LITR 4332 American Minority Literature Model Assignments Final Exam Submissions 2013

Ryan Harold

The Minority Narrative

Throughout the course of LITR 4332 we learned about three distinct, yet similar minority groups, African-Americans, Native Americans and Mexican-Americans. These three groups exemplify qualities of minority culture and literature in some ways but are also different from each other as well.

The main way that these groups exemplify this is through not being a part of the dominant culture and thus not being part of the American Dream. If you were not a white male you were treated differently. You would be judged by where you came from. African Americans were forced into slavery and Indians were forced to lose their homes.  The American dream requires that the past be forgotten. Where you came from should not matter. This is not the case in early America. It was exactly the opposite. African Americans wanted a land of equal rights and opportunity that they did not get. With Indians, many tribes just wanted to be left alone. The American dream would not come into fruition until much later, through many hardships.

These minorities did not choose to come to America or to be affected negatively by Americans. They were forced to join the dominant culture, or face prejudice. Even if they wanted to submit and join the dominant culture they still faced prejudice. This is called the American Nightmare, or involuntary participation. The reason we learn about these three groups as its own course is because they did not come to America out of their own free will. Other groups such as the British or the French were immigrants and wanted to come to America to start a new life. Immigrant cultures may view America as the land of opportunity and equality, while minorities might remember it differently, a place where people have lost their property, power and their basic human rights. Americans tended to associate light and dark with good versus evil or rational versus irrational to people with lighter or darker skin. It made sense at the time because people felt more comfortable interacting with others who looked like themselves or their family.

This literature course really teaches us on how minorities have made do and grown as an ethnic group in times of adversity. Because of this, much rich literature and identity has been created. Even today where America is open to diversity, minority groups still struggle to find the right balance of becoming part of the dominant culture or being different from it. The three ethnic groups that we learned, all have unique cultures that came from their original origin. Today, some of the ethnic groups are proud to associate themselves with their original culture while others are mixing with the dominant culture through the generations. Many narratives were produced by different minorities through different stories. A narrative is an adaptable and inclusive term often interpreted as a plot or a story.

Despite the three minority groups that we learned being similar, they are different in some ways. The main narrative that African Americans wrote about was the Dream. The dream is not the same as the American dream. The dream shows the setbacks that they have to face and how they need to rise as an ethnic group and move forward despite adversity.  Once slaves were lawfully free they still weren’t free of prejudice. As I talked about on my midterm, Toni Morrison creates a very good fictional story over some examples over what African American still had to face when they were legally free. Despite being free African Americans, they were still ridiculed and prejudiced by the rest of society. Pecola, one of the main characters had to face many hardships in her life. Even her own dad did terrible things to her. All of the problems in her life lead to the persecution by whites. Throughout her life she felt inferior to whites. One example is her becoming attracted to the Shirley Temple dolls. She felt like she had to be white to be loved and fit in. She was constantly made fun of through school and even everyday occurrences. Just going to the store to buy something she was met by racism. The store cashier did not even want to deal with her. The resentment affected her so much that she wanted to be white and have blue eyes. By the end of the story she was permanently physiologically affected.  This story shows an emotional example of how African Americans were affected by prejudice.

 The Native Americans have a different narrative . Their narrative is of the American Nightmare because of what they lost. They were once true Americans but ended up losing so much to the immigrants coming in. Their writings show the true American Indian culture unlike what modern day Americans write such as stories that romanticize their losses. One good example is the last of the Mohicans. The story we read in class “Love Medicine” shows the true nature of this concept.  Many Indians were sent to reservations if they wanted to live a life similar to how they used to live. Unfortunately this life is nothing close to this. In this novel. Louis Erdrich shows the conflict that arises with Indians being on a reservation.. She looks at Indian American reservation life in a less optimistic light. Things are starting to disintegrate and the original tribes are being forgotten. This novel is a very pessimistic view on what Indians had to deal with on Indian reservations and how they just aren’t the same as the Indian culture of the past.

Because of the forced participation the dominant culture by Native Americans, they were forced to adapt to American ways.  This included forgetting their origin stories and adapting to the dominant culture. Despite having to adapt, the origin stories are still very important to their culture. Rebecca Bridjmhohan has a paper where she talks about this in Assimilation vs. Resistance and the Lifelong struggles of the American Indians. Origin Stories where very important to Native Americans. Despite having to adapt, their old customs are still unwavering. Indians are extremely resilient people who are unwavering with their old customs and spiritual ways with Mother Nature. Stories had to be told orally because they were not written down at all.  For Indian today, it has been very difficult to adapt to the dominant cultures way of life, Indian Reservation conditions are poor and they are faced with issues such as violence, assault, and rape. It is not fair to the Indians that they have to deal with issues such as these. Each generation loses more and more of their culture. An Indian reservation is comparable to a third world country of today.

Things are different for Mexican Americans. They are generally very ambivalent towards whether they feel they should assimilate or remain their own culture. In some cases they actually feel more like the Native Americans in their stories. Some were once a part of Texas. Eventually Texas became a part of the United States. In that case they are facing a similar reality as of the Indians. Bless Me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya is a good example of this feeling. The main character, Antonio, is struggling to come into his own. He has two parts to his heritage. These two parts are embodied by his mother and father. His mother descended from a priest who made a colony in New Mexico by getting a land grant from Mexico. His father is a vaquero, or cowboy. He came from the Spanish Conquistadors who had brought cattle into the land. He does not believe in Christianity. Antonio has to find a way to blend these two parts to his heritage together. Like I mentioned in my first essay, a poem that I liked that has the meaning of assimilation to the Dominant culture is Pat Mora’s Senora X No More. As I said, it is a poem about a woman who is attending classes to learn to read and write English. She demonstrates frustration and determination and hard work when she is finally able to write her name. This shows that some of the Mexican Americans are assimilating and not ashamed of it. . . .

Overall, the three minority groups that we learned of are similar in the fact that they have to face challenges in adapting to America not by choice. They are very different from each other from things such as their past, how they are adapting, and their writing, however but they can related on this very premise. As we move forward to the future, I think that these cultures will start to blend more and more together over time. Where you came from will matter less and less which I think is a good thing. There will be less prejudice in the world because of this.