Week 8- Immigration

Now that we have completely left what can be considered non-modern America, in both classes, issues that now still exist within this country are starting to take front stage. One of the biggest issues in the early 1900's and even now are with the immigration policy of America. America has always and will always be, as longer as its core values are there, a land of opportunity for foreigners. America is a very unique country that way. Now, when so many people start coming to this country, it can become a serious issue. Because they are all so new and foreign to the way America is supposed to work, and what regular norms are, ( at that time), they can become economic burdens. They can't find jobs because they have minimal qualifications. They are treated like infants. This idea of infantalization is actually really interesting because it a repetition of history. Only in a less extreme form, compared to slavery and the treatment of the Native Americans. Until America is able to not think of other races, other people who have not yet established a big population in this country, this infantalization and racism will always continue. If we always think of ourselves as the solvers to all problems, and being superior to others, racism will continue.

Week 7- Assimilation

Assimilation, by definition is he process by which a person or persons acquire the social and psychological characteristics of a group. The Native Americans were as different as one could imagine when comparing two things. Like comparing night and day. The white man and Indians contrasted in almost all ways, except for the fact that they need food and water. As this country became almost completely dominated by Caucasians, it ended the process that began when the first settler landed in mainland America. It had almost completely wiped out all things needed for Native American life. Now, this started a new process. Assimilation. So what happens when you mix to things together that clearly should not be together? One dominates the other. In this case, the Indians adopted all things American. From big changes such as the name of a person and what someone eats to things of slightly less magnitude such as clothes. But these things all have affects on the 'conquered' group. They can being to lose their culture. Which is why I think it takes a lot of determination and commitment to do what that boy Luther did., which was to keep his beliefs. He knew that he had to ADOPT the ways of the white people, but this was not permanent. And he was able to go back to the reservation very similar to how he left it. A true Native American. So what I am trying to say with this is that assimilation s not permanent. Although people can be completely changed based on their surroundings and the people around them, they will (most of the time) have their heritage, in some form with them. Be it being comfortable in cultural clothing despite not wearing it for decades, old habits, or food. Assimilation is at most, temporary in its affects

Week 6-Literature

This week, I feel like we kind of trailed off into a more philosophical path. We talked less about events that happened and more about what was the thinking behind these events, and why these events happened. For this reason, instead of focusing primarily on American Studies and finding connections with American Literature, I will just talk about literature. I actually am really enjoying this poetry unit that we are doing currently in American Literature. I like trying to analyze poems, not stories, for their emotional meaning or appeal, because I feel like poems are more meant to be that way compared to stories. With novels and stories, mainly you are trying to tell a story that can entertain an audience. With poems, you still are telling a story at some level, but the emotion of the poet can show through more evidently and the intended message is more obvious. I also feel that with poems in contrast to with novels, we can pull out more of a variety of interpretations in comparison to novels. More people can come up with different things that make it, at least for me, more engaging to hear these different ideas, rather than just hear several people repeat the same things over and over when analyzing a book.

Week 5- Advantage

Having just finished talking about the Civil War, I want to talk a bit about the tactics that each side took during the war. The North were naturally more aggressive because they had more military power, and people. The South were engaging in more of a defensive battle because they were trying to focus on retaining their lands and rights, instead of imposing their will on the North. So with their fundamental strategy aside, what kind of battles did they fight? Well, looking at the Battle of Gettysburg will certainly give you a wrong impression of who was the aggressor. Southern General Lee tried to take the attacking route and invaded the North. At first, it seemed to work. They did not quite take the North by surprise, but they managed to get good a good attack on them. But this is where the advantage of the North lay, I think. Since they had a massive population relative to the South, including all the land to the west, even though they were caught slightly off guard, they could provide a sufficient enough stand, until their reinforcements could come. I also think they were smarter militarily because they started to use the geography to their advantage. All these things, showed that the North, from the beginning, had an advantage. They always had the ability to recover,even when the South had the surprised.

Week 4- Patriotism

The idea of patriotism to me is very defined in pre-Civil War times in American History. It is being proud of being American. However, because of slavery and the division of beliefs on slavery, among other issues, the Civil War happened, basically dividing the country. What interests me about the Civil War is just how different Southerners considered themselves from the North. How was a people who were so passionate about togetherness just 60 years ago all of a sudden be so split? Slavery and the differing use of slaves in the north and south is a main reason. After that, during the Civil War, the South became its own country, by all means except political. The South were passionate about their own new country, and were patriots for that country. They cared so much for the maintenance of the Confederate States of America, they fought a battle that they knew they had a very slim chance of winning. They cared so much, because they knew that the institution of slavery was almost completely necessary for them. So a patriot is not a person who supported the right cause or the cause that is most popular, but a person who supports a cause. A person who genuinely is proud to be a part of something. So even though the Confederate States of America was a doomed cause, the people of the South were proud to be Southerners. Therefore, by my reasoning, they are patriots for their beliefs.

Week 3- Slavery

Throughout this past week, we studied industrial slavery and its affects on masters, economy, and slaves themselves. Slavery in the mid 1800's was such a humongous thing. Meaning it effected almost everything Americans did. When creating new states and expanding the borders of the country, everytime, the debate of whether or not that state, be it Kentucky, Louisiana, or Alabama, would start up once again. In fact this issue got so big, that eventually congress had to pass a law stating that if the new territory was south of a specific point of latitude, it would be a slave state. If the territory was north of that line, it would be free. Both the Mason-Dixon Line and the Missouri Compromise dealt with this line. In terms of economy, some states, those in the South, became so dependent on slavery, that if for any reason it was to end, southern states would probably be utterly destroyed. This is because all labor was done by slave. Cotton had become the new tobacco, and the cotton gin made the business of slavery fifty times more profitable. So there was no reason for the South to try factories because the slave business was so good. The last effect of slavery is on the slaves themselves. Many people think that there were no revolts, that the slaves did not try to rise up and stand for themselves. That is simply not true. There were several of these revolts. Some were successful, some weren't but each came with the same risks. Either failing or succeeding, thousands of slaves, men women and children would be tortured to ensure they would not try to do this again. These are the general effects slavery had on America in the 1800s.

Week 2- Liberties

Liberty is a very broad word. This week in both American Literature and American Studies, the topic of liberties was addressed and what type of liberties separate groups of people got. The liberties of men, women, American Indians, and blacks were all discussed for varying amounts at different times during this week and a bit during last. Liberty is defined as either “the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views.” or , “the power or scope to act as one pleases”. The liberties of the Indians were greatly restricted, and their situation more applies to the first definition. The Indians were NOT in a free state, as their land was taken away and made to be for the Americans. In fact, according to Chief Justice John Marshall, the Americans were doing a favor to the Indians by civilizing the. Another unique set of liberties were those of the Lowell girls. They were textile workers in Lowell Massachusetts, a factory like those that were now popping up all over the country. They had rights like those of factory workers now. Hard work, yet eating breaks and long-term breaks also existed. These differences in how people were treated shows a lot about America in the 1800’s. Different people were granted different liberties. Thomas Jefferson’s famous claim that all men were created equal is put into even more speculation here. Why are different groups of people treated differently? If all men are created equal, then shouldn't slaves and women and American Indians all be treated the same? Liberties came and went for different groups of people, and these liberties were considered obvious for some while inconsiderable for others. That is why liberty is such a broad word in early America.

Week 1- Communication

I believe that most of the problems that people in those times encountered were because lack of communication or the inability to do so. There are many examples of this in both classes' pieces of literature, and the videos we have watched. The first example is from American Studies, the documentary we watched about Guns Germs and Steel. Both groups of people were not exactly sure what to do with one another because of the fact that they could not communicate very well at all. This led to each of them trying to outdo the other, which in turn led to the demolition of the Incas. Another example is from Lit. Equiano was a slave from Africa, and only knew the African version of slavery. However, nothing could have compared him to the form of slavery that was use in the Americas. Because he could not communicate with any Americans, he at times possibly didn't even know at times what he was supposed to be doing. The last example also comes from Studies. This one has to do with the Indians of the Massachusetts Bay area. They believed that they were signing a temporary contract that would allow them to still utilize the lands they had given away at any time they pleased. However this was not the case and led to thousand of deaths and a few Puritans dying. So from theses example its pretty clear to me that communication, especially when dealing with a new people, is vitally important, because if you cannot converse in one way or another, history show that bad things will happen.