been awhile...

My mind has been swamped lately and I haven't had a chance to post any blogs on the stories we were supposed to read. So this is going to be a super blog-post...I'll start with Lawrence Grossberg's "Youth and American Identity." I always find myself to be a little confused in the beginning of the essays. It takes a little bit to decode what the author is trying to say. Grossberg was trying to get some point across concerning the 'American Dream'. As a student said in their blog posting, nobody has ONE set dream. It definitely changes from person to person depending on what that person wants to get out of life. Some people are happy not having money and getting more out of the natural beauty of life whereas some people strive to be the wealthiest human alive! It's all a matter of choice.

Moving on to Mary Gordon's "More Than Just a Shrine." This was definitely interesting to read because it's so true and that is the problem with most Americans. We don't appreciate what we have, even if that was very little. I was born in America so I have not faced the hardships that many immigrants have when trying to come over to the U.S. We often take for granted how 'easy' we really have it. It was very surprising to read that some immigrants took their own lives because they couldn't become American citizens. That shows how bad they're lives in their own countries must have been, if they're willing to sacrifice anything to live here.

The essay "Indians" showed many different viewpoints on lives of Indians and what happened to them. There was a line in the beginning of the essay, on pg.413, second paragraph, that really stood out. "This essay concerns the difference that point of view makes when people are giving accounts of events, whether at first or second hand. The problem is that if all accounts of events are determined through and through by the observer's frame of reference, then one will neer know, in any given case, what really happened." That is a dangerously truthful statement. When you think about that, you start to question all history itself and even the little things in life. Could the entire American History textbook be written in bias because it was only one person/group of people's point of view?! We'll never know. It's hard to point the finger at any one set of people. The Indians could blame all their hardships on the Europeans, but the Indians could have also provoked them too. We won't ever find out the real deal.

Lastly, I read over Christopher Phillips 3 page essay and looked at Warren Neidich's pictures. It's kind of sad when you look at all the pictures because you can really see the facial expressions of the Indians, and they're all so emotionally moving.