What does it mean to be American in the 21st Century

At the beginning of this class, I thought that I had a good idea of what the "quintessential" American is and what the American dream consists of. Now, looking back after reading the four novels for the course, I realized that everyone has their own unique view of what it means to be American. We got to see firsthand what it was like to be a drug addict, witnessed the discrimination against minorities in this country, and found out how hard it is for immigrants to come from their traditional lives and try to adjust to America. I think that my definition for what it means to be American in the 21st Century now is that we are all unique, however we don't respect our differences. While in this modern age some think that discrimination and racism has been defeated, it is still prevalent in our society as evidenced by books such as Indian Killer which shows how Native Americans are being mistreated. As to who I believe has access to the American dream, I think that anyone in this country has the potential to make something of themselves if they work hard enough and make sacrifices towards their goal. That said, I think that it is much easier to get ahead in this country if you are part of the majority and that the minority faces a much harder challenge in order to make it to the top.

Woman Warrior Reader Response

Woman Warrior is a book that I found to be confusing to read through. The book is a collection of stories that Maxine Hong Kingston takes in their original form and then retells them to show how the weak, in this case women, have emotions, value, etc. However, it was difficult for me to understand this until I read the article I chose to give my presentation on. While I did find some of the stories interesting, such as the story of Brave Orchid chasing out the sitting ghost and the story of Mu Lan, I feel that this book would be hard to interpret unless I had read my article. I felt that Kingston never gives any context to how she is telling her stories. She launches into her retellings so smoothly that you hardly even notice that she has changed the story around on you. Not only that, but she talks about many traditional Chinese customs in her book that I also found hard to understand and interpret until I did some further research. Overall, I would have to say that I enjoyed the book. I don't think that I will ever read it again, but it gives us an interesting insight into the lives of immigrants, and into the way that women were viewed and treated in Chinese culture. Kingston's purpose, as stated in my article, is to give women an identity because they had none before in her retellings.

Beloved Reader Response

To me, Beloved was an interesting story that was somewhat hard to follow and I was dissatisfied with the ending. I love stories about the supernatural, and I was looking forward to reading this book because it was about a woman who is being haunted by the ghost of her daughter. However, the book became hard for me to follow as it switched between the present time in Cincinnati and the past at Sweet Home. However, the story did get its point across, that slavery tore families and lives apart and drove people to do terrible things to escape it. This is evident when Sethe tries to kill her children in the shed to prevent them from being captured and forced into a life of slavery. This strong emotion helps shed light on how life was for the slaves, and how desperate they were to escape it. The ending of the book was somewhat of a letdown for me. After Beloved just disappears when they are going to exorcise her, I was disappointed because I wanted to know if she really was the embodiment of Beloved's spirit. Nevertheless, the novel closes with the words that "so they forgot her [Beloved], like an unpleasant dream during a troubling sleep". This phrase sums up the theme of the novel, that slavery is like an unpleasant dream in our country's history that we have forgotten about today because we don't want to remember the pain and suffering that we have caused to an entire race of people.

Who is the Indian Killer

Honestly, I think that the Indian killer was not an actual person, but a spirit or some other type of being that is not of this world. I think that the Indian killer could be the spirit of Father Duncan, come back for revenge against the white man. Father Duncan is described as a very large man, which fits the description of the Indian killer, and he is also very conflicted inside. In the book, Father Duncan talks to John about how the Indians killed the Jesuit priests, but couldn't kill all of the white men to push them out of their land. In return, many Indians were killed and they lost their land to the white men. This causes a great conflict in Father Duncan's mind, who is a Jesuit priest, when he thinks about how the white men murdered the Indians and took their land. Father Duncan then walks into the desert and disappears, where I believe he becomes the Indian killer, a spirit looking for revenge against the white men that took his land. I think that the Indian killer represents the Indian's overall hatred of the white man. Indians were forced onto reservations and treated badly on land that used to be theirs, and the white men expect them to like what they are doing and assimilate into their culture. However, the Indian spirit is captured in the Indian killer, who seeks to reclaim what was once theirs and eliminate the white man.

Discrimination Act

Thinking back, I can't remember one specific act of discrimination against a racial or ethnic minority that I have personally witnessed. I grew up in a small town that was mostly white, so I haven't been in those situations yet. I have, however, been around people with prejudices and I have been exposed to discrimination indirectly. From racist jokes to racial slurs, I have heard many discriminatory comments from people I know. At work, I am exposed to many racial comments. I work for a construction company, so I am usually outside all day working around mostly white men who enjoy making jokes and stereotypes about people from African Americans to Mexicans. When I hear these jokes, I know that they would greatly offend people, but it seems that most people will let it pass and go along with it. No one at work ever says anything about racial comments, they just go along with it, mainly because they don't want to be singled out. Also, many of my friends have prejudices and they make jokes about minorities. All throughout my school life, my friends have been somewhat racist. While they don't act discriminatory, they still joke and mock them in private, and I play along with it because I don't want to be singled out either.

Reader Response -- Indian Killer

Just finished the novel and I still can't figure out exactly what was going on. So who was the Indian Killer? I originally thought that it might be Father Duncan, come back from the desert hell bent on revenge against the white man. Then I thought that it might be Reggie, who became disgruntled after being kicked out of college for fighting with Dr. Mather. Finally, as I read further into the story, I lost track of who I thought the Indian Killer was because when the story talked about the killer, it became so weird and confusing that I had no idea who the killer was when I finished the novel. Overall, I found this book to be very enjoyable, and I would get absorbed into the story and had trouble putting the book down. I like a book that switches between characters and gives you different perspectives based on what character you are reading about. I really liked the way it described a crime that the killer committed, then gave some testimony from someone and you had to put together what happened based on the information you are given. The one thing that bothered me most about the book was how much they used the phrase "enit". I don' t know why this irked me so much, but it did, and I cringed every time I read that word. But, since that was the only thing that I didn't like about the book, I have to say that I really liked this book.

My Thoughts on Fear and Loathing

After reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, I felt like I had been on a nonstop ride through 1970's drug culture. The book began with Thompson taking drugs, and ended with more drugs. When I first started the book, it took awhile to get used to they Thompson's writing, trying to differentiate between what is real and what is a drug induced hallucination. However, as I read further into the book, I began to get a feel for Thompson, and I began to understand him and really started to enjoy the book. One of my favorite parts from the book was the scene with the attorney in the bathtub, tripping on acid, and begging Thompson to throw the tape recorder into the tub so he could get "higher", i.e. dead. However, Thompson wasn't about to kill him, so instead he threw a grapefruit into the tub to trick his attorney, who thought he was getting shocked and began thrashing around in the tub. This scene was hilarious to me, and it was one of the best parts of the book in my opinion. While overall I enjoyed reading the book, I did begin to doubt Thompson's motives towards the end. In the beginning, he seemed pretty harmless, just going around Vegas living the dream with unlimited credit and all the drugs he could want. However, at the end, he changes and becomes darker, especially when he talks to the attorney about pimping Lucy. While I believe this could be attributed to Thompson's extreme intake of drugs and lack of sleep, this is one of the few complaints I have about the book, which was an enjoyable read for me.

What the American Dream is

At the center of the American dream is independence. Americans love more than anything else their freedom and independence, not having to be told what to do but choosing their own destinies. Since the founding of our country, American families have sought to be self sufficient and not reliant on anyone or anything. Americans began to move west to seek even more independence, in the west they could build their own towns and live for themselves. Americans need for independence is, essentially, what created our country, and it still carries over to modern times in our want to be our own boss and not be told where to work or what to do. Another fundamental of the American dream is the idea that this land is ours, and the pride you get when owning a home. Americans seek to live somewhere that they control, and owning a home gives you control over what goes into your home and how it looks, etc. In the past, Americans took pride in keeping a modest house where they could raise a family. Today, Americans still like to own their own houses, but this idea of the American dream has also carried over into the cars that Americans own. A car is another thing that Americans take pride in, and many enjoy keeping a nice car that they own and have control over. Finally, I believe that raising a family is another important part of the American dream. Family has always been the most important social unit in America, and Americans take pride in raising a happy, successful family. Having children is a dream many Americans share, and providing a nice house and nice things is also very important. Therefore, the American dream is owning a house that you can raise a family in, having a nice car and nice things, and being independent with all of our rights and freedoms that living in this country guarantees.

The Quintessential 21st Century American

To me, the most defining quality of the quintessential 21st century American is a dependence on technology. With the internet connecting us to the entire world and a vast amount of information, Americans have grown dependent on technology to access the internet. This technology includes computers, phones, and other devices, but whatever we use to access the internet, we have become dependent on it. Another quality of the quintessential 21st century American is that we are more informed and more critical of the world around us. Because we have access to so much information, average Americans can become more involved in government and other worldly affairs, allowing them to share more ideas and criticism. Nevertheless, because Americans can live their lives online now, the quintessential American is becoming less social than before, giving up a life that used to be lived with other people for a more closed life online. Finally, the quintessential 21st century American is becoming more materialistic than before. Again, with the advent of the internet, people began shopping online and gaining access to goods that they couldn't get before. Suddenly, Americans could log onto a web site such as Amazon and order something from another country and in a week or so it would be at the door. Also, with the readily available credit, Americans began spending much more than they had to buy all the products that they desired. So that is how I view the quintessential 21st century American, a technology dependent, materialistic, more informed individual.