I don't want to think I am running away from you after giving the midterm grades, so I will post my availability here as soon as I know it. My wife and I are going to tour some of the tea farms this week (she's a journalist and she's writing a report about them). If you are interested to meet at one of the times below, please email me to arrange an appointment. I'm not just going to wait around in the office for the possibility of someone entering. Then again, you can always try to see if I'm there. You can also email to arrange an appointment at a different time and I'll see what I can do.
***Thursday 11/26, 3:30-7:00***
***Wednesday 12/2, 5:30-8:30***
***Thursday 12/3, 3:30-6:30***
***Tuesday 12/8, 12:00-2:00, 6:30-8:30***
Now some details about the midterm. As I stated today, the average total grade was 77.9%, which is in the range that Kim and Beauregard recommended, but is likely (not guaranteed!) to be lower than your final semester grade. Individual answers were graded on a 30 point scale. Your three scores were then combined to make a 90 point scale, and finally I added 10 to make a 100 point percentile scale. On the whole, I was very pleased with the exams and enjoyed reading them. I can tell that you are understanding my concepts and synthesizing, extending, and revising them to suit your own interests.
In general, answers that were able to develop a complex and unified central thesis scored higher. Answers that were able to give detailed examples from the chosen texts and relate them together scored higher. Sometimes there was a mismatch of sorts between the thesis and the examples, which scored lower. Confusingly organized essays scored lower. Precision of spelling and grammar wasn't really a factor because I was able to understand almost everything you wrote. As I said, I am eager to have your input on the final exam. I am considering the following formats: 1) essay option for your own topic, developed with my guidance, 2) exam option in three parts: a. two or three small questions like the midterm questions, from several choices, b. one big question, from several choices, c. "close analysis" of a paragraph or page of a certain text, from several choices. One certainty is that you cannot avoid discussing Connecticut Yankee on the final exam.
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Savage (19 answers x 23.00 average)
Jefferson (10), Franklin (9), Winnemucca (7), Tecumseh (4), Boudinot (3), Bradford (3), Emerson (3), Freneau (3), Red Jacket (3), Black Hawk (2), Cabeza de Vaca (2), Smith (2), Thorpe (2), Bradstreet, Champlain, Cooke, Turner, the specific combination of Franklin-Jefferson-Winnemucca (4)
The starting point was the idea that "savage" is more an ideological category than a factually descriptive one. Some successful answers discussed it as a term used by Europeans to express or rationalize their superiority across multiple axes or dimensions. Others discussed ways that various authors contested or reversed the term. I was intrigued by one answer that distinguished cultural and biological categories of savagery, and another that considered "savage" as a term for something exotic or strange that increased in vehemence or urgency with closer proximity. Some of you had trouble establishing differences between Jefferson, Franklin, and Emerson. If you find yourself in this dilemma on the final exam, I'd suggest you just change your choices. Click the comment reply below for two complete high-scoring anonymous sample answers.
Nature (16 answers x 22.00 average)
Smith (12), Emerson (7), Thoreau (5), Pima (4), Black Hawk (3), Iroquois (3), Pontiac (3), Freneau (2), Zitkala Sa (2), Bradstreet, Columbus, Crevecouer, Jefferson, Red Jacket, Thorpe, Winthrop
You were quite creative with these answers... there were many interesting plays on the idea of nature as a "resource." I also found some of the author choices surprising, by which I mean delightfully surprising. One problem was aligning American Indian writers with nature in some vague way without giving any analysis or support - at least you're in good company there with Freneau, ha ha. Another problem was the many implied allusions to Thoreau's "Walden." One student specifically asked to write on "Walden" because she read it in another course, and that was fine. But if you're going to do that, you at least need to announce it in your essay. I found no connection whatsoever to "Civil Disobedience" in many of these Thoreau answers, and even if I decode that you are referring instead to "Walden," the references tended to be quite vague. Click the comment reply below for two complete high-scoring anonymous sample answers.
Education (13 answers x 23.00 average )
Occam (10), Emerson (9), Williams (8), Franklin (3), Hamilton (2), Paine (2), Zitkala Sa (2), Boudinot, Winthrop, the specific combination of Williams-Emerson-Occam (6)
I will be honest and say that this is the only part of the exam where I sometimes felt frustrated. I wonder why 你們 so easily perceive the argument that a term like "nature," "contract," or "savage" may not have a simple universal meaning, but rather may depend on the context of its use, and that the context of its use by Europeans has generally been a 'false universal' leveraged to justify various forms of inequity. Yet when I present a similar question about education, 你們 just assume that there is one simple universal hierarchy that makes some educated and some not. In other words, why do you accept the Enlightenment category of "education" without any hesitation when you are so eager to submit related Enlightenment categories to a post-colonial critique? Especially given that most of the examples concern linguistic or cultural education rather than something in the natural sciences - many of you agreed enthusiastically in previous classes when I proposed that language is a false universal. I believe there are powerful arguments for the notion of a universal Enlightenment or universal human subject, but at the very least we need to expose all of its possible limitations or distortions, no? Click the comment reply below for two complete high-scoring anonymous sample answers.
America/n (13 answers x 24.08 average)
Crevecouer (8), Red Jacket (4), Black Hawk (3), Winthrop (3), Paine (3), Apess (2), Hawthorne (2), Irving (2), O'Sullivan (2), Jefferson, Pontiac, Smith, Tecumseh, Thorpe, Turner, Winnemucca, Zitkala Sa
This question received the highest average score on the test; it seems to have inspired some very deep thinking. I did notice however that some essays had difficulty incorporating the third author (American Indian). The question is then, can the Indian be considered American? If America is only a geographical place, then yes. This makes them "Native Americans" before all the immigrants from Europe, Africa, and elsewhere. But if America is only an ideological concept, then perhaps Indians are excluded by that concept, which seems to refer specifically to creoles. Then you must consider whether Indians wish to fight that exclusion, or to radicalize it in the creation of a new anti-American identity; we are now asking this same question of the various black activists. As we move forward in history, we will encounter a new concept... the idea that "America" can be plural or multiple, not only in historical sequence but at one and the same time. We shall have to consider what we think of this idea. Click the comment reply below for two complete high-scoring anonymous sample answers.
Frontier (6 answers x 21.50 average)
Turner (5), Red Jacket (3), Black Hawk (2), Crevecouer (2), Smith (2), Boudinot, Irving
This question probably lost popularity because it was similar to "nature" or "savage." The better answers established that the frontier is less a physical place than a psychological condition, a boundary of knowledge, or a cultural contact zone. Some of the weaker ones had difficulty establishing differences between Crevecouer, Smith, and Turner.
Liberty (5 answers x 20.40 average)
Emerson (3), Apess (2), Winthrop (2), Black Hawk, Crevecouer, Edwards, Franklin, Jefferson, Thoreau, Winnemucca, Zitkala Sa
I was surprised that this question was unpopular, but maybe it lost out to "America/n" and had to share with "empire." Many of the answers had an easy time pairing a post-revolutionary creole with an Indian, but then had difficulty establishing a further comparison to a pre-revolutionary creole. This led to the solution of using both Jefferson and Crevecouer, who were probably too similar. (Look at the dates - "American Farmer" was published six years after "The Declaration of Independence." This was the one ambiguity in my A, B, C categories.) A few of you tried Winthrop or Edwards, which was a difficult task, but a well chosen one; we must consider that the modern secular idea of "liberty" emerges in the U.S.A. from the Protestant religious tradition, just as it does on the European continent through Luther, Calvin, etc. This may seem odd given that the radical Protestants were often quite restrictive and xenophobic. But the idea of an individual relationship with the divine may be seen as the foundation of the idea of the individual political subject. One of the clear signals of this point was given by Jefferson, who continued to use the Christian bible but also 'conveniently' crossed out large sections that he found to be ethically dubious or logically clumsy.
Laughter (5 answers x 21.20 average)
Zitkala Sa (3), Apess (2), Edwards (2), Franklin (2), Thorpe (2), Cooke, Hawthorne, Irving, Jefferson
Your answers connected laughter to a range of concepts including disillusionment, happiness, superiority, satire, and socialization. I can't even tell you how shocked I was to see Edwards appear in this question! But as I read, actually I began to see that it makes sense.
Trust/Contract (3 answers x 26.00 average)
Emerson (2), Franklin, Winthrop (2), Black Hawk, Boudinot, Jefferson, Tecumseh
I don't know why, but this question was one of the most productive of strong answers. Click the comment reply below for a complete high-scoring anonymous sample answer.
Empire (3 answers x 23.00 average)
Tecumseh (2), Columbus, Crevecouer, Hamilton, Jefferson, Red Jacket, Smith, Thoreau
Either 你們 find this topic boring, or 你們 feel like it is my possession and you should leave it alone! Which makes me the emperor of the empire topic. How odd.
Equality (2 answers x 22.50 average)
Black Hawk, Boudinot, Cabeza de Vaca, Crevecouer, Emerson, Jefferson
Perhaps I'm remembering wrong, but wasn't this a student-generated topic? Answers were similar to "liberty," not surprisingly. Although I still think they're different concepts. Liberty carries the implication of "liberty to X" or "liberty from Y." And it does not imply equality by itself, unless you extend liberty to X or from Y to all people.
Literature (2 answers x 18.00 average)
Black Hawk, Bradstreet, Columbus, Freneau, Iroquois, Thoreau
This was the one topic on the exam that I would call unsuccessful. We have repeatedly made connections between literary form (poetic form, narrative form, certain metaphors, certain rhetorical constructions) and our broader political/cultural issues. But perhaps it was too difficult to address all this in the short space!
Territory/Alienation/Women (3 answers, 23.67 average)
Winthrop (2), Black Hawk, Bradstreet, Emerson, Irving, Jefferson, Winnemucca, Zitkala Sa
Three student-generated topics, all fairly successful. I'm particularly glad for "Women," because the student found an area I had unfairly ignored in the course and used her "self-reliance" to address it on the exam; click the comment reply below for a complete high-scoring anonymous sample answer. But even so I must say that the most witty remark on the entire exam came in the "Territory" essay, which had as its secondary title, ""I take it, you go bye bye."
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"SAVAGE" ANONYMOUS SAMPLE ESSAY (28 OF 30 POINTS)
ReplyDeleteMost of our knowledge of "savage" comes from the white's perspective. And since the Europeans were the hegemonic power during the past decades, it's reasonable to say that what we know about the American savages (most of them) are constructed by the white Christian people.
From early European settlers and travelor to America, we can see how the culture differences have made the white to define and construct the "knowledge of savages". In Ebenezer Cooke's mock-poem "The Sotweed Factor", the narrator uses epithets like "devil", "evil", "strange" to depict the Indians. He also uses lots of animal-images (like "poultry", "dog" and "keynard") to strengthen the sense of "animal-like savages". In describing the life in America as a chaotic, uncivilized, and disordered tragedy, Cooke is, in
fact, constructing a barbarian image of the indigenious people.
Much enlightened than Cooke, Freneau takes a different way to approach the idea of Indians. He is sympathetic with Indians, instead of mocking them. In his poem "The Indian Burying Ground", he praises the Indian way of burying the deads. He thinks that the way Indians let the deads to "sit" under the ground near them is a harmonious and respectful way of burying. He also calls upon the "civilized" white to respect the Indians and to learn something from them. Indeed, it seems that Freneau is, compared with early settlers like Cooke, more enlightened and more with sympathy. Yet, his standpoint is still a white's
perspective. Freneau is using his "white people's glasses" to interpret the Indians without citing words from the Indians. The speaker is still the white, and the Indians are still silent, still being "objects" waiting for others to depict.
However, later there're Indians standing out voicing their needs. Writers like Black Hawk and Red Jacket started to question the white authority and speak for their own. Red Jacket, in his speech, clearly stated that the Indians and the white are of equal state. And he overthrowned what the white has considered to be right about the Indians. He declared that they have their well-organized belief. They have their "great
spirit", and they have their own religion. This de-constructing statement shows that the Indians refuse to be the objects being depicted; they have their own views too, and they refuse to be the "savages" constructed by the white.
"SAVAGE" ANONYMOUS SAMPLE ESSAY (28 OF 30 POINTS)
ReplyDeleteMy second essay is the issue of "savage" between the concepts Bradford, Freneau, and Black Hawk
distributed. In which the distance of each others contact made a difference and thus created imagination and other typical stereo-types of what "others" are.
Bradford was one of the first to encounter the Indians as a settler. As they made progress to landing, Bradford recognize that "was now as a main bar and gulf to separate them from all the civil parts of the world". In other words, Bradford made it clear that they were in a land that is uncivilized. And the place would be need to be "sought out". They first encounter with Indians were not direct and made a mysterious atmosphere, when they finally across the Indians, Bradstreet described them hiding, making bizarre noise, running away, unseen in darkness etc. It's hard not to compare these elements to one animal-like species. Bradford had the power to record in words his vision which lasted its life to occur in our Norton Anthology, if the Indians had a way to remain their thoughts to us, I guess who the savage is will be quite different.
In Freneau's work about burying the Indian was once discussed in class along with the concept of "noble savage". Freneau's connection with the Indians were not direct contact. And the distance made him imagine what the far-away Indians are like. he consider them "barbarous" and combined with nature like animals and belongs to the forest. He connected the Indians with bows and arrows, and the fact they still hunt is uncivilised. Freneau made a hieragraphic carring to shape the Indians as ancient and a tribe or
race dying away "to shadows and delusions".
Black Hawk made direct contact with the white. And to his describtion, the white were violent and cruel, comparing to their love for peace, forgiveness and sharing, the white are seemly more barbarian and savage-like. The white Black Hawk's people encounter made their people drunk, beat the women unreasonable, take their crops and land and still greedy for more. And the lies of the contract, irresponsible white chief, and the promise not to attack while they sail back were all factors of how cruel the whites act as savage toward the Indians.
By the way... when Sophia and I copied these, we didn't correct any of the grammatical or spelling errors. I wanted to show you that you don't need "perfect English" to succeed on this type of exam, as long as I can understand your major concepts. It was, after all, a timed exam! (The case would be something different with a formal essay that was written under less time pressure, as we will do next semester.)
ReplyDeleteBut I should also say that we typed quickly, so it's possible we may have introduced new errors into the samples that weren't there to begin with! If so, my apologies.
"NATURE" ANONYMOUS SAMPLE ESSAY (28 OF 30 POINTS)
ReplyDeleteThoreau believes that human beings have the nature quality to judge what is right and what is wrong. He encourages people to be conscious about what they want, what they need, and what they think is right and wrong. Black Hawk realize Thoreau's encouragement. he chooses not to be a mute Indian. He speaks out all the injustices that done to Indians. He show that they're ruled by the Whites without reasonable reasons. He challenges the government. Social institution is too artificial, complex, remote, and huge. I
believe both Thoreau and Black Hawk would agree on this point. Institutions may lead people to
unnature, or unreasonable, directions. In the end, it would only meet only a small group of people's needs. It would become that people have to meet what the institution decided.
Smith's conscious of nature is very different from what has been discussed above. Smith concentrated on the nature that provide him (or Europeans) a masculine and romantic adventure. In the nature, there's primitive, or under-developed, human culture. Yet, I guess that he take all the nature resoureces, for example, lands, and the Indians as free resources (and human resources) for a prosperous future. He
shows that nature could be conqured. Black Hawk accuse of the Whites invasion. They're also human, not free resources like air and water. Even nature is priceless treasure, not the private property. He said that "land can not be sold." Indians live on nature pattern, I guess. I can't be sure if they use figure calender after they interact with the Whites after some time. Yet, Black Hawk said "I returned... after an absense of one moon." It may be wrote for poetic reason, but I think it's also a showing of their lives that live upon nature pattern. For Indians, nature is their living resources, and for the Whites like Smith, nature is the free tool to benefits.
"NATURE" ANONYMOUS SAMPLE ESSAY (25 OF 30 POINTS)
ReplyDeleteIn this section, John Smith, Emerson and the Iroquois Creation Story are included in the discussion.
John Smith, as the pioneer to explore the new continent, he depicts the nature in a way of imaginating style. In his writing, he often describes nature as a beautiful, resourceful mine that awaits to be dig in. He tends to treat nature in a benevolent prospect. However, the reality is not always perfect as he depicted.
He hardly mentions the terrifying fascet of nature and seems to utilizing this strategy to allure people to go to America.
Emerson, as a philosopher, he regards the nature as an ultimate resource of human knowledge. Moreover, as the most important thinker of Transcendentalism, he believes that all human beings are capable to intuitively experience the nature, and through that experience, people can finally attain the unity and harmony of human beings. In other words, nature, for Emerson, is like a indispensable and direct medium to link people and true knowledge.
The nature in the Iroquois Creation Story are not only protrayed as as good and benevolent as Smith
would say, it contains the sense of duality ad there are "the good mind" and "the bad mind" in the story. Nature here is no longer a resource of wealth or knowledge, it means the simplest combination of the world, and through the story we can see the imagination of the birth of earthlings and morality which can lucidly showes that nature in Iroquois people's mind is the origin of everything in the physical world and
the mental world.
"EDUCATION" ANONYMOUS SAMPLE ESSAY (28 OF 30 POINTS)
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the text of Williams, Emerson and Zitkala-Sa, I found Williams' view on education the most religious, yet the least open-minded one.
Williams gives exact comparison of the two languages and many pieces of facts on Indian's beliefs and behavior in his work. That shows that he thinks clear explanation and support of facts are beneficial in people's learning. I approve such view on education, yet Williams' main concern is on the "hope of the Indians receiving the knowledge of God," in other words, he is writing to educate his readers the way to "educate" the Indians (which means converting Indians into Christians). Williams treats education as "delivering truth" and view it as the goal itself, and this makes his view less open-minded as the view of the other two writers. Emerson believes in self reliance, and would "gladly disburden the memory of [hoarded treasures] as old rubbish" when he has new perceptions. In other words, he believes that
education is merely a process, and that it has much to do with the experience of one's own. As for Zitkala- Sa, she considers education as a "molding" only. The education developed by a certain culture, when imposed on the members from other culture, would not function well and might make the educated person a victim that could not fit in his or her own community. From such a view point, readers could conclude that she, just like Emerson, does not treat education as a goal or a delivering of truth. In my opinion, she thinks that education is a way that trains people to fit in the life that one faces, while Emerson view education means to benefit oneself. Both of their points, in my view, are more open-minded than Williams'.
"EDUCATION" ANONYMOUS SAMPLE ESSAY (25 OF 30 POINTS)
ReplyDeleteI want to compare Franklin and Emerson first, and discuss Zitkala Sa separately. Franklin doesn't recieve full regular education. He continues his education by reading book by himself. In his autobiography, he keeps talking about the importance of reading books and how these reading bring about great impact on him. Reading seems to be a great way to acquire knowledge to him. While Emerson pays more attention on the things besides the books and education system. He suggests that by observing nature and feeling carefully the circumstance around you, people can find the true knowledge by themselves. He thinks truth is within everything, and even human themselves, yet we neglect it and lost in the dull education system. I think will advocate such philosophic idea is because he has received very good and complete education. He wants to pursit a higher knowledge which those books and education do not provide. However, Franklin can not even finish elementary school, all he can do is try his best to read. Franklin can only follow some pratical methods to educate himself, and works very hard.
As for education of Indians, Zitkala Sa questions the assimilation education by her tragic-ended story. I think she is not against with Indians receiving education to learn white culture and English. After all, she receives education so could she write articles to alarm people to pay attention on Indians. Nevertheless, she worries that such education will destruct Indian culture. She wants to teach her people, yet doesn't want assimilation. It's a very difficult task, when one culture is much stronger than the other. Not to mention that assimilation in a slight way always exist. Zitkala Sa in her story doesn't provide answer, yet her talent lets us be moved and start to think the struggle of Indians who receive white education and the dilemma of Indian teacher working in assimilation organization like her.
"AMERICA/N" ANONYMOUS SAMPLE ESSAY (30 OF 30 POINTS)
ReplyDeleteCrevecouer is an immigrant from Europe to America, he presents that his American identity is a "hybrid identity." Crevecouer speaks for a promising future for Western settlers. America doesn't belong to any other countries, it stands alone for new comers. Crevecouer shows his great confidence in the new land and ignore the original owners of the land. Since America can be everyone's new paradise, European settlers can throw away their ancient burden which carried by their ancestors from different countries. They can now develop their own American culture which is comparatively new. Through the perspective that the European settlers struggle for and win the equality wealth, the new American hybrid has more advantages than the purebred. Crevecouer says that "here, individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men." However, "all nations" only refers to European countries, Native Americans and African Americans are still excluded. Crevecouer identifies himself to the land so that he can get rid of the ancient past. He also distinguishes himself from the aboriginals by indicating them as "hunters." A hybrid farmer is much more civilized and peaceful than the savages. He says, "Men are like pants [???]... the hunters are rapacity and injustice. To Crevecouer, American identity is something in between.
Hawthorne's period of time occurs more intensive conflicts between the European settlers and the British empire in the early 19th Century. Hawthorne emphasizes the anxiety of the revolution and the new phase of America. For Crevecouer, everything about America is rather new, fresh and hopeful; however, for Hawthorne, he questions the disconnection of the past. He also points out the confusion and terrible condition when the old and the new collides. In his work "My Kinsman, Major Molineux," Hawthorne shows that human liberty is terrifying. The shouting crowds and the crazy mobs are very violent and animallike. Hawthorne presents Robinm the main character, a pursuer of new opportunities, turns out facing risks and threaten in the new land America. Different from Crevecouer, Hawthorne doubts the justification of turning European settlers to Americans. Crevecouer is sure and confident to the new race and the independent new land. However, Hawthorne sees the struggle and the daunting phase of this hybrid identity.
If Hawthorne's voice is more like a call from overseas to Crevecouer, Red Jacket's speech might be a roar from the continent. Red Jacket asks a different question to Crevecouer's hybrid American identity. When Crevecouer says that American is new, Red Jacket points out that the Indians already lived on the continent for a long long time. European settlers are invaders who bring wars and conflicts to America. Red Jacket calls the U.S. senates as brother, meanwhile, he accuses that the Westerners never treat the Indians to be brothers. Crevecouer believes that different sects of the Christian belief can form a religious medley but Red Jacket presents the religion harmony never happened when it comes to Indian traditional beliefs. Red Jacket refuses the American identity the westerners tries to pocess.
"AMERICA/N" ANONYMOUS SAMPLE ESSAY (28 OF 30 POINTS)
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of the concept of "American," I think it is Crevecouer who first comes out this concept in his "Letters from an American Farmer." And when I compare his idea with Irving's, they share the similar starting point that both of them create a break from the European continent. As for Red Jacket, he also create a break, but the break is from American.
Crevecouer precisely defines the spirit of American in his works, "[he] is an American who leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, the new rank he holds." Crevecouer tries to create the concept of "American" by cut the relationship with European continent. In addition, he also adds the concept of rejecting or looking down on the frontiersmen in the west of American continent. He thinks these people in the west are "our bad people." He even thinks that "[w]e should rather begin converting our back-settlers." Therefore, in Crevecouer's view, the "American is neither European nor frontiersmen in the west of the American continent.
In Irving's view, he rejects the historical truth of American Revolution by creating the story of "Rip Van Winkle." In the story, Irving expresses his uncertainty, anxiety about his identity through the main character Winkle. Though by saying "I am not myself - I am somebody else," Irving creates the uncertainty and anxiety, but it is also a chance to create a new identity, even Irving does not depict it out in the story."
To Red Jacket, as an American aboriginal author, although he accepts the existence of the United States of America, he does not fully accept all the concept from the "American." In his speech to the U.S. senate, he expresses, his opposition position by saying, "[h]e [The Great Spirit] knows what is best for his children; we are satisfied." Though he means to reject the Christianity from "American," he still creates a break from the idea of "American." Interestingly, the "break" from different perspectives of the idea of "American" defines what American "is not" or causes the rejection toward this concept, but the real clarification of the idea "American" is still not quite so certain.
"TRUST" ANONYMOUS SAMPLE ESSAY (28 OF 30 POINTS)
ReplyDeleteWinthrop was one of the early arrivers in America. He knows nothing about the place but only that it's a place for religious settler. By the theology of Christianity, he spoke in his "Model of Christian Charity" his ideal of a united community formed by all immigrants. The key of Christ's salvation comes from the infinite love of Jesus. Similarly, Winthrop must have believed in the love that lies between all human beings. With love, there is no doubt the people should trust each other, help each other while united as the "city upon a hill" for later followers to follow. This is his ideal, and he hadn't arrived in the harsh lands of America yet.
After a couple of decades, Emerson, who's been living under the capitalism of a well-developed East Coast of America, does not share the same attitude as Winthrop. In a capitalism society, business and trade is all. So in "Self-Reliance," Emerson says, "trust thyself" for "society is just a joint-stock company in which the members agree for the better security of his bread to the shareholder." Every one is an individual; everyone should live on their own independence. Like Franklin, he does not fully trust in others even when their reliance is necessary. He points out that "the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps perfect sweetness the independence of solitude." In America, you're on your own.
The trading relationship continues to spread throughout America that even the governments believe in capitalism. Trust is worthless in this society, and the best example is the founder of the "Cherokee Phoenix," Boudinot. Boudinot's family was a significant one in the Cherokee territory. They also have a good connection with the white people around them. Their family put all their trust in their tribe and the government of Georgia. So when they were asked to accept the Indian Removal Act, they kindly explained to their people and signed the papers. But the Georgia government wanted nothing but their land, so for this reason, Boudinot's family were despised for their act of unloyalty. As a result, they were distrusted, hated, and murdered by their own Cherokee people. In this event, the government of Georgia even though they signed a contract with the Cherokees, Boudinot's family would never know that this was simply just a fake action to get their trust. After all, the Georgia government accepted the Indians all for this capitalism: no base on contract or trust; it's just profit & business, that's all.
[Aaron's note... I disagree with the idea that trust is nonexistent in capitalism. Trust is actually the basis of capitalism, i.e. credit. But it is true that some people are systematically excluded from relations of credit/trust, and that there is a kind of distrustfulness at the core of capitalist trust, if that makes sense. In other words it is not an unconditional trust, or an universal trust. But you can't simply say there is no trust whatsoever.]
"WOMEN" ANONYMOUS SAMPLE ESSAY (25 OF 30 POINTS)
ReplyDeleteThe first part of my essay is about the topic I chose for myself, "women." And the three authors for analyzation is separately Bradstreet, Irving, and Winnemucca for each group.
I found it very interesting that in this period of time in America, the woman, either the author above or the characters described in Irving's story, are all quite independent. It seems obvious that at this period women are likely to live with the men away. For Anne Bradstreet, her husband was frequently away to accomplish governmental work and left her alone in household. Winnemucca's father and grandfather was away to deal with other tribes or the white man; therefore Winnemucca was left in the house. And the wife of Rip Van Winkle in Irving's story was left at home while Rip Van Winkle was away all those decades.
The pessimism of Bradstreet in child birth may be caused by the fact of the difficult situation as the first settlers and also without her husband to support beside her. However, she had made it through and carried the work and looked after the children at home.
Both Winnemucca and Anne Bradstreet were well taught. Their education in compare to the other women of the time may well be much more emphasized due to the position and intension of their father. Although Winnemucca was taught in oral stories of love and peace, and Bradstreet was taught literal, both managed a way to bring up their voice to be heard and was involved in the publication where their feelings were recorded and widely spread.
Bradstreet represents the women in the "new world" with "new manners" and spoke of her position not only as the settler but also as a wife and mother. For Winnemucca, the princess Sarah, her publication of "Life Among the Piutes" gave her a voice as a Piute, an Indian, a daughter of the Great Spirit, and as a resident of their habitat. She had her own view and opinion such as she found the civilization of the whites where "taught in the art of war" instead of the peace and love. they had been taught as an Indian. In Rip Van Winkle, however, voices are seldom heard and education was limited to the old newspaper left in the inn and read from time to time which may attract many but still remain the village silent without a own voice.