Monday, October 29, 2007
Wu quote post
I think that this is an excellent quote in Wu’s article because it is so true. Since in another article we learned that Asian Americans were a very small percentage of Americans at this time, they probably stuck out to white Americans. But when trying to make a difference it was like they weren’t even there, because whites failed to recognize their accomplishments and treated them as if they were not legitimate people. The last part of this quote ‘they have in common a loss of control.’ This means that Asian Americans had no control over how they were viewed or treated and white Americans were out of control in their brutal treatment of Asian Americans.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Takaki Chapter 10 extra credit
1. The main point of this article was the hardships that Asian Americans faced in the Pacific islands as well as the Pacific coast of the United States and how the degree of the hardships was different with both locations.
2. Takaki begins Chapter 10 by telling the reader the main reasons that the Japanese were encouraged to go to Hawaii and the United States. The main reasons were because of higher wages, hard taxation, and the policies where they emigrated to. Then Takaki describes how woman were influenced to emigrate also when he says, “Initially, most of the migrants from Japan were men, but what became striking about the Japanese immigration was its eventual inclusion of a significant number of women. These “picture brides” were products of arranged marriages. At first Takaki explains how the Asian population in Japan received lower wages and had to work in worse conditions than other ethnicities. The Asians were given the unskilled jobs while the whites took advantage of the skilled jobs. Another tactic that Takaki mentioned in this chapter was that the land owners would hire workers of many different ethnicities so they wouldn’t band together and strike for better working conditions. He states this when he wrote, “Planters explained that they preferred to divide the work force ‘about equally between two Oriental nationalities.’ Takaki explained how wrenching the work was when he said, “Harvesting the cane was dirty and exhausting work. As the workers mechanically swung their machetes, they felt the pain of blistered hands and scratched arms.” Eventually though all the ethnic groups banded together to wage a strike. The white land owners made the conditions better for the Asian immigrants. The conditions got good enough that the Asians had no desire to go back to Japan. But it was much harder for the immigrants that emigrated to the U.S. They were a huge minority as they only accounted for two percent of the population. In America the Japanese found themselves working on the railroads and starting farms. They became successful because at the time the United States was going through economic expansion, so more agriculture was needed. But life was tough. The Asians were refused citizenship. They thought their children would fare better since they were by law citizens. But this was not the case as Takaki writes, “Japanese children were often attacked by white boys throwing stones at them.” Finally just as conditions were beginning to get better the attack on Pearl Harbor set the whole process back and the Japanese were discriminated against even more.
3. I think Takaki does an excellent job of showing the differences between what the Japanese in Hawaii faced and what the Japanese in America faced. I think it’s weird that at first the Japanese in the United States were involved with agriculture. Now we always think of them making electronics. I’d never envisioned a Japanese American farmer before.
4. It’s interesting to wonder if Pearl Harbor had never happened, whether the discrimination of the Japanese would have carried on as long as it did. It’s too bad that our government and nation during World War II made things so bad on the Asian Americans, because very few of them supported Japan in that war.
2. Takaki begins Chapter 10 by telling the reader the main reasons that the Japanese were encouraged to go to Hawaii and the United States. The main reasons were because of higher wages, hard taxation, and the policies where they emigrated to. Then Takaki describes how woman were influenced to emigrate also when he says, “Initially, most of the migrants from Japan were men, but what became striking about the Japanese immigration was its eventual inclusion of a significant number of women. These “picture brides” were products of arranged marriages. At first Takaki explains how the Asian population in Japan received lower wages and had to work in worse conditions than other ethnicities. The Asians were given the unskilled jobs while the whites took advantage of the skilled jobs. Another tactic that Takaki mentioned in this chapter was that the land owners would hire workers of many different ethnicities so they wouldn’t band together and strike for better working conditions. He states this when he wrote, “Planters explained that they preferred to divide the work force ‘about equally between two Oriental nationalities.’ Takaki explained how wrenching the work was when he said, “Harvesting the cane was dirty and exhausting work. As the workers mechanically swung their machetes, they felt the pain of blistered hands and scratched arms.” Eventually though all the ethnic groups banded together to wage a strike. The white land owners made the conditions better for the Asian immigrants. The conditions got good enough that the Asians had no desire to go back to Japan. But it was much harder for the immigrants that emigrated to the U.S. They were a huge minority as they only accounted for two percent of the population. In America the Japanese found themselves working on the railroads and starting farms. They became successful because at the time the United States was going through economic expansion, so more agriculture was needed. But life was tough. The Asians were refused citizenship. They thought their children would fare better since they were by law citizens. But this was not the case as Takaki writes, “Japanese children were often attacked by white boys throwing stones at them.” Finally just as conditions were beginning to get better the attack on Pearl Harbor set the whole process back and the Japanese were discriminated against even more.
3. I think Takaki does an excellent job of showing the differences between what the Japanese in Hawaii faced and what the Japanese in America faced. I think it’s weird that at first the Japanese in the United States were involved with agriculture. Now we always think of them making electronics. I’d never envisioned a Japanese American farmer before.
4. It’s interesting to wonder if Pearl Harbor had never happened, whether the discrimination of the Japanese would have carried on as long as it did. It’s too bad that our government and nation during World War II made things so bad on the Asian Americans, because very few of them supported Japan in that war.
Wright: The Ethics of JIm Crow extra credit
The point of this autobiography is clearly to show that the Jim Crow laws clearly hindered African Americans in the south after the Civil War. I think a sentence from his writing that could serve as a thesis is “There were many times when I had to exercise a great deal of ingenuity to keep out of trouble.”
2. The entire article summarized some events that a young black man had to go through in his early life that had lasting impressions on him for the rest of his life. He starts by telling how he got injured by a broken glass bottle during a fight with white boys and how instead of feeling sorry for him his mom beat him instead so he would learn his lesson. Then he told the story about his first factory job and how he was threatened for trying to learn to do better from the white workers. After that he told the story of how he tried to hitch a ride with some white men and was smacked in the face by a beer bottle and left in the middle of the road. The next story was about how a policeman bashed him against the curb on purpose while he was on his bicycle. Then he told of a few bad experiences that he experienced or witnessed while being a hall-boy at a hotel. Another experience he told about was seeing a black woman beaten and then hearing that it was lucky nothing worse was done to her. The last episode he wrote about was how over a long time he learned some tricks that helped him avoid physical harm or verbal abuse. While on an elevator, he couldn’t take his hat off so a white man did for him. But he knew from experience it was good not to say thank you so he pretended to be struggling with the bags that he was carrying.
3. I thought that Wright did a wonderful job in his autobiography of explaining how you had to live as a black person in the Deep South. Only excerpts were taken from his book. Unfortunately, none of them contained any dates as to when these things occurred. I am curious as to whether they were close to the Civil Rights Movement or if they were closer to the end of the Civil War. It was truly terrible; the things that black people had to go through in this time period. The thing that amazes me is how the policeman acted violently against blacks just as other white people did. I think Wright did a good job showing the wide assortment of things that black people had to go through. It was just a few things that the blacks had to be careful about. They had to be smart about every single decision that they made. If they weren’t, they would have to pay terrible consequences.
4. Earlier we read about how bad life was for blacks on the southern plantations before the Civil War. From these excerpts from Wright’s autobiography, I can see that even with freedom their lives really didn’t become much better. It is sad to read about all the years where blacks were treated so poorly. Many had to live their whole lives under these terrible circumstances.
2. The entire article summarized some events that a young black man had to go through in his early life that had lasting impressions on him for the rest of his life. He starts by telling how he got injured by a broken glass bottle during a fight with white boys and how instead of feeling sorry for him his mom beat him instead so he would learn his lesson. Then he told the story about his first factory job and how he was threatened for trying to learn to do better from the white workers. After that he told the story of how he tried to hitch a ride with some white men and was smacked in the face by a beer bottle and left in the middle of the road. The next story was about how a policeman bashed him against the curb on purpose while he was on his bicycle. Then he told of a few bad experiences that he experienced or witnessed while being a hall-boy at a hotel. Another experience he told about was seeing a black woman beaten and then hearing that it was lucky nothing worse was done to her. The last episode he wrote about was how over a long time he learned some tricks that helped him avoid physical harm or verbal abuse. While on an elevator, he couldn’t take his hat off so a white man did for him. But he knew from experience it was good not to say thank you so he pretended to be struggling with the bags that he was carrying.
3. I thought that Wright did a wonderful job in his autobiography of explaining how you had to live as a black person in the Deep South. Only excerpts were taken from his book. Unfortunately, none of them contained any dates as to when these things occurred. I am curious as to whether they were close to the Civil Rights Movement or if they were closer to the end of the Civil War. It was truly terrible; the things that black people had to go through in this time period. The thing that amazes me is how the policeman acted violently against blacks just as other white people did. I think Wright did a good job showing the wide assortment of things that black people had to go through. It was just a few things that the blacks had to be careful about. They had to be smart about every single decision that they made. If they weren’t, they would have to pay terrible consequences.
4. Earlier we read about how bad life was for blacks on the southern plantations before the Civil War. From these excerpts from Wright’s autobiography, I can see that even with freedom their lives really didn’t become much better. It is sad to read about all the years where blacks were treated so poorly. Many had to live their whole lives under these terrible circumstances.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Comic book post
1. I think the thesis this comic book cover was trying to accomplish was that the Americans had a far better military than the Japanese did and that Americas was winning the war.
2. This cover is trying to show that America was winning the war in the Pacific against the Japanese. The American soldier is much stronger than any of the Japanese soldiers. American soldiers are rushing across the bridge as if they are winning the battle and about to annihilate the Japanese army. Also an American plane shot down a Japanese plane. The battle was taking place on an island in the Pacific with all of the trees, so it must have been a battle later in the war. So clearly the artist is saying that the American army is far better than the Japanese army and that the American’s will win the war easily.
3. As is mostly the case with the media during wars, I don’t think the impression that this cover was making was the correct one. The drawer is pretty much saying that the American army was stronger and much better than the Japanese army. I learned in my history classes that this was not the case. In no way did the American army dominate the Pacific side of World War II. In fact I think the whole war was only slightly won by the American army. If the United States would not have been blessed to invent the atomic bomb, the war would have took much longer to finish off. There were a ton of American casualties in the Pacific Theater during World War II and if the Atomic bomb had not been used, they probably would have been doubled by the time the U.S. army would have reached Japan. So the artist’s representation of total American dominance in the war I feel was blatantly off.
Another part of the cover that I would like to analyze, is the misinterpretation of the actual looks of the Japanese soldiers. Once again here, the artist is blatantly off. He makes the Japanese soldiers look like monkeys who are trying to eat the American soldiers. They all have their mouths wide open like they may try to bite the American solder. I think the reason their mouths are open is because they are getting hit by bullets, but to me they look like they may try to bite the American before their deaths. The also look like monkey as their mouths bulge out of their face. The author is trying to make them look like blood thirsty savages. Now I know combat can be extremely ferocious, but I think the artist just paints the wrong picture here.
4. Clearly this time in our nation was a time of extreme hate toward people of Asian nationality and this is truly shown in this cover. I guess I was just stunned at how the author made the Japanese solders look like savage monkeys. The drawer made the Japanese soldiers look much meaner than they actually looked. The artists hate against Asian culture clearly comes out in this comic. But since the war was such a terrible time for our nation, I guess this cover looked pretty much how I expected it too look. Clearly an American artist isn’t going to make the Japanese army look superior and nice.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
How Jews became Wthie Folks Post
1. This article talked about how many European ethnicities were at one point discriminated against in the United States. But after World War II, most of the different European ethnicities in the United States have been grouped together as white and had moved up to the middle class. The main reason that they were able to do this was because of the GI Bill of Rights.
2. Karen Brodkin begins her article by explaining how odd it was that at one point in our nation’s history, European workers were thought of as biologically different and not really “white”. She says that she would like to believe that Jews became successful wholly because of their hard work and intelligence. But she says that their rise in America’s class ladder was also because social barriers were removed by the affirmative action program that our country enacted after the Second World War She began the main part of her article by explaining that there were four major European races in America and that the Nordic race was thought of as more superior than all of the others such as the Alpines, Mediterraneans, and the Jews. On page forty she says, “race and class were interwoven: the upper class was racially pure Nordic; the lower class came from the lower races. They were clearly discriminated against as the elite whites thought of Jews as unwashed, uncouth, unrefined, loud, and pushy. She explained this as she told us that her father almost failed a speech test because his speech wasn’t the “standard” non-accented English. But times changed as she stated that in 1940 the census all the ethnicities were not singled out and that the whole white population was listed as white. She says on page forty-three that this took place because, “the economic mobility of Jews and other Euro-ethnics derived ultimately from America’s postwar economic prosperity and its enormously expanded need for professional, technical, and managerial labor, as well as on government assistance in providing it.” The GI Bill of Rights was aimed at and disproportionately helped male, Euro-origin GI’s. She explained how this bill helped nicely on page forty-four, “The almost 8 million GIs who took advantage of their educational benefits under the GI Bill cause ‘the greatest wave of college building in American history.’ White male GIs were able to take advantage of their educational benefits for college and technical training, so they were particularly well positioned to seize the opportunities provided by the new demands for professional, managerial, and technical labor.” After that she explained that unfortunately African Americans and women could not make these same gains. The progress that was made during the war was lost when the soldiers came back. Black students were not allowed in white colleges and all of the black colleges were filled to capacity, so many of them were not able to attend college. Also, housing companies refused to sell houses in suburbs to African Americans and they were not able to make improvements to their current houses.
3. I think that the author’s argument is an extremely valid one in this article. She clearly provided the reader with history of all of the major steps that allowed Jews and other European ethnicities to make the jump to the middle class. She also clearly explains why African Americans were unable to make that same jump. I’m glad that she could see the facts that this bill did help Jews out and that their rise wasn’t only because of hard work. Although they did work extremely hard, so did the African Americans. But the bill didn’t reward them for their service during the war like it did the Europeans.
4. I don’t think that this bill affected any of my ancestors. My father and uncles were born after this timeframe and my grandfather did not fight in the war. Therefore he stayed in the working class as a farmer. I think it is so sad that even this late in our countries history, blacks were being segregated against in brutal ways. It had to have been horrible fighting for the country and then not being rewarded for your service the way others were and in fact, they were almost punished for serving the country.
2. Karen Brodkin begins her article by explaining how odd it was that at one point in our nation’s history, European workers were thought of as biologically different and not really “white”. She says that she would like to believe that Jews became successful wholly because of their hard work and intelligence. But she says that their rise in America’s class ladder was also because social barriers were removed by the affirmative action program that our country enacted after the Second World War She began the main part of her article by explaining that there were four major European races in America and that the Nordic race was thought of as more superior than all of the others such as the Alpines, Mediterraneans, and the Jews. On page forty she says, “race and class were interwoven: the upper class was racially pure Nordic; the lower class came from the lower races. They were clearly discriminated against as the elite whites thought of Jews as unwashed, uncouth, unrefined, loud, and pushy. She explained this as she told us that her father almost failed a speech test because his speech wasn’t the “standard” non-accented English. But times changed as she stated that in 1940 the census all the ethnicities were not singled out and that the whole white population was listed as white. She says on page forty-three that this took place because, “the economic mobility of Jews and other Euro-ethnics derived ultimately from America’s postwar economic prosperity and its enormously expanded need for professional, technical, and managerial labor, as well as on government assistance in providing it.” The GI Bill of Rights was aimed at and disproportionately helped male, Euro-origin GI’s. She explained how this bill helped nicely on page forty-four, “The almost 8 million GIs who took advantage of their educational benefits under the GI Bill cause ‘the greatest wave of college building in American history.’ White male GIs were able to take advantage of their educational benefits for college and technical training, so they were particularly well positioned to seize the opportunities provided by the new demands for professional, managerial, and technical labor.” After that she explained that unfortunately African Americans and women could not make these same gains. The progress that was made during the war was lost when the soldiers came back. Black students were not allowed in white colleges and all of the black colleges were filled to capacity, so many of them were not able to attend college. Also, housing companies refused to sell houses in suburbs to African Americans and they were not able to make improvements to their current houses.
3. I think that the author’s argument is an extremely valid one in this article. She clearly provided the reader with history of all of the major steps that allowed Jews and other European ethnicities to make the jump to the middle class. She also clearly explains why African Americans were unable to make that same jump. I’m glad that she could see the facts that this bill did help Jews out and that their rise wasn’t only because of hard work. Although they did work extremely hard, so did the African Americans. But the bill didn’t reward them for their service during the war like it did the Europeans.
4. I don’t think that this bill affected any of my ancestors. My father and uncles were born after this timeframe and my grandfather did not fight in the war. Therefore he stayed in the working class as a farmer. I think it is so sad that even this late in our countries history, blacks were being segregated against in brutal ways. It had to have been horrible fighting for the country and then not being rewarded for your service the way others were and in fact, they were almost punished for serving the country.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Zinn Chapter 9
1. I feel that Zinn’s thesis in chapter 9 is that life was not much better for the slaves in the south even after the Civil War. Similarly many people think that blacks in the north had life much better than the slaves in south, but for the most part this wasn’t true. Life didn’t get much better for the blacks after the Civil War and maybe for some it got worse.
2. Zinn begins chapter nine by listing a stunning fact that between 1790 and 1860 the slave population in the United States increased by three and a half million and with that cotton production ballooned from thousands to millions. This occurred even though slave importation became illegal in 1808 and he estimated that 250,000 slaves were imported after that date. He states that slave families were torn apart just so the plantation owners could make some extra cash that they didn’t need. Even with these terrible tactics slave rebellion was rare, but the slave owners were still always worried about it. One slave that rebelled and escaped to the north was Harriet Tubman. Zinn listed two interesting quotes from her. First she would tell slaves that she was assisting to escape, “You’ll be free or die.” Amazingly she was not afraid of death as she said, “There was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other; for no man should take me alive.” He also tells us that some poor whites would help with slaves escaping just because they hated the rich plantation owners. But slave-owners didn’t like this so they paid poor whites to be overseers. But through slavery, the blacks formed a community with one another as Zinn states on page 133, “The slave community acted like a generalized kinship system in which all adults looked after all children and there was little division between ‘my children for whom I’m responsible’ and ‘your children for whom you’re responsible’… It was part and parcel, as we shall see, of the social process out of which came black pride, black identity, black culture, the black community, and black rebellion in America.” England was not in favor of slavery in the U.S. and the U.S. thought about war. But the slaves would not have fought as was quoted from page 137, “If war be declared… Will we fight in defense of a government which denies us the most precious right of citizenship?” Some white abolitionists in the north did help out the anti-slavery movement, but blacks still had to deal with racism in the north. Therefore the free blacks took it upon themselves to lead the anti-slavery movement. John Brown tried to start a rebellion, but it was squashed before it began. Still even with the anti-slavery movement in the north, clearly there was still racism as the Supreme Court ruled in 1857 on page 139 that slave Dred Scott could not sue for freedom because “he was not a person, but property.” Many people view Lincoln as a person who didn’t have any prejudices, but even he didn’t see blacks as equal to whites. He said on page 142, “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it.” After the Emancipation Proclamation many former slaves fought for the Union even though they were pretty much still slaves for the army. Without their help the war would have went on for much longer. Even though Lincoln freed the slaves, they didn’t think much of him as he didn’t allow them a chance to succeed in their lives after slavery. After the war several laws were passed that made it a crime to discriminate against blacks, but a few years later none of the laws were enforced. An African American Supreme Court justice was forced to say, “Our constitution is color-blind.” The lack of enforcement made it easy for hate groups to terrorize the blacks. So even after the Civil War, life was not much better for African Americans.
3. I thought the author backed his thesis well throughout the chapter. He used several amazing quotes to validate his argument. Many people think that life for the slave instantly got better after the Civil War, but Zinn does an excellent job of proving that this was not the case in this chapter.
4. In studying Lincoln in history classes throughout my previous education, I always thought that he viewed African Americans as equals. By some of his quotes in this chapter, you can see that this was not the case. How sad it is that we only hear about the good things that our early presidents did. It is clear to me that at a young age our nation wants us to view these men as some of the greatest men in our country’s history so they skew much of their backgrounds so we only see the positive side of them.
2. Zinn begins chapter nine by listing a stunning fact that between 1790 and 1860 the slave population in the United States increased by three and a half million and with that cotton production ballooned from thousands to millions. This occurred even though slave importation became illegal in 1808 and he estimated that 250,000 slaves were imported after that date. He states that slave families were torn apart just so the plantation owners could make some extra cash that they didn’t need. Even with these terrible tactics slave rebellion was rare, but the slave owners were still always worried about it. One slave that rebelled and escaped to the north was Harriet Tubman. Zinn listed two interesting quotes from her. First she would tell slaves that she was assisting to escape, “You’ll be free or die.” Amazingly she was not afraid of death as she said, “There was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other; for no man should take me alive.” He also tells us that some poor whites would help with slaves escaping just because they hated the rich plantation owners. But slave-owners didn’t like this so they paid poor whites to be overseers. But through slavery, the blacks formed a community with one another as Zinn states on page 133, “The slave community acted like a generalized kinship system in which all adults looked after all children and there was little division between ‘my children for whom I’m responsible’ and ‘your children for whom you’re responsible’… It was part and parcel, as we shall see, of the social process out of which came black pride, black identity, black culture, the black community, and black rebellion in America.” England was not in favor of slavery in the U.S. and the U.S. thought about war. But the slaves would not have fought as was quoted from page 137, “If war be declared… Will we fight in defense of a government which denies us the most precious right of citizenship?” Some white abolitionists in the north did help out the anti-slavery movement, but blacks still had to deal with racism in the north. Therefore the free blacks took it upon themselves to lead the anti-slavery movement. John Brown tried to start a rebellion, but it was squashed before it began. Still even with the anti-slavery movement in the north, clearly there was still racism as the Supreme Court ruled in 1857 on page 139 that slave Dred Scott could not sue for freedom because “he was not a person, but property.” Many people view Lincoln as a person who didn’t have any prejudices, but even he didn’t see blacks as equal to whites. He said on page 142, “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it.” After the Emancipation Proclamation many former slaves fought for the Union even though they were pretty much still slaves for the army. Without their help the war would have went on for much longer. Even though Lincoln freed the slaves, they didn’t think much of him as he didn’t allow them a chance to succeed in their lives after slavery. After the war several laws were passed that made it a crime to discriminate against blacks, but a few years later none of the laws were enforced. An African American Supreme Court justice was forced to say, “Our constitution is color-blind.” The lack of enforcement made it easy for hate groups to terrorize the blacks. So even after the Civil War, life was not much better for African Americans.
3. I thought the author backed his thesis well throughout the chapter. He used several amazing quotes to validate his argument. Many people think that life for the slave instantly got better after the Civil War, but Zinn does an excellent job of proving that this was not the case in this chapter.
4. In studying Lincoln in history classes throughout my previous education, I always thought that he viewed African Americans as equals. By some of his quotes in this chapter, you can see that this was not the case. How sad it is that we only hear about the good things that our early presidents did. It is clear to me that at a young age our nation wants us to view these men as some of the greatest men in our country’s history so they skew much of their backgrounds so we only see the positive side of them.
Friday, October 5, 2007
Kindred Summary
1. I think the main point that the author was trying to make in this novel is that so many people think they have it bad off now in the present. After reading this book, the author is showing us how terribly bad the conditions really were for the slaves thirty years before the Civil War.
2. The author begins the book with the account on how Dana, a black woman, saves a little white boy named Rufus from drowning. She is brought back to real life however when Mr. Wyeling, the boy’s father, points a gun at her intending to shoot her. After that Octavia Butler gives us a little bit of Dana’s background in her real world. She is moving in to a new house with her white husband, Kevin. They are both “wannabe” writers who haven’t had success with their writing. But when Kevin gets his first book published, he asks Dana to marry him. They are just starting their new lives together when as summarized earlier, when Dana is taken to Maryland during the year 1815. Each time that she is transported back in time, she is almost killed. When that happens she is transported back to her real life back in California. Similarly whenever Rufus is in danger, she is transported back to Maryland to help him survive sure death. The book continues in these cycles until the end of Rufus’s life. The second time she is transported back in time, she is called to save Rufus from burning his house down. After she does this she tries to escape the Wyelin plantation. As she is wandering through the woods, she comes upon an old house in which a black family was living. She witnesses the black man being taken away from his wife, because he didn’t have any free papers. In the process she is found by a patrolman, who beats her with a stick and probably would have done worse things if she had not caused him to lose consciousness with her own blow to his face. She then blacks out and is taken back to California. The next time she is taken back to Maryland, Rufus has just fallen from a tree and has broken his leg. This time Kevin is taken with her though. They help get Rufus back to his house. Kevin says he is going south and that Dana is his free slave. This helps Dana from being treated like the other slaves on the plantation. She teaches Rufus how to read and makes the mistake of trying to teach a slave boy, Nigel, how to read. Mr Wyelin catches her and takes her out to wip her. She is then taken back to reality, but without Kevin, who is left in Maryland. Before her next visit eight days go by. She is taken back to get help for Rufus after he is almost killed in a fight with Isaac. Dana helps Alice, who needs to live in order to keep Dana’s birth line intact, to get a head start with her husband. She then takes Rufus back to get him help. When she goes back to see Kevin, she finds that five years have past and that Kevin left to go north. Dana stays hoping for Kevin’s return. After almost a year, Kevin does return and they try to escape to the north together. But they are met on the road by Wyelin and Rufus, who threaten to shoot them if they do not stay. This is how they are taken back to reality. She is then taken back to find Rufus as a full grown drunk man about to die as his face is face-down in a puddle. She is then taken back as Rufus beats her, because he thinks she is going to have sexual relations with one of his slaves, Sam. Finally the last time that she is taken back she is brought back to save Rufus from killing himself when he finds out that his wife and Dana’s ancestor has committed suicide. But eventually she is forced to kill Rufus and that ends her fantasy as she will never again be transported back to Maryland after Rufus’s death.
3. I don’t know how much actual documentation she had from the slave time period that she used to validate her writing, but this seemed to be a fairly good description of what the life of a slave was like. She mentioned several hardships that they faced back in that time period. Some hardships she mentioned from the book were the tough labor in the fields, the whippings, the loss of family members through trading slaves, the disrespect, and mindset that they would have to deal with these hardships throughout their entire lives. I think Butler did an excellent job of getting all these negative aspects of slavery mentioned in one story.
4. The reading definitely showed how brutal slavery was. The author did marvelous job of displaying this in her book. I personally thought it was a superior novel and enjoyed reading it. For a person who hates to read, that is saying a lot. But reading this book definitely makes us realize how good we have it in this present age compared to how awful it must have been to live as a slave back in those times.
2. The author begins the book with the account on how Dana, a black woman, saves a little white boy named Rufus from drowning. She is brought back to real life however when Mr. Wyeling, the boy’s father, points a gun at her intending to shoot her. After that Octavia Butler gives us a little bit of Dana’s background in her real world. She is moving in to a new house with her white husband, Kevin. They are both “wannabe” writers who haven’t had success with their writing. But when Kevin gets his first book published, he asks Dana to marry him. They are just starting their new lives together when as summarized earlier, when Dana is taken to Maryland during the year 1815. Each time that she is transported back in time, she is almost killed. When that happens she is transported back to her real life back in California. Similarly whenever Rufus is in danger, she is transported back to Maryland to help him survive sure death. The book continues in these cycles until the end of Rufus’s life. The second time she is transported back in time, she is called to save Rufus from burning his house down. After she does this she tries to escape the Wyelin plantation. As she is wandering through the woods, she comes upon an old house in which a black family was living. She witnesses the black man being taken away from his wife, because he didn’t have any free papers. In the process she is found by a patrolman, who beats her with a stick and probably would have done worse things if she had not caused him to lose consciousness with her own blow to his face. She then blacks out and is taken back to California. The next time she is taken back to Maryland, Rufus has just fallen from a tree and has broken his leg. This time Kevin is taken with her though. They help get Rufus back to his house. Kevin says he is going south and that Dana is his free slave. This helps Dana from being treated like the other slaves on the plantation. She teaches Rufus how to read and makes the mistake of trying to teach a slave boy, Nigel, how to read. Mr Wyelin catches her and takes her out to wip her. She is then taken back to reality, but without Kevin, who is left in Maryland. Before her next visit eight days go by. She is taken back to get help for Rufus after he is almost killed in a fight with Isaac. Dana helps Alice, who needs to live in order to keep Dana’s birth line intact, to get a head start with her husband. She then takes Rufus back to get him help. When she goes back to see Kevin, she finds that five years have past and that Kevin left to go north. Dana stays hoping for Kevin’s return. After almost a year, Kevin does return and they try to escape to the north together. But they are met on the road by Wyelin and Rufus, who threaten to shoot them if they do not stay. This is how they are taken back to reality. She is then taken back to find Rufus as a full grown drunk man about to die as his face is face-down in a puddle. She is then taken back as Rufus beats her, because he thinks she is going to have sexual relations with one of his slaves, Sam. Finally the last time that she is taken back she is brought back to save Rufus from killing himself when he finds out that his wife and Dana’s ancestor has committed suicide. But eventually she is forced to kill Rufus and that ends her fantasy as she will never again be transported back to Maryland after Rufus’s death.
3. I don’t know how much actual documentation she had from the slave time period that she used to validate her writing, but this seemed to be a fairly good description of what the life of a slave was like. She mentioned several hardships that they faced back in that time period. Some hardships she mentioned from the book were the tough labor in the fields, the whippings, the loss of family members through trading slaves, the disrespect, and mindset that they would have to deal with these hardships throughout their entire lives. I think Butler did an excellent job of getting all these negative aspects of slavery mentioned in one story.
4. The reading definitely showed how brutal slavery was. The author did marvelous job of displaying this in her book. I personally thought it was a superior novel and enjoyed reading it. For a person who hates to read, that is saying a lot. But reading this book definitely makes us realize how good we have it in this present age compared to how awful it must have been to live as a slave back in those times.
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