Stories of the American Experience - Essay Example

?History of America A Different Mirror Chapter 2 In the second chapter, Takaki (2008) writes under the general heading of “The "Tempest" in the Wilderness: A Tale of Two Frontiers”. With this, the writer visits a historical antecedent is given to how the English took over major lands from the Irish and the Indians with various explanations as to why their actions, which were mostly dominated with violence, were justifiable. Some of the explanations that the writer finds as to why the English did what they did includes the fact that the English thought they had a divine right, backed by God-given rights to take charge of the land, which to them was in the hands of savages at the time. In a personal reflection of the chapter, it can be said that it was out of the self believe that the English had in their prowess that they succeeded in their quest to take land. Self-trust is therefore an important tool for possessing one’s dreams. Chapter 4 In this chapter, the writer gives a chronology of events that took place specifically from 1802 to 1832. Most of these events were on the relationship that the English had with the Indians. As at this time however, the English gave some level of respect to the Indians, allowing for the use of treaty in some of the cases of discourse over who should owe which piece of land. This was generally because federal laws, rather than state laws were operational in Indian territories (Wagner, 2006). From a person reflection, it is clear that the more organized a group of people are, the better it is that they will be approached with respect and dignity. This is because unlike in the second chapter when the English acted by force because of the absence of any laws among the Indians, the use of territorial laws helped in gaining respect from the English. Chapter 9 A lot had turned for the Indians in terms of their relationship with the English in the ninth chapter. This is because writing under the chapter heading of “The "Indian Question": From Reservation to Reorganization”, the writer gives a historical analysis of how the Indians had started gaining much self power to restructure their lands. Indeed, the implication of this change in trends was because the Indians had had a better identity of their personality. Clearly, the English had initially overpowered the Indians because they came as a united force. This time round, the Indians had learnt from the power of organization and unity and used it to their own defense (Wagner, 2006). Pages 361 – 371 Before the World War II, the Native American had had a perception that his core rights and freedoms were not being protected by the White American. This is because acts of human rights abuse and suppression of basic freedoms had gone on (Engelstad, 2005). Takaki (2008) therefore writes on the topic “Native Americans: "Why Fight the White Man's War?"” to depict the kind of dilemma that was going on within the Native Americans as to the sense in joining force for the American army. Clearly these pages of the book explain the need for equal rights and justice to prevail because no one knows the time that the services and inputs of people we disregard will become useful for our wellbeing. Kaleidoscope: Stories of the American Experience 21-31 From the 21st to the 31st pages, the writers present the story of the voyage that Giovanni da Verrazzano took in 1524. As a European, we read of Giovanni da Verrazzano taking an expedition to North America with a mission of exploring greater parts of the Atlantic coast and what is today known as Carolinas and Newfoundland (Engelstad, 2005). As the American history is being told therefore, homage will be paid to Giovanni da Verrazzano for being a torch that directed other people unto a land that has today come to be known as the America everyone is proud of. 75-90 From pages 75 to 90, the reader is told of “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson” where there is a visitation of Mary Rowlandson’s work. The author selects this story by Mary Rowlandson with two purposes in mind. The first is to give a historical assertion of the King Philip’s War, during which Rowlandson was held captive for 11 days. The second is to praise the place of the work of Rowlandson as one of America’s first bestsellers. 155-168 This chapter is titled “A son of the forest” and tells the story of how Native Americans and Europeans took to one other’s customers, beliefs and culture. From the perspective of the writer, this is written to trumpet the fact that two worlds can exist together in persistence to ensure growth and development. Indeed it is not surprising that America as it is known today is made up of such diversity. 280-287 Life among the Puites is revisited by the writers to tell the story of Mrs. Hopkins who came from the Pacific coast to the East to narrate the story of herself and her people to the new family she had come to make in the East. Very key among the reasons for retelling this story was to re-echo the fighting spirit of the indigenous American people and the zeal they have to defend what seems right and truthful to them as Mrs. Hopkins did. 374-389 Again, the writers take an approach of including Wah'Kon-Tah, originally Matthew Joseph John to drum home the need for peaceful coexistence among people from different cultural and racial backgrounds. This is because in the story, it is told of how the Osages acculturated themselves with the non-Indian community, taking up and sharing among each other, cultural perspectives in the areas of spirituality, humor, and dignity. Without any doubt, if the present American community needs anything to learn most from its history, it should be such lessons of cultural cohesion. 588-595 The story of The Way to Rainy Mountain is carried by the writers to pin down in historical timeline how the Momaday’s Kiowa ancestors settled near Rainy Mountain in Oklahoma of today. Indeed, the relevance of this story is to highlight the supremacy the ancient America through the United States Calvary at Fort Sill who defeated the Momaday's Kiowa ancestors and made them surrender to them. 643-647 These pages tell the short story, The Man to Send Rain Clouds, which tells the story of how an old man met his sudden death on a Pueblo Indian reservation. Though this story has several significant lessons of historical relevance, the writers included it to trumpet issue of conflicting spiritual traditions and Christian beliefs. For the current generation of American people who practice religious freedom, this is a historical antecedent on the need to do so in an atmosphere of peace and tolerance. 670-678 The Red Convertible is a 1984 story that focuses on the brotherly relationship between Lyman Lamartine and Henry, who were brothers. The narrator, who was Lyman give accounts of some of the best moments he had with Henry before Henry was deployed to Vietnam for the war. The essence of this story in the compilation is to pay homage to rich American brotherliness, which is an important tool for national growth and development. Native American Arts The cultural diversity in America is one of the most unique in the world. This is because in America, people from several originate backgrounds come together to form one large community of people who share a common dream and fight a common course (Doniger, 1999). Despite the differences in cultural orientation however, most people belonging to these sects of American cultures have kept their unique identities. It is said that in the absence of these unique cultural identities, one cannot boldly identify himself with his origins as an Africa, Indian, Spanish, and the like. Among the cultural groupings, one characteristic feature of the cultural values that each group of people holds is their art origins. Art and culture have thus been used in a closely match phenomena that it is now possible to identify the cultural background of a group of people by their arts (Engelstad, 2005). One of these closely preserved forms of art is the Native American arts. Indeed from the experience that Alexie share with Bill (2013), it is clear that Americans indeed give themselves an identity based on their cultural backgrounds and that one’s inability to conform to a specific culture makes the fellow a stranger leaving in America. It is for this reason that the Native American has not lost sight for its arts as key input to cultural identity. Some of the most identifiable Native America arts comes in many forms and include sand painting, pottery, baskets, carving, leather, basket, and wood. What is unique about this Native American art experience is that for a very long time, the Native American have kept these as sacred and boundless (Wagner, 2006). That is, from generation to generation, the indigenous American has adapted himself to these forms of art without a meander from it. Specifically for the Indian psyche, the most outstanding feature of the art is that they do not perceive and follow art just for the sake of art but for religious purposes, seeing native art as a way to worship gods (Doniger, 1999). Judging from the way and manner in which inequality continues to exist among Americans, creating very vast economic gaps between citizens, one may be quick to add if there was nothing that could be done to Native American arts to make it economically viable. Thanks to the power of technology, which has brought about globalization, it is possible that an economic rather than religious perspective would be given on the cultural preservation of native arts. There is no doubt that in most parts of the world, particularly in Africa and Asia, the forms of Native American arts that are adhered to in America today remain important market commodities for economic stability. As much as these works of arts give cultural identity to the Native American therefore, it could also be used to give an economic liberation to the Native American. This journal is therefore being used as an admonishment to the directors of the various Native Art Centers to have a second perspective of the importance that native art serves Native Americans. As foreign exchange continues to be a strong economic term that earns names like Facebook, Google and Apple millions of dollars a day, the tables could be turned through native arts to make native Americans the beneficiaries of these foreign exchange. Cited works Doniger, Willie. Splitting the difference. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1999. Print. Engelstad, Emmanuel., Ed. Challenging Situadedness, gender, culture and the production of Knowledge, Eburon academic publishers. 2005. Print. Moyers, Bill. Full Show: Living Outside Tribal Lines. 2013. Web. September 6, 2013. Perkins, George and Perkins, Barbara. Kaleidoscope: Stories of the American Experience. Oxford University Press: Oxford. 1993. Print. Takaki, Ronald T. A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America, Revised Edition. Back Bay Books: New York. 2008. Print. Wagner, Michael. Born in the USA: How a Broken Historic System t. Berkeley: University of California, 2006. Print. Read More