blog #6

Blog #5

There is a prevailing theme amongst the text of both William Apess and Lydia Sigourney, I feel that the theme centers around civil rights, and more specifically the civil rights of the American Indian and those rights in relation to the contradictory nature of Christianities biblical teachings during that time in American history.
I actually respected the various points that William Apess was able to present in the text when he describes biblical teachings in relation to the way the American Indian was treated during that time period. He says, "If black or red skins or any other skin of color is disgraceful in to God, it appears that he has disgraced himself a great deal - for he has made fifteen colored people to to one white and placed them here upon this earth." [Apess 642]. This quotation captures this time period almost perfectly. Why the conquest? Why were these so called Christians slaughtering and massacring and treating the American Indian (amongst other colored races) sub-human? Apess says everything that could be the makings of a great civil rights speech given by Robert or John Kennedy or Martin Luther King. My only thought is to why I have never heard of this man until this point in my entire education. What a smart man, unfortunately he was preaching to the choir, what we know now is that white Americans didn't want to hear this, his people were persecuted until the almost bitter end of their existence, to the furthest recesses of American culture, a persecution climaxing at the imprisonment of Leonard Peltier of more recent American history.
Lydia Sigourney captures the American Indian in her poem Indian Names in a positive radiance. She tells of a Indian culture that has been and forever will be embedded in the land. She says "Your mountains build their monument, through ye destroy their dust" [38-40], I think that last line is absolutly critical in connecting the theme of both the readings. She is saying to God that his mountains are a monument for the lost culture of the American Indian but through your teachings you have destroyed the culture by conquest and in some aspects dominionism.

blog #4

Blog #3

Washington Irving's story "The Wife"says a lot about various social and economic values in the United States during that time period. The story has a great message about love and commitment, but on the other side of the spectrum its comes off as overwhelming materialistic. I don't think this story speaks for the majority of economic values in the United States during this time period. Most people didn't live in a nice house with beautiful furniture and expensive musical instruments, and a wife that didn't have to work to help and provide for the household. The husbands holds to many worldly values on a pedestal. He comes off as very feminine in the amount of whining that he does. It's almost a gender role reversal, the wife takes the news in stride and makes the best out of what she has and stays by her husband through the good and the bad, I believe both of these traits were an intergral part of the family structure during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries because life was more about survival. This story shows me that American values regarding women economics and marriage have changed greatly from previous centuries to what we see today.

Blog #2

The history of American literature is very special in how it would eventually be formed throughout the years of American history. The story is very unique in the sense that if it wasn't for literature and newspaper feeding the literate and revolutionary in the "new world", we may not be what we are today as a nation.

I found it to be amazing that much of the political decent could not have been possible if not for the ability of American literature and various publications to be distributed to the masses. This makes the history of American literature one of the most important aspects (if not the most important) in United States history. What good are revolutionary ideas if they can’t be distributed for others to gain inspiration from? The ability of technological advancement in literature during this time period also played a great task in the development of the nation we live in today. It’s amazing how the function of literature paved the way for much of the advancement in American society during the infancy of our nation, advancements such as the role of women in society and the ability of the common person living in that time period to have an incredibly good chance of becoming literate.

If the pen is truly mightier then the sword, it couldn’t be more apparent then in the development of the United States through American literature expressing revolutionary ideas and ideals throughout the country during a time of oppression.