LITR 4332: American
Minority Literature
Sample Student
Final Exam Answers 2001
Question 1. Mexican
American and Native American minority identities and narratives.
45 minutes to an hour.
Write
a complete essay explaining how Native America and Mexican America may be
considered minority ethnic cultures and what narratives these
cultures have developed in response to their conditions.
·
Refer specifically to at
least three of the following four texts: Bless
Me, Ultima; The House on Mango Street;
American Indian Stories
[for 2000, Black Elk Speaks];
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in
Heaven.
·
Explain the course’s working definition
for ethnic minorities and relate Native American and Mexican American culture to
this definition. Examples from the texts that support this definition will
be impressive.
·
Explain the concept and significance
of “narrative” or storytelling, not just to literature but to human
culture generally. Against this background describe the alternative
narratives of the Mexican American and American Indian cultures, referring
to at least one of the major texts we read in class for each ethnic
group.
·
How do these narratives correspond
to, differ from, or compensate for problems in the American Dream narrative?
·
Feel free to refer to poems from class
presentations that shed light on these subjects. (Not required.)
QUESTION #1
Mexican Americans and
Native Americans can be considered minority ethnic cultures because, the
characteristics that separate them from the dominant culture deal with issues of
ethnicity and not race. Race tends
to deal with biological and genetic differences.
While, Mexican Americans and Native Americans do differ in this way from
the dominant culture their main differences are in language, culture, and
attitudes, which are a part of ethnicity.
Native Americans can
be classified as ethnic minorities because their language, their religion, their
oral tradition and many other aspects of their culture greatly differ from that
of the dominant culture. When
Zitkala-Sa was taken to missionary school, away from her family and tribe, no
regard was given to her culture. She
fought as they cut her long hair short. In
her culture, short hair was a sign of someone in mourning or someone who was a
coward.
Mexican Americans
fall under the same category. They
greatly differ from the dominant culture by their language, culture and
dedication to family and religion. An
example of this difference can be seen in Bless Me Ultima, when Tony begins to
eat lunch on his first day of school. All
the children pull out their sandwiches, the traditional dominant culture school
lunch. However, Tony's mother had
packed him "a small jar of hot beans and some good, green chile wrapped in
tortillas" (58). All of Tony's
classmates snicker and laugh at the food of his culture, and make Tony feel like
an outcast. He said that he now
could understand what the adults called, "a tristesa de la vida" or
"the suffering of my life". What
separated Tony that day was not his genetics but his culture.
One of the things
that seems to connect the Mexican American and the Native American cultures
together is their sense of loss and survival (Objective 3b).
This feeling of loss and survival is many times shown through the two
cultures rich oral tradition. The
use of narratives or oral stories are very important to a culture.
They help to connect the people and give them a history.
In the Native American culture the oral tradition ties the elders of the
community to the younger members. Zitkala-Sa
tells in her book, American Indian Stories, of the time that the elders of her
tribe would come to her home for dinner and tell the stories of their culture.
Zitkala-Sa writes, "I ate my supper in quiet, listening patiently to
the talk of the old people, wishing all the time that they would begin the
stories I loved best" (15). Some
Native American stories deal with the creation of the world and many stories
include a "trickster" or something who throws off the coarse of the
story. The idea of the
"trickster" still is present today in Native American stories.
Victoria Mannyarrows, in her poem "Lakota Sister/Cherokee
Mother" says about her mother, "... she could not pretend/ telling her
trickster stories". Not only
do stories teach the lessons and culture of the Native Americans, but they also
show the Native American sense of loss and survival.
Zitkala-Sa tells the story of an old Indian man that had been thrown in
jail. While sitting in his cell, he
has a vision. He dreams that the
Statue of Liberty turns around of her stone pedestal and looks down on the
Native American people with love and compassion.
He dreams that her light shines through the land and breaks through to
the Indian Reservations. Despite
all that this old Indian has lost to the white man, he still seems to find hope
and a chance of survival in the monument that stands for liberty and freedom.
In Sherman Alexie's
Lone Ranger, Thomas Builds-the-Fire, the story teller no one wishes to listen
to, tells a modern day story of loss and survival.
He tells a story of two Indian boys that wish to be warriors like the
ancestors; however, there were no horses to be like the Indians of the past.
Instead the two young Indians stole a car and drove it into town and
parked the car in front of the police station.
From town they hitchhiked their way back to the reservation where their
friends and family greeted them with open arms.
Thomas tells that the boys parents "shone with pride" and tell
the boys that they were "very brave" (63).
This story that Thomas tells is an old Indian story that has been adapted
to a modern day situation.
The Mexican Americans
also have a rich oral tradition. The
Mexican story of the Virgin of Guadalupe is a creation story that is well known
and revered. In the story, a
messenger of the virgin Mary, a Mexican Indian, convinces the Bishop to build a
temple to the Virgin. The Mexicans
are mainly Catholic and the Virgin is their connection to God.
In the novel, Bless Me Ultima, Tony and his family continually pray to
the Virgin for blessings or for thanksgiving.
At one point in the novel, Tony prays so long and intensely to the Virgin
that he falls asleep. Tony says,
"we prayed rosary after rosary, until the monotonous sound of prayers
blended into the blur of flickering alter candles" (58).
The Virgin many times enters into Tony's dreams as a protector.
La Llorna is also another Mexican American narrative.
La Llorna is the Mexican American "boogie man".
The la Llorna story is one of pity and scorn.
In Ultima, Tony describes la Llorna as lurking in dark shadows and other
scary places. The stories of la
Llorna and the Virgin de Guadalupe are well known stories in the Mexican
American culture that Tony remembers in his everyday life.
One of the stories of
the land of the town that Tony and his family live in is the story of the Golden
Carp. The story is similar to the Christian Garden of Eden.
The people are given land full of game and fertile land and are told that
can eat anything but the carp that swim in the stream.
However, after years of drought and famine the desperate and hungry
people of the town catch and eat the carp.
This angers the gods so much that they turn all of the people into carp.
It is because of this story that the people of Tony's town still do not
catch and eat carp. Eating the carp
would be like eating their ancestors, or committing a sin against their people.
The most prominent
story of loss and survival in Ultima is the story of Tony's father.
He tells of the land before the invasion of the dominant culture.
He tells Tony, "the llano was still virgin, there was grass as high
as the stirrups of a grown horse, there was rain" (54).
However when the white man came and built his fences and brought
civilization, the llano changed and Tony's father left.
However, Tony's father still clings to the hope that one day he will move
westward to California, and have something like the llano again.
The narratives for
these two cultures help to bring their cultures together and bind their efforts
of survival. Both the Native
Americans and the Mexican Americans use these stories as a reminder of their
pasts and an encouragement for their future.
Their American Dream is different from that of the dominant culture.
Their fight for survival is more difficult, and their narratives help to
bond the culture together to a common goal of survival in America. [AM 2001]
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Native Americans and
Mexican Americans may be considered a minority culture because Europeans did not
bring both ethnic groups onto the land of America. More definably, the
Native Americans are classified as a minority group because there is less
ambiguity about their existence. The Mexican Americans, however, fall into
the category of minority and immigrant because the southwest of the war in the
1840s between Mexico and the United States forced Mexico to give up land, like
the Indians. Immigrant qualities are complicated because a portion of the
US was once Mexico, the historic homeland of Mexicans. Immigrant status is
determined by the choice to travel for economic opportunity, but the Mexican
immigrant groups don’t always assimilate because they can return home to their
culture. Variations also include the choice to come to the US to earn
money then return home, some chose to stay in the US, and some chose to never
come to the US. The immigrant culture wants to assimilate but if it’s a
minority culture it is not always desired, especially if they feel forced by the
dominant culture. The homeland offers the comfort of language and if they
leave this situation and if it was not a poor situation they may end up in a
worse position. Class is likely to determine the immigration into the
dominant culture. The next step usually takes the Mexicans into the
American barrios and patterns are fairly the same with the exception of learning
the English language. This takes the children closer into the dominant
culture and leaves the parents behind. The issue is complex, ambiguous,
and sometimes contradictory. The African Americans and Native Americans
are forced to participate, and the American Dream has different meanings.
Ambivalence reflects how the culture fits the immigrant status. It is
ambivalent because crossing from Mexico to what used to be Mexico does not fit
the long travel usually associated with immigrants, and they have to cross over
land instead of water.
To define ethnic
minorities is somewhat complicated and relies on identity and culture.
Ethnicity is the politically correct term for describing the culture of a group.
Race ties the definition into nature and connects to the biological genetic
concept of skin tones and features, a look given by nature. It is not
appropriate to talk about ethnic groups in those terms, but it is appropriate to
talk in terms of language, customs, and attitudes – the things learned.
African Americans tend to be defined by race from old southern laws and that’s
one reason why it’s been shifted to ethnicity. Also used in terms of
African American are the “color line” and the “passing” of people who
moved back and forth between two worlds, the genetic connection made by at least
a quarter to an eighth of race. In the case of Hispanic Americans, there
is not a genetic background, but a definition based on language, customs,
attitude, and ethnicity. For example, the United States Census (2000) on
question eight does not have an indicator for Hispanic, the choices are:
Whit, Black (African Am., or Negro), American Indian or Alaska Native.
Along the lines of ethnicity, “whiteness studies,” whiteness was the
standard not an ethnic group. White people do not think of themselves as
ethnic, but only recently has there been an association of “trailer park”
centers for white identity, but even that is tied to class, not ethnicity.
In a sense, Mexican Americans escape the race category and move into the ethnic
culture description. Geographically, they are located in southern Central
America, defined by language of Spanish, heavy emphasis of the catholic
(patriarchal) religion, and flavorful food. Furthermore, the women are the
power centers in the home while the men work outside the home. There is a
machismo attitude that the men are granted more power (patriarchy).
The significance of
“narrative” or storytelling in terms of literature and human culture
presents issues that pertain to human needs and existence. The story
telling and narratives speak for real people in the sense that many minorities
share common experiences or experiences similar to the characters in literature.
Quiet often authors will incorporate someone’s life story into the characters
in their fiction. In minority categories there is recognition of the facts
of life in America, and of loss and survival. The contact of the law is
reflected in the way minorities tell their stories in writing. For
example, when Thomas Builds-the-fire goes to prison he has in his company
African American, Chicano, and a white man from lower class. There is a
direct line from the ghetto, barrio, reservation, and “logging-town tin
shack” to the prison (103). The whole existence of American Indians
takes place in a criminal context. The taking of lives and land was under
the control of the greater authority. Lost hope and hopelessness like in
the story when the man looks in the wallet and he cannot by Christmas gifts.
The concept in their minds is not hopelessness just loss. Keep losing, but
there is survival. Humor as a way to reconcile the loss and it’s a way
of survival. Humor is a sign of life that contradicts the seriousness of
American Indians; maybe it’s a mask. All the stories open with loss, but
the counter motion is – “Are you dead yet? Nope. Not yet” (44). When
dominant culture talk about American Indians they tell only part of the story,
the story of loss, they romanticize the Indians that are gone, but ignore the
Indians that are still here. The story is half true, they suffered great
loses, like an apocalypse, but the story does not stop there. It is a
story of survival: once everything was right, then it got away from us,
defined by loss and the continual struggle for survival.
In Mexican American
literature, the significance of “narrative” or storytelling portrays the
cultures human experience with the dominant culture in terms of ambivalence.
Ambivalence and resolution of a new identity, for example, Esperanza is told,
“when you leave you must remember always to come back […] for the others.”
In Ultima, loyalties create ambivalence, for example there is a pull
between Tony’s mother’s family and his father’s family. His
mother’s side has Indian decent; the father’s side has Spanish
(conquistador) decent. The ambivalence is whether or not Mexicans are tied
to the Indian or the Spanish culture. Like the whirlwind, it can be both
good and bad. Religion ambivalence exists between the catholic religion
and the native religion. Tony is pressured to choose becoming a priest for
his mother’s sake or becoming a Marez roamer for his father’s sake.
There is even ambivalence about Ultima and whether she is a witch or a healer.
Modern and tradition has to honor his mother and father both, then at school he
is separated and he is with a peer group. Tony attempts to resolve the ambiguity
in his identity. He questions the whirlwind, and he questions the
ambivalence of religion he perceives through Ultima, then he finally comes to
the realization that it is not one or the other, but that it is a cycle or
system that integrates. Ambivalence also creates a system of blending, or
syncretism, the synthesis and blending of religious systems. In House,
Esperanza notices the several examples of cultural overlapping when she seeks
the guidance of Elenita. She observes the mix beliefs of “holy candles
[…] a plaster saint and a dusty Palm Sunday cross, and a picture of the voodoo
hand taped to the wall” (63). Another system of mixing beliefs is
evident in the oral tales that developed in the Mexican culture, such as La
llorona, La Malinche, and the Guadalupe. They are the symbolic
possibilities for women in the Mexican American culture, and the women’s
identity is associated with these symbols. La llorona and La Malinche are
negative examples and are considered objects of pity and scorn. The
Mexican American Culture has significant women symbols, while the Protestant
religion has all male symbols. In the Mexican American culture seems very
macho, but they also recognize significant female figures. Traditionally,
women are expected to value and model the symbolic role of the Guadalupe.
The Mexican female is to be subservient to the patriarchal system in the home.
Esperanza wants to break free from this tradition in the section Beautiful and
Cruel. She experiences contradictory attitudes about gender and begins her
own quiet war by leaving the table without picking up a plate. The
ambivalence is experience in many aspects, and it creates conflicts within the
culture.
In summary, the
narratives and storytelling give an inviting view into minority cultures in
which others may otherwise not experience. Their experiences are not
always resolved by the concept of the American Dream. The cultures
experience through literature using the dominant cultures words against them,
pointing out in biblical and political terms where their opportunities should be
granted. Assimilating into the dominant culture, learning the language,
the standard English language, and receiving exposure to the documents created
by the powerful figures in the dominant culture allows the minorities to bring
awareness, but achieving the American Dream seems to mean different things
depending on the perspective. [DR 2001]
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One
of the ways in which minorities are distinguished from the dominant culture is
that the dominant culture is considered an immigrant culture while the minority
group is forced to participate in dominant society involuntarily.
A common example of this forced participation is the purchasing and/or
kidnapping of slaves from Africa. The
situation is a little different for the Mexican Americans and Native Americans,
though, because they were in this land first.
Still, they were made voiceless and choiceless by whites who pushed them
out of their territories, thereby creating in them a minority status.
As minorities, these groups began to form a national voice when they
began to write material for
wide-spread publication. Although
the African voice was heard through literature earlier on and more often (due to
slaves being forced to speak English), the narratives of the Mexican and Native
American groups (who retained their native languages longer) are no less
important or moving, containing significant themes of their own.
The
narratives of the Mexican Americans often reflect an “ambivalent” cultural
identity due to having mixed attitudes about their position in American society.
In some ways, the Mexican American experience reflects that of the
Indians, in so far as they, too, were forced out of their homeland, especially
those who lived in what is now Texas. Aside
from that group of Mexican Americans is the group who immigrated in, just as
other immigrants, looking towards America as “the land of opportunity” but
finding those opportunities to be very limited, sometimes due to the fact of
their ethnicity. With this group
the battle between assimilation and resistance is especially hard because you
have people (sometimes within the same family) who are on opposite sides of
thinking (immigrant or minority).
Patterns
of the ambivalence concept can be found within Sandra Cisneros’ The House on
Mango Street with attitudes toward the law (24), living in seemingly constant
mobility (13), and having reality disrupt or destroy a dream (3).
One of the most important lines that express this ambivalence is when
Esperanza says, “what I remember most is Mango Street, sad red house…that I
belong but do not belong to” (110). We
also see the types of questions that cause the ambivalence in Rudolfo Anaya’s
Bless Me, Ultima. Are they
immigrant or minority? Spanish or
Indian ancestry? Spanish or English
speakers? If they are “border
people,” do they claim the border of Mexico or America?
Is the “golden carp” Indian or Judeo-Christian?
The answer to these questions and more is “both,” which is exactly
why it is difficult to move out of the ambivalent status.
The
Native American narratives also share a common theme running through them.
Most often, it is the theme of loss and survival, easily recognizable in
the two texts studied in this course, John Neihardt’s Black Elk Speaks and
Sherman Alexie’s The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.
Although these books are from very different time periods in the history
of the Native American culture, that fact only re-enforces the deep wounds that
still haunt them. (I believe it’s
important and useful for both of these books to be used [despite protest from
classmates over Black Elk] because they lend themselves so well to
comparison/contrast of the Native experience over time.)
It is bitter irony that the dominant group simultaneously admires and
destroys the Native American culture. In
Black Elk, there is romanticizing of the Indians in some ways, but at the same
time, the harsh realities of their experiences are discovered and understood.
The idea of visions and Black Elk being given certain powers by the
grandfathers is something that most people in the dominant group will not be
able to grasp in any other way other than by romanticizing of the sacred.
But the images of women and children lying butchered, “heaped and
scattered along the crooked gulch” as snow fell over their bodies, creating a
long white grave (270), is something that will inevitably affect every reader.
Alexie
affects readers in another way – by using a delicate combination of the “old
and new” throughout Fistfight. This
blending of traditional and modern ways of living and thinking is told with a
style that makes readers feel heartsick and smile at the same time.
One simple example of this is when Thomas is awaiting a great vision at
the Falls, but Victor’s father arrives and insists they go have dinner at
Denny’s instead (69). There is
ardent empathy for the characters that we get to know, and we feel a sense of
strength in each of their stories. The
past vs. the present/future in other examples as well, like the story of the
boys who want to be warriors “in the old way” but all the horses are gone,
so they steal a car to drive into the city where they park in front of the
police station and are hailed as heroes after they hitchhike home to the
reservation (63). The Native
Americans in this story can joke about their circumstances and participation in
society on the surface (think of Jimmy and Norma on the highway), but there is
always an underlying current of the seriousness of how it all happened –
“because [their] whole lives have to do with survival” (32).
There
are some ways in which the texts of these two groups are interwoven.
In Ultima, Antonio learns that “my spirit shared in the spirit of all
things” (15), a concept which is echoed in Thomas’ stories in Fistfight.
There is also the idea of the cyclic, circular ideology that pervades all
things good. The sisters tell
Esperanza in Mango Street, “When you leave, you must remember to always come
back…a circle, understand?” Black
Elk, too, understands the power of the circle in the world: the earth, stars,
nests, moon, sun, even sky and wind, seasons, men, and tepees all contain
roundness. Black Elk comments,
“The Wasichus have put us in these square boxes.
Our power is gone and we are dying.”
The style of Fistfight and Mango Street are similar to each other in that
they are both written in short accounts that can stand alone from the rest of
the novel. In fact, some excerpts
from these texts are also found in poetry anothologies and relate very well to
poems studied in class. But Mango
Street and Ultima comparatively read as chronological accounts, while Fistfight
and Black Elk read as transitions through time and characters, like a stream of
conscience format.
No
matter what book is being read among these titles, one thing is common.
These narratives present the power of storytelling and compensate in many
ways for the missing elements in the American Dream narratives.
In popular dominant culture, the American Dream is future-oriented
success through gain of material items, recognition, prestige, or the like; most
often if family is involved at all, there is the house and picket fence, 2.5
children the father won’t see because he will be working, and the mother keeps
the house and children spotless. In
these “alternative” narratives, a connection to the past is emphasized;
there is a need to return the old ways. We
see it through storytelling among these minority groups.
Ultima tells Antonio stories, Black Elk tells Neihardt stories, Esperanza
tells us stories, and Thomas tells stories to absolutely everyone.
Along the storytelling line, the character of Samuel Builds-The-Fire in
Fistfight gives us the deepest glimpse into the power of a story – “He knew
his stories had the power to teach, to show how this life should be lived”
(134) and with them he could “change the world for a few moments” (132).
Most American Dream narratives read like rags to riches novels –
interesting, but hardly world-changing. What
minority texts do is give readers an idea of the minority experience, sometimes
giving the dominant culture a clue about what is truly important; It’s not a
matter of a white house and picket fence, but what’s inside it that counts. [JM
2002]
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Pigeonholing ethnic minorities into a particular category can sometimes be difficult. This is especially true for Mexican-Americans and Native-Americans. Simply ‘labeling’ Mexican-Americans can be difficult. Are they Hispanic or Latino? Racially and culturally problems arise with these terms because racial boundaries are crossed and blurred by the fact that, as a people, they can come from all over the world. Mexican-Americans, however, are distinct, as they did not immigrate to America. However, even with Mexican-Americans, racial lines become less distinct. For example, Florence in BMU is pale with long blond hair, but is Mexican-American. There are, however, cultural markers that are generally true, such as language, religion, and the emphasis on a patriarchal culture. Native-Americans have many of the same issues of Mexican-Americans as racial and cultural issues compose their ethnic identity. To live on a reservation, Native-Americans must have a certain percentage of Indian blood. However, culturally, they are more at odds with the dominant culture as they hold traditional mores and values as opposed to the modern tendency to ‘keep the past in the past.’ By evaluating the Mexican-American and Native-American narratives, a clearer picture of the issues facing these groups is realized.
The ability to tell a good story is a pleasure enjoyed, not only by a specific group, but also by humanity. Narratives hold a mirror up to reality and allow the listener or reader to delve into and experience someone else’s joy, sorrow, successes, and failures. Through these vicarious experiences we, hopefully, learn something about other people or ourselves. Minority Literature serves this same purpose. It is essential for the dominant culture to understand on some level what exactly encompasses the minority experience. There is, perhaps, no better way to empathize and begin to comprehend the minority experience than to read a novel written from that perspective. Through analysis, a clearer picture of the culture can result.
For Mexican-Americans, a theme of ambivalence shines through the colorful language and story. Esparanza’s ambivalence begins to show the inheritance of her name and the idea that she does not want to inherit her namesakes “place by the window” (11). By the end of Mango, it is clear that Esparanza does not no what choice to make. Will she leave Mango Street forever or will she stay? Those two options would appear to be the only ones afforded to her. Maybe some how she will have the ability to choose ‘all of the above.’ Tony’s experiences correspond closely with Esparanza. Tony does not know if he will be of the Luna or the Vaqueros. In the end, he realizes that he will have to find his own voice and follow his own path. Each of these works typifies the Mexican-American real life experiences of ambivalence.
Ambivalent themes are seen in Native-American literature as well. This is rendered in BES when the Indians are being drawn out of their reservations to work for cash, and the syncretism of the Native and Christian religions. In addition, in BES and Lone Ranger, the Native-Americans never really choose to be a wholly in the modern or traditional cultures. They tend to move in and out of both or they choose specific aspects of the modern culture to use, such as guns and television. However, the Native-American experience in literature is most obviously punctuated by the themes of loss and survival. In Lone Ranger, the loss theme is typically related through brutal and harsh imagery. In the beginning of the novel, Native-American experience is likened to a hurricane that results in “memories not destroyed, but forever changed and damaged” (4). Likewise, Black Elk speaks of a people whose “power is gone and [they] are dying” (196). However, while there is little hope in Lone Ranger, Alexi does note that “Indians need heroes to help them learn how to survive” (49). BES clearly realizes the survival theme. Black Elk wants the Wasichus to “disappear” and then his people will be able to flourish and survive.
In addition to the minority specific themes, the concept of the American Dream with a catch is seen in both Mexican-American and Native-American narratives. This is most clearly seen when looking at the fact that each culture had their land stolen from them. In BMU, the Tejones took the land and fenced it in and in BES and Lone Ranger the Indians are relegated to reservations, even though the land was theirs in the first place. America came, and took over both of these minority groups. In addition, to achieve the dominant culture’s American Dream, Mexican-Americans and Native Americans would have to move away or obliterate their traditions. The Mexican-American experience entails being pulled, sometimes unwillingly into a modern world. In BMU, Deborah bluntly asks her mother if Ultima is a witch and mama cannot comprehend how her daughter “learned such ways” (8). In addition, the daughters only speak English, which is the voice of the dominant culture. Native-Americans are pulled in a similar direction. In BES, they must use the same guns or technology that the white man is using to slaughter them. In addition, Black Elk’s own son attended boarding school, therefore having contact with the dominant cultures ways. In addition, in Lone Ranger, Alexi gives multiple images of his people being harmed by the trappings of modern society. Television, cigarettes, and alcohol are a few of the bad gifts from the white man. However, it should be noted that they chose to keep basketball. Overall, through these examples, the typical American Dream cannot be realized when looking solely at the works studied thus far. However, there is a trend of some assimilation and definitely signs of acculturation. Unfortunately, the American Dream as modern society views it will never be realized while these cultures still emphasize traditional ways. [SD 2000]