal happen to all be communists: Mary, Jan, and Boris Max. Bigger…

Richard right's Native Son, that character of Bigger is at times both a victim and a sacrificial figure. The horrible events of his life are shaped by the hopelessness and racism of his environment. As such, right manages to create a form of compassion for Bigger, a man whose life was largely predetermined by his environment. Eventually, Bigger realizes that a violent attack against white society was the only option available to him, in the overwhelming despair and hopelessness of the inner city. right manages to create a feeling of compassion and understanding, if not for the horrible acts of Bigger himself, but for the racism and hopelessness of his situation.

Richard right was born in 1908 in Adams County, Mississippi into a life of poverty and racial discrimination that would eventually color his writing. He was the eldest of two boys, and knew from the age of 15 that…

(21) In one scene, the men pretend to be making a business phone call and they speak like how they imagine white businessmen to speak. The game may seem insignificant but it is telling because Bigger and Gus are demonstrating that they are constantly aware that they are different and will never achieve some of the things that white men achieve. Bigger states, "They don't let us do nothing," (22), indicating a sense of hopelessness. This sentiment is further explained when Bigger states, "The got things and we ain't. They do things and we can't. It's just like living in jail" (23). This type of separation from the rest of society is the very thing that drives Bigger to behave the way he does. He feels a sense of loss even at being born and this frustration is released through violent behavior.

Bigger comes to be what others expect of…

Rem Edwards: "The naturalist is one who affirms that only nature exists and by implication that the supernatural does not exist... The natural world is all of reality; it is all there is; there is no 'other world' "

Literature works throughout the history have been influenced deeply by naturalism and its branches. Naturalism originally is a doctrine dealing with a definite force that exists and functions according to certain laws, is stable and keeps repeating its cycles all the time. The leading for according to this doctrine is nature. Every single thing should obey the laws of nature and there is no other way to exist except the way of following whatever is supposed to happen according the natural forces. Naturalism in terms of literature is a special perception of the reality of the world around us. Everything happening around us seems to be an experiment held by nature.…

Black Elk utilizes his visions to create understanding of nearly all things he is later exposed to. The discussion in closing will further illuminate his utilization of vision, to ask for help for his people in a time of crisis.

To discuss the vertical model of artistic communication it is difficult to narrow the filed to just one example, as Native American literature, and to a lesser degree film have become somewhat prolific as genres. Two authors who build upon this tradition are Scott Momaday and Alexie Sherman as they are significant and prolific writers of Indian tradition. Each has written and published several works, including a variety of genres, that all attempt to translate the oral traditions of their nations into a written form that contains the expression of the oral tradition.

In Alexie Sherman's collection of short stories, the Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven he offers…

Mary Rowlandson, Hannah Dustin, and Mary Jamison coped with captivity in their own way. The stories of their captivity revealed the great variety of customs among native American through the greatly different treatment afforded to the three women. Depending on the customs of the tribe that they encountered, or the specific political situation, each of the women was treated differently as either prisoners of war, slaves, or adopted as family members. Natives took captives in order to show their resistance to the settler's occupation of their land, as a custom to increase the members of their tribe, or even for monetary gain.

Mary hite Rowlandson, wife of Puritan minister Joseph Rowlandson, was captured by native Americans in February of 1676. During this time, King Philip, the leader of the ampanoag tribe of southern Massachusetts organized a rebellion against the incursion of white settlers on native land. In total 23 settlers…

Visits home were frowned upon and discouraged, and most Indian families could not afford to pay for the long journey home from the schools, so children remained there year-round until their schooling was complete in many cases.

However, many families did see the worth of a formal education for their children. Author Child notes, "Still, many Ojibwe parents, persuaded of the importance of an education or learning a trade for their child's future, would have agreed with the North Dakota father whose son and daughter attended Flandreau when he expressed his desire for their success in school and wish to keep them there, 'as much as we can stand it'" (Child 54). These parents often hoped their children would receive an education, but also learn a trade, so they could make their way in the world as adults. In theory, children attended school for half the day, and then learned…

Elizabeth Bishop's, "Filling Station"

Elizabeth Bishops poem "Filling Station" is about the poet's ability to see something magnificent in the most ordinary of things. It is through the observation of a dirty filling station that Bishop is able to see an example of love. Bishop is known by her skill of employing imagery with attention to detail. (Lauter 2294) In "Filling Station,"she successfully transforms a greasy filling station into a place that displays expressions of love. By engaging the reader in the poem by posing questions, she is asking the reader to look beyond what is on the surface and search for something more.

Bishop has selected the perfect subject for the topic of her poem, as most people would not find a filling station attractive nor would most people stop to think about a filling station -- in one way or another. Although it is just a dirty, greasy…

Native Americans- evisiting the Struggles of 1680

What were the causes of the Pueblo revolt of 1680?

In the year 1680, Native Americans known as the Pueblo revolted against their Spanish conquerors in the American South West (Calloway, 2003). The Spaniards had dominated their lives, their souls and their lands for over eighty years. The Spanish colonists conquered and maintained their rule with terror and intimidation from the beginning when their troops under the command of Juan de Onate invaded the region in 1598 (Countryman 2013). When the natives in Acoma resisted, Oriate commanded that for all men over the age of 15 one leg should be chopped and the rest of the population should be enslaved, setting the tone for what was to be a brutal rule for the next 8 decades. The Pueblo people then rose as one community united by their resolve to unshackle the chains of…

Cultural Binary Opposition Demystified

Although it was initially created for popular consumption, there are a number of varying points of academic interest found in Karl May's novel Winnetou, The Chief of the Apache Part 1 Enters Old Shatterhand. This work is actually a study in post-colonialism and indicates many of the different mores that were popularized to propagate colonial notions. Perhaps the most important of these pertains to the conceptions of culture that are evinced in this novel, and which are typified in colonial endeavors almost anywhere throughout the course of history. Specifically, the notion of binary opposition emerges as one of the chief justifications for the colonization found in May's novel. Binary opposition is the diametric polarization of a pair of cultures -- in the case of May's novel, these include that of the Eurocentric westerner and that of the Native American. In May's work, the Eurocentric westerner perceives…

narrator's life and memories of growing up in the Chinese countryside, and how leaving them behind has disillusioned and depressed the narrator. "My Old Home" tells the story of a Chinese man returning to his old home to help his mother and nephew move away. It is a beautiful narrative that celebrates the beauty and intensity of rural China, but it paints a sad picture of where China is heading, and what her people are leaving behind.

Essentially, this story shows that you can "never go home again," an enduring theme in much of the world's literature. In this case, a grown man (the narrator) with a family and a job in the city goes back to his rural home to help his family move away. Like most adults, the home he remembers as "grand" as a child is now old and shabby. He thinks the home is not what…

Mookie's frustrated acts show that violence is sometimes justified as a means of "self-defense," in Malcolm X's words. Bigger did not have access to the words of wisdom of either Malcolm X or Martin Luther King Jr. More importantly, Bigger did not have access to a community of like-minded African-Americans who could sympathize with if not totally condone the use of violence to preserve cultural integrity and pride.

Mookie and Bigger are remarkably similar, proving that little has actually changed for African-Americans in terms of gaining social and political power even after the Civil Rights movement. Richard Wright's novel Native Son illustrates the extent of racial discrimination during the early half of the twentieth century; Spike Lee's movie "Do the Right Thing" reveals the extent of racial discrimination during the latter half of the century. The protagonists in Native Son and "Do the Right Thing" live in different times and…

(92 -- 93) There is rage toward white America in that because of the prejudice many black were not able to fulfill their potential or even live simple lives unimpeded. This is the kind of rage that is expressed in his poetry, such as "Dream Deferred." It is not so much that he has specific hate, at least not expressed here, but that he has rage because he knows more of the strength and beauty of his own people that is denied and undervalued by the white majority of that time.

Baldwin's rage makes him reflective. This entire piece is a type of reflection; it is a short memoir. Baldwin does what most artists do: he channels his rage into his art. Baldwin works through his rage, uses his writing a type of therapy to understand, describe, and diminish his rage. He is not a victim his rage to a…

The decision of the pilot to crush the plane in the city can have no valid motivation and is deeply painful for Jimmy who feels betrayed by his student. The pilot who decides to crash the plane is a further stereotype, an incarnation of the belief that people belonging to the same cultural space as him are most likely to engage in terrorist acts.

Throughout his transformations, Zits realizes that he has done many mistakes in the past. In fact, he interprets the negative situations in which he is cast as a sort of divine punishment for his bad behavior in the past. He feels as if the violence episodes are supposed to make him learn from his mistakes- a task which he successfully performs.

Looking at the episodes in which Zits plays the main role, the reader realizes that Alexie is actually describing the history of the American people.…

American Lit

Definition of Modernism and Three Examples

Indeed, creating a true and solid definition of modernism is exceptionally difficult, and even most of the more scholarly critical accounts of the so-called modernist movement tend to divide the category into more or less two different movements, being what is known as "high modernism," which reflected the erudition and scholarly experimentalism of Eliot, Joyce, and Pound, and the so-called "low modernism" of later American practitioners, such as William Carlos Williams. Nonetheless, despite the problems of reification involved with such a task, I will attempt to invoke a definitions of at least some traits of modernism, as culled from the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics:

First, [in modernism] "realization" had to replace description, so that instead of copying the external world the work could render it in an image insisting on its own forms of reality... [and] Second, the poets develop…

Keepin' it real -- Real-ism, that is: Today's 'take' on John Singleton's 1991 film, "Boyz in the Hood"

The pummeling hip-hop soundtrack immediately sets the tone for "Boyz in the Hood." This film's musical sound signals to the viewer that it is produced by someone who knows the street, because it sounds like the street, screams like the street -- a particular kind of neighborhood street -- that of the 'hood.' The film's early use of quick cuts in a montage that introduces the main protagonists and the neighborhood to the viewer and its sharp, guttural dialogue suggest that the director is 'really' going to show to the viewer how people 'really' and authentically communicate in real, urban street life.

The use of short sentences and monosyllables in many films that attempt to seem realistic is often also used to show individuals who know each other well, like brothers and…

On the threshold of the Civil Rights movement, Baldwin would publish
Notes of a Native Son. Though 1953's Go Tell It On The Mountain would be
perhaps Baldwin's best known work, it is this explicitly referential
dialogic follow-up to right's
Native Son that would invoke some of the most compelling insights which
Baldwin would have to offer on the subject of American racism. This is,
indeed, a most effectively lucid examination from the perspective of a
deeply self-conscious writer enduring the twin marks in a nation of
virulent prejudice of being both African American and homosexual. The
result of this vantage is a set of essays that reaches accord with right's
conception of the socially devastating impact of segregation on the psyche,
conscience and real opportunity but also one that takes issue with the
brutality of Bigger, a decidedly negative image to be invoked of the black
man in America.…

They were followed in 1936 by the Harlem River Houses, a more modest experiment in housing projects. And by 1964, nine giant public housing projects had been constructed in the neighborhood, housing over 41,000 people [see also Tritter; Pinckney and oock].

The roots of Harlem's various pre 1960's-era movements for African-American equality began growing years before the Harlem Renaissance itself, and were still alive long after the Harlem Renaissance ended. For example:

The NAACP became active in Harlem in 1910 and Marcus Garvey's Universal

Negro Improvement Organization in 1916. The NAACP chapter there soon grew to be the largest in the country. Activist a. Philip Randolph lived in Harlem and published the radical magazine the Messenger starting in 1917.

It was from Harlem that he organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car

Porters. .E.B. DuBois lived and published in Harlem in the 1920s, as did

James eldon Johnson and Marcus Garvey.…

Tracing these developments in the novel, the succeeding discussion illustrates the character transition of the protagonist through his relationships and interaction with other characters in the novel.

As a discriminated individual, Bigger had learned not to expect more from his community and society, limiting his dreams in life by earning just enough money to allow him and his family to eat for a day, as well as provide for some basic needs. right provides a glimpse of Bigger's psyche, which explained why his behavior and attitude towards life was full of bitterness and limitations (13):

He hated his family because he knew that they were suffering and that he was powerless to help them. He knew that the moment he allowed himself to feel to its fullness how they lived, the shame and misery of their lives, he would be swept out of himself with fear and despair. So he…

Man Who Almost Was a Man," by Richard Wright, explains how the non-literary dimension changes one's understanding of the story.

The Man Who Was Almost a Man"

Richard Wright was one of the greatest African-American writers; he was also the first African-American to have produced one of the famous novel of racism and its psychological affect on the individuals in his masterpiece "Native on." Born in 1908 in Mississippi, Wright father left the family when he was only six years old and when he was ten his mother had a paralytic stroke and was unable to work. Wright after a formal education was forced to seek employment in order to support his family. The first half of the twentieth century was a crucial period for the African-Americans, the discrimination against them had taken a different form and shape and there were little jobs available for the black people. Wright worked…

Smith & Walke

Both Smith and Walke who wite about the plight of black people and the feelings of inevitability and acism can invoke in Black people and in thei lives. A significant diffeence between the poem and the shot stoy is the geneation and age of the individuals. Wheeas Walke's shot stoy is concened with the acism and pain expeienced by an eldely Afican-Ameican woman in the post-civil ights ea, Smith is concened with a young woman in the same ea. The eldely woman is in ual county and the young woman, as evidenced by Smith's efeence to 'Motown' is in an uban setting. The disconnect both women feel fom both thei bodies and fom thei suoundings is the unifying thead that binds these two seemingly dispaate stoies. I am inteested in exploing the theme of alienation fom one's suoundings and fom one's body that lie at the heat…

Black Experience in American Culture

This is a paper that analyzes the black experience in American culture as presented by Hughes, Baldwin, Wright and Ellison. It has 20 sources in MLA format.

African-American authors have influenced American culture as they have come forward to present issues that the society would rather have forgotten. Authors such as ichard Wright alph Ellison, Langston Hughes and James Baldwin have come under fire as they have written about the racial and biased experiences throughout their life [Capetti, 2001] and through their narratives they have forged a link between the past, the present (themselves) and their future (the unborn generation).

These literary works are an effort on their part to prove to their nations that regardless of the perceived realities their existence and lives have valuable. The slave past some of these authors have had created a void in their lives that at times left…

Capital Punishment: A Capital Offense in Today's Easily Misguided orld

The debate surrounding the usage of capital punishment in the modern era has raged for generations. hile there have always been arguments for the positive aspects of capital punishment, today's world is less optimistic about the death penalty -- and with good reason. The death penalty affects more than just the convicted, it affects all of society. In order to show why capital punishment should be avoided, it is helpful to draw lessons from history, literature, and psychology.

The historical case for capital punishment has long been made. Capital punishment has existed in every major society in one form or another throughout the centuries. As Michael Kronenwetter states, in every society "all punishment is based on the same simple proposition: There must be a penalty for wrongdoing" (1). Kronenwetter is correct in asserting as much: all major societies have had…

Fences

Playwright August ilson won two Pulitzers in his illustrious career. In The Pittsburgh Cycle, ilson wrote a series of plays each depicting a different decade in the lives of African-Americans living in the United States. Of these, Fences, takes place in the 1950s and features the problems not only of the African-American experience, but also the situation of societal oppression indicative of that period. At the heart of the play is protagonist Troy Maxson. His actions result in comedy and tragedy for all of the characters around him, making him the center of this universe that ilson has created, representing the tumultuous time period in which the play takes place. August ilson has stated that the character is based upon his own step-father, David Bedford providing the story with an autobiographical context. ilson uses his own perception of his step-father in order to illustrate a story about the difficulties…

62), a society with "shallow-rooted" norms (p. 177), a "meager and difficult place" as opposed to the expansive way Ruth wishes to grow as a woman. (p. 178) Helen's storm inside, this mother's crisis of identity, has parallels not with Baldwin's women, but with characters such as the Reverend Henry, whose anger at hite society can only be expressed in a eulogy over his beloved son's casket. Extremity in both the apparently placid Henry and Helen brings forth rage and despair, but while at least Henry's male rage is life-affirming, urging his community to go on in the face of the death of a young person, Helen's actions are regressive, infantile, returning to her father, and do not occur as an act of social protest.

The gendered constructions of mourning and identity formulation for Helen's daughters Ruth and Lucille also indicate the limited repertoire the Housekeeping society provides for women…

James Baldwin and "Sonny's Blues"

African-American James Baldwin (1924-1987) was born in Harlem in New York City, the son of a Pentecostal minister (Kennedy and Gioia 53). Much of Baldwin's work, which includes three novels and numerous short stories and essays, describes conflicts, dilemmas, obstacles, and choices faced by African-Americans in modern-day white-dominated society, and ways, good and bad, that African-Americans either surmount or fall victim to racial prejudices, stereotypes, temptations and inner conflicts. Baldwin's best-known work, the novel Go Tell It on the Mountain (1957) describes a single day in the lives of several members of a church in Harlem (Kennedy and Gioia). James Baldwin is also the author of two other novels, Giovanni's Room (1956) and Another Country (1962), both of which deal with homosexual experience, and a collection of essays, Notes of a Native Son (1955) (Kennedy and Gioia).

In the short story "Sonny's Blues (1957), Baldwin's…

This has been represented through both advertisement campaigns highlighting individual beauty and greater media attention to those who do not bear resemblance to traditional images of beauty. In "sex, lies and advertising," it is evident that the use of magazines and other advertising mediums are the direct correlation to why so many women feel that they need to change themselves. These images however all false in nature since they do not accurate depict what the feminine form and beauty is. There is no strong conflict of interest between women's magazines and beauty products because the idea of beauty is now so deeply entrenched in social and cultural frameworks those magazines will not shake the desire of women to want to be beautiful. Furthermore, the prevalence of women's magazines only makes the problem appear more subliminal and give people the false sense of acceptance that is not in fact present.

All…

Lost in Translation

This story is a typical immigrant success tale. It is a rich and an ambiguous story with the first section of the narrative representing, "Paradise," and revolves around Hoffman's childhood and adolescence in Cracow. The most prominent image in Eva Hoffman's mind during her family's immigration to Canada was the crowd gathered at the shore to see the ship off. She was thirteen years old and left Gdynia, Poland together with her father, mother, and younger sister. To her the crowd at the shore waving at them as the ship drifted away, was symbolic, it meant the end of everything she knew. Deep inside her there was sorrow and pain, she never wanted to leave Poland. As they journey on, her memory is filled with the loss she has suffered, Cracow a place she loved just as one would love a person. Her mind wonders around the…

Abstract

This paper examines the death penalty as a deterrent and argues that states have not only the right but the duty to apply the death penalty to criminal cases because it is incumbent upon states to back the law with force. The death penalty acts as a forceful and compelling consequence for those who should choose to violate the law and commit murder. For that reason it can be said to be a deterrent. This paper also examines the opposing arguments and shows that those would say it is not an effective deterrent cannot offer any quantitative proof for this argument because no measurements exist that could possibly render such a claim factual or provable. The paper concludes by showing that the death penalty should only be administered in states where there is harmony between social justice and criminal justice.

Introduction

While it may seem ironic that the death…

Biblical Argument

illiam Apess and the Biblical argument against racism

As a Native American who lived through the end of the 18th century and first 39 years of the 19th century, illiam Apess was subjected to extreme levels of racial prejudice. Indeed, the years during which Apess was most prolific as an author corresponded with the Presidential term of Andrew Jackson, a figure whose political platform included the mistreatment (and eradication) of Native Americans. As the son of a former slave and a member of the Pequot Native American tribe, Apess was exposed to significant racial injustice. However, he was also an Evangelical Christian, and used his extensive knowledge of the Bible as a platform through which to argue against racism. He also advocated for Native Americans to receive a formal education, and his own writing testifies to the power that education can have in influencing popular belief. Drawing from…

Dead Man's Walk

In the stories of the Wild West, there is always a white man in a white hat who serves as the hero of the story. The villain is always the other white man in the black hat. Symbolically, the villain becomes a racial other because of the color of his hat. When a black hat cannot be found, the other villain of a western will be the Native American, more commonly referred to as the Indian, since calling them by the more politically correct term would be anachronistic. This is a tradition of American stories of the Wild West where the white man, no matter what his character is, will always be heroic in comparison to the villainous other. In the movie version of Larry McMurtry's novel Dead Man's Walk, the heroes of the story are intended to be the Caucasian Texas Rangers and the villains are…

ritish agricultural revolution and English settlement patterns in their colonies in New England. It is the authors contention that the world view of the English influenced their agricultural practices and the way that these practices changed the ecology of the land in New England. While largely a failure as a commercial enterprise in New England, it did however have commonalities with the Middle and Southern colonies, a relentless drive West and a decimation of Native American cultures and populations. Needless to say, there were huge differences between this English world view and English agricultural policies and the Native American world view, agricultural practices and approach to the environment.

While agriculture was largely a failure as a commercial enterprise in New England, the idea in the English settlers mind to keep pushing West to find arable land was alive and well and continued throughout the colonial period. Surprisingly enough, this English…

Colonial America: Questions

Puritans

Unlike previous European settlers who came to the New World primarily to make a profit, the Puritans arrived with a commitment to create a new society and genuinely 'settle' on the land. They had no plans to return to England, given that they had been cast out of the Old World because of their religious beliefs. Unlike the settlers at Jamestown, they came prepared to work hard, and did not hope to simply make a quick profit and return to England rich, having done little labor. They believed in the value of hard work as part of their religious philosophy. They believed God had quite literally 'chosen' them to know the truth, which sustained them during times of suffering. During the first years, however, like previous colonists, they did struggle to stay alive. The winter was harsh, and they were forced to adapt their crops and…

goal of early Americans was to expand out est. Early settlers believed the est housed new opportunities, gold, land, and most of all freedom. However with the expansion came controversy. Native Americans, the people that lived in America before European settlement, were pushed and forced out of their homelands. Little by little Native Americans endured not only racism and ridicule, but also involuntary migrations to new and less fertile areas. Because of the difference in political and social arrangement of Native Americans to American ones, the white settlers went under the assumption that Native Americans were not capable of possessing land. However they were seen as spiritual and in harmony with nature. That is why in literature, Native Americans often became romantic heroes in one light and negative stereotypes in the other. In the 19th century, the literature of the time represented Native Americans based off of perceived racial stereotypes,…

This intervention by U.S. In a foreign country, in literal words, changed the course of history for the whole world and still its outcomes are yet, to be decided.

The attack on U.S. By Al-Qaeda, on 11th September, 1998, changed the course of American paradigm of Muslims and gave a strong cause for George Bush's "ar against Terrorism." here thousands of American citizens died in Twin Towers, so did the global efforts of maintaining peace between estern and Muslim countries.

Right after, this attack, U.S. invaded Afghanistan initially through Missile attacks and then landed its troops into this land of rocks, physically. Thousands of American soldiers were deputed there and made to fight the mujahids of Al-Qaeda who were rather well-versed with the seasonal feasibility of their land.

Therefore, initially, U.S. army did faced a lot of difficulties, mainly because of weather and foreignness of the war field. However with…

Smoke Signals directed by Chris Eyre. Specifically it will discuss what the film is attempting to say to us.

"Smoke Signals" made history because it was the first film made by Native Americans, and acted by Native Americans. The story is really about two young men coming of age and learning to accept each other, and their past, to move ahead in life.

The textbook calls Native American history "among the most intriguing in history, that has captivated scholars for centuries" (Gibson 2). This film is a natural evolution of that history. It is natural that Native Americans would want to tell their own story on film, and this film is the culmination of Native Americans working together to tell their own story. Victor and Thomas have to come to terms with their past in order to move on with their lives in this film. That past revolves around Arnold,…

Jeremiah has a wedding that symbolizes the union of American and American Indian customs; a mix of the two very different peoples. After settling down and creating an ideal life, Jeremiah is forced into the U.S. Army, and leaves his cottage in order to do what the 'authority' wants. Against his wishes, the Calvary goes through sacred Blackfoot land, and as a result, Jeremiah's family is killed.

This scene is very shocking, but should not have been surprising to Jeremiah. He chose to forget his lessons of mountainhood that he had learned, and he did not respect the local people. As a result of this, and his attachment to the possessions that he had brought to the land, he was unable to conquer the rugged territory that he had first faced at the beginning of the movie, bringing about the lessons of life and hardship in the American West.

Jeremiah…

For example, in addition to designating "wol-la-chee," meaning "ant," for a, "be-la-sana" and "tse-nihl," which meant "apple" and "axe," respectively, were also designated for the letter a. The original 211 vocabulary terms were also expanded to 411.

Jevec, and Potter 262)

There is a clear sense that the development of the system was essential to the development of the role as a native American soldier and the idea that the code talker was likely supporting a member of his own native or another native nation from America on the ground likely aided in the desire to fulfill the role of a code talker. It was in fact a highly sought after position that served many fundamental and secondary purposes, not the least of which was the recognition of the value and complexity of a language that had previously been ignored and even subverted, as an "uncivilized" expression by an "uncivilized"…

Race and Ethnic Inclusion and Exclusion

In Ira erlin's (1998) Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America, the author shows how groups in the U.S. struggled to exclude other groups. White people made a serious effort to exclude black people from anything other than the most menial jobs for a very long time (Davidson, 2005; Gasorek, 1998). The desire to exclude was based on skin color and race, but there was also an element of inclusion in that black people were included in one group based on their skin color, and were not seen as individuals who were unique people based on their own merits (Sherif, 1967; Tajfel & Turner, 1979).

lack people struggled to gain access to institutions and status as they developed their own identities in an area with which they were unfamiliar (erlin, 1998). They became soldiers and worked as artisans, along…

Kennewick Man

Certainly it is important to honor the cultural heritage of the past; however there is a limit to the amount of restitution that needs to be repaid to cultures. In the article "Antiquities, the orld is your Homeland," author Edward Rothstein (2008) explains that throughout the world countries are demanding a return of their ancient artifacts to the homeland, the land of their origin. The problem with this is that many of the ancient cultures do not exist anymore. For example, Greece has demanded a return of anything Greek which has left the country, but modern Greece is as far removed from Ancient Greece as Great Britain is removed from the time of the Norman Conquest. It is a wholly new civilization with little resemblance to the ancient state. Yet, the country demands that since it has the same name and occupies some of the same land, they…

This dance was very powerful as it did scare the European people. They did not fully understand the reason behind the dance and the religion, but they were very clear as to what the apocalypse was and they wondered if the Indians were somehow summoning the end of the world. Not soon after this Ghost dance caused such a commotion, an Indian by the name of Handsome Lake who was a leader for the Seneca tribe brought a new message to the Iroquois people. His message was to end the drinking. The Iroquois people had began to drink a lot of alcohol that was often offered to them from the European people during the fur trade. Handsome Lake believed that many of the problems that the Iroquois people faced was related to the alcohol. Many of the Indian people were drunk when they were trying to handle problems of poverty…

Deepest Impression, Describe Work Influenced Explain

Although there was a good deal of writers that I read in this particular class, I would have to say that the one who made the deepest impression on me was Jack London. Specifically, I found myself enthralled by London's short story/essay entitled "The Law of Life." There were numerous facets of this story that were captivating. One of the most essential of these was the profound realness that is everywhere within this tale. I also was fond of the characters. I have always liked Native Americans and Eskimos, and it was pretty pleasurable to read a short story devoted to them and their way of life. Due to these reasons and others, I am quite sure that my reading of this tale will stay with me for some time, and perhaps even influence the way I write and other works of fiction that…

Reactions

The apparent point here is that land traditionally belonging to native tribes will be used to mine in the interest of the developed world. It makes me feel both sad and powerless. I do not have all the information, but stories like this always make me feel that those with the greatest physical, technological, or financial power, or all three, tend to have more power than even those with the right to a certain piece of land or way of living.

The second point confirms the previous observation, that the consistent support of those in power has resulted in the approval of the project without any regard for the rights of those who have possessed the land for far longer. Again, this gives me a sense of powerlessness when faced with decisions by politicians who have only their own interest at heart.

This is far longer than the mere…

And farther west on the Great Plains were the Teton Sioux, among them the Oglalas, whose chief was Red Cloud, and among the Hunkpapas, was Sitting ull, who together with Crazy Horse of the Oglalas, would make history in 1876 at Little ig Horn (rown 10).

After years of broken promises, conflicts and massacres, came the Treaty of Fort Laramie, said to be the most important document in the history of Indian-white relations on the Great Plains (Marrin 94). The treaty basically set aside a Great Sioux Reservation on all of present-day South Dakota west of the Missouri River up to and including the lack Hills, and barred all whites except government officials from the reservation and from a vast "unceded" territory lying between the lack Hills and ighorn Mountains (Marrin 94). Under the treaty, these lands belonged to the Lakota "forever" unless three-quarters of the tribes' men agreed to…

Louvigny returned to Quebec and was considered by Canadians to have ended the first Fox War. He returned to the area in 1717 to continue the policing of the Meskwaki forces, yet made little progress in making contact or forcing the provisions of the previous treaty. In later communication with the government, Meskwaki chiefs expressed their own desire for peace. During the period between 1714 and 1727, the French were able to reopen waterways and move freely throughout the areas previously hindered by the danger of Indian encounters. However, other communications between the French and the American Indians were failing. Among these, the greatest failure was the inability of the French to include the Indian groups in the agricultural settlements they had attempted, including the one at Detroit.

Though the city groups of Indians and white men did not last, the area remained secure enough for the French and Americans…

The Bannock people in ashington State had held some Paiutes hostage during the Bannock ar, including Sarah's father. innemucca said she then felt compelled to travel to ashington to help rescue her father and the other Paiutes. Her role in the Bannock ar was integral and spurned Sarah to go on her speaking tours: innemucca worked for the United States Army translation service against the Bannock to help her people. Thus, she pitted herself willingly against another Native tribe. The conflict of interests was apparent to Sarah. hen she relayed the story I noted the sadness in her eyes, but she did not regret helping the Paiute escape from Yakima and return to Nevada.

For several days, I toured the state's many burgeoning silver mines, lead mines, and frontier towns as well as the Nevada-Oregon railroad that had recently been built with a hub in Reno. The frontier land was…

Paintbrush & Peacepipe: The Story of George Catlin, and George Catlin and the Old Frontier

Two books, Paintbrush & Peacepipe: The Story of George Catlin, by Anne Rockwell and George Catlin and the Old Frontier, by Harold McCracken, cover almost exactly the same subject matter and differ most significantly in tone and style according to the vastly different audiences to which each is directed.

The first book, Paintbrush and Peacepipe, 86 small pages in length, with 8 brief chapters and 15 illustrations, is written for children. By comparison, the second book, George Catlin and the Old Frontier, with its 209 oversized pages might seem a vastly superior presentation of George Catlin's biography. The artbook format of McCracken's work, with its 36 color and 118 black and white illustrations, is far more authoritative and detailed in its representation of the scope of Catlin's art. Yet, Paintbrush & Peacepipe, in it's minimalist…

Nowhere on earth is a thirteen-pound, six-foot long unit of 'scandal' or 'integrity' to be found, for example. Nor apparently can someone find a benchmark unit of 'race'.

The second thread runs through the slides 1887, 1934 and 1997. Jim Crow led to better homes for whites than Blacks even after they fought WWII side by side. What this demonstrates is one clear way we very literally live within the tangible outcome of discrimination today, and the Web site goes on to expand on this in "Where Race Lives" and "To See or Not To See" very convincingly. What interests me here is specifically the assertion that "Jim Crow unites poor and wealthy whites, while denying African-Americans equality." I do not contest that the U.S. legal, i.e. white, institution actively and deliberately removed non-whites' means to confront and dismantle discrimination at law. Nor do I contest that the intent of…

People's History of the U.S. By Zinn

The responses to the Indian removal campaign were as diverse as the tribes themselves. Some fought, some surrendered, and within some tribes, they did both. For one tribe, the Creek, there were those that chose to fight Andrew Jackson's troops and protect their land. In some cases, this involved aggressive attacks against U.S. encampments. Others within the Creek Nation chose to cooperate with U.S. troops, lured by the promise of friendly relations if they should comply. As such, they joined Jackson's forces in battle against their fellow tribe members. They were rewarded, after the U.S. massacre, with seizure of their land. Some Native American groups chose to sign treaties with the government and believed that they would be relocated to areas that were more secure. This was rarely true, and as a result indigenous people were shuttled from one place to another, often…

Another Alamo survivor, Enrique Esparza, recalled that Crockett was the "leading spirit" in the camp and provided support and advice to military commanders

illiam Travis and Jim Bowie. "Don Benito," as the Mexicans called him, went "to every exposed point and personally directed the fighting." (PBS Online).

In fact, Crockett's personality and tenacity served him up until the moment of his death. He was reportedly one of the last seven men defending the Alamo. However, Crockett did not have the dignity of dying in battle. hen Santa Anna entered the Alamo he ordered the execution of any survivors. "According to the diary of Mexican soldier Jose Enrique de la Pena, several Mexican officers hacked the prisoners to death with their swords." (PBS Online). However:

Crockett's reputation and that of the other survivors was not, as some have suggested, sullied by their capture. Their dignity and bravery was, in fact, further…

Divided Ground

The book the Divided Ground: Indians, Settlers, and the Northern Borderland of the American evolution by Alan Taylor is an engrossing and enlightening book of Native American history and perspective. It masterfully investigates the transition of the alliance of the Six Nations, (Iroquoia) from a cohesive nation with a central borderland, to the division into two, bordered lands, which transformed into New York State in America, and the Upper Canadian province in Canada. It shows this division from differing perspectives, and highlights how the Natives were mishandled, abused, and robbed of their traditional tribal lands through broken treaties, ignorance, and sometimes abhorrence.

The book centers on two historic friends who turned into bitter enemies, Mohawk Indian Joseph Brant, and white Samuel Kirkland, a clergyman's son. They were schoolmates at a school training them to teach and work with the Indians, but Kirkland became a revolutionary supporter, while Brant…

Nor did prospects improve for Hudson upon his return to England. There, Hudson was arrested in England for illegally sailing for the Dutch, and was accused of treason, a charge of which he was eventually cleared (Chadwick, 1997, "Henry Hudson's third voyage").

Charting unknown waters was difficult and dangerous during this era of European exploration. It was impossible to accurately determine longitude "Most sailors relied on 'dead reckoning' - the pilot's estimated ship's speed through the use of a logline," a "line with knots in it and a weighted wooden float attached to the end" (Chadwick, 1997, "Henry Hudson: Hudson's background and early years"). The other navigational tools available were a magnetic compass, using the North Star as a guide, and determining latitude through a quadrant, using "a plumb line" that "would hang straight down over the curved area to indicate the height of the [North] star in degrees (equivalent…

The scientists could then begin a genealogical study to exclude the possibility of a later introduction of the Y-chromosome into the family line (DNA Project website).

An archaeological dig was begun last summer at the oanoke site to see if any additional information can be determined about what took place. Scientists have done several excavations since the late 1940s, finding artifacts undoubtedly left by the colonists such as remains from Hariot's science laboratory. In 2000, National Park Service archaeologists with ground-penetrating radar found rectangular-shaped objects buried beneath several feet of sand. Yet they have not found the site of the colonists' village. Since some relics have found under water, it is possible that what is left of the settlement has eroded and is under water. Disagreement exists about this between researchers (National Geographic).

Despite their debates about where the colonial village may have been located, the experts agree that the…

Empire of the Summer Moon -- Non-Fiction American History Book

hat The Book Is About

In the various books about Native Americans published over the years and the myriad history classes students have taken, a great deal of information about Native Americans and their activities has been presented. Much has been written and chronicled about the Sioux and Apache tribes, but how many students who took high school history classes can name the Comanche Tribe as the most powerful Indian tribe in American history? And how many alert readers of the history of the American est can recall that the last and greatest chief of the Comanches was the mixed blood son of Caucasian pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker? These facts are all contained in the wonderfully written book by S.C. Gwynne, Empire of the Summer Moon.

The Comanche tribe -- according to the best accounts available to the author…