Phil Thrash

             American Dreams: “Prisoners of The Times, But With Choices.”

     Critical thinking and writing have become part of my agenda at UHCL.  The Professors provide mentorship and expectations from graduate students for these foundational concepts. These concepts have provided me with a new cerebral freedom and excitement I have not entertained since my formative youth.  I enrolled in LITR 5731, Seminar in American Multicultural Literature: Immigrant, clueless of the evolution of racial, ethnic, gender, minority or any other characteristic which could be attributed to a course such as LITR 5731, American Multicultural Literature: Immigrant. The course has provided a starting point, or benchmark of understanding diversity of various minorities and immigrants and their related literature, which is the thesis of this paper. The course has for me become a foundation, or a springboard to develop a better understanding of the diversified backgrounds of students with whom I may interact in the future.   I feel that this course is so open and honest that one can address through liberal thought, the formerly thought ideas or “taboos” of race, religion, political, sexual preferences any other characteristic of humanity to get to a sensitive analysis and sometimes an understanding of the diversities within this society.  The concept could be global in its implications and applications thereby resolving conflicts through a conscious thought towards the understanding and acceptance of other cultures.  This concept might appear to capture the naïveté of my youth as seen in the next paragraph, but we can have “American Dreams: as prisoners of the times, but with choices.”

We American citizens are prisoners of the times, but we live in a land where one has freedom to attempt a quest for “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  That statement comes from a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, who was born into a middle-class family and never suffered from want of anything from birth to age 21.  Such a perspective was molded into me and formed my unconscious take on socio-economic-military-political-racial concepts during my formative years.  “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” were taken for granted and an assumed “given” until I graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, age 21, in 1967.  I received job offers from Armstrong Cork, Inc. and IBM with the fantastic starting salaries of at least $850/month + a car and expense accounts.

I was envisioning becoming part of the “American Dream.”  The same week of these job offers, I received a draft notice from Ms. Thelma Anderson, the matriarch of the local draft board in Lufkin, Texas.  My prospective employers now became the various branches of the United States Armed Forces; the Army, Marines, Navy or the Air Force, or some commune of draft evaders who fled primarily to Canada.  As a “prisoner of the times” with my inculcated “dominant culture traits” of patriotism, anti-communism and with my other formative naiveties, I was sworn into the United States Air Force, and received a 2^nd Lieutenant’s Commission from LBJ on June 30, 1967.  I earned my USAF Silver Pilot’s wings in August of 1968 and was flying the C-130E, “Hercules” Tactical Airlift Aircraft into short unimproved fields in Vietnam and other South East Asian countries from January 1969 until May 1970.

LBJ’s mission, the “Dominant Culture’s Mission,” was to “win the hearts and minds” of the Vietnamese and protect them from the ravages of communism.  The war started to look like a pogrom to me by the United States Military-Industrial Complex against the Vietnamese after my being there eight months.  My assumed “take” on life of my early formative years was being taxed by examining the real questions of what were the real meanings and truths related to socio-religious-economic-military-political-racial concepts of one’s society.  I became an institutionalized military-industrial-complex bureaucratic wage whore and a purveyor of death in the name of instituting “democracy” in a country which it would eventually not fit.  I survived Vietnam but have been institutionalized in my mind and occupation for the last 39 years.

The war created personal rages, resentment and remorse, but the USAF provided me with pilot’s skills with which I have earned a decent living to pursue my “American Dream.”  I think after 40 years of flying aircraft for a living, I know what I want to be when I grow up, especially after enrolling into the University of Houston at Clear Lake, Texas. Still a prisoner of the times, I am going on my choice of a “quest” to find my “American Dream” that includes “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  I would like to become a teacher of literature and the humanities.  Dreams change, the quest continues, and the studies in this course celebrate the “American Dream.”  An examination of some chosen course readings will follow to highlight and hopefully continue the thesis of the important attempt to understand other’s points of views as related to the “American Dream or Dreams,” through the study of immigrant and minority literature.

I refer to my Journal Research Posting 1: “Pogroms: Some Effects On and By The Dominant U.S. Culture.” in this paragraph to illustrate an example of the immigrant narrative and its relation to Course Objective 1, as a fundamental story-line of the American culture.  The political-religious-military beliefs of the dominant culture and mine seem to exist by following the faith and accepting the ancient Judaeo-Christian religious beliefs and concepts from the Old Testament resultant from the Exodus led by Moses.  The Israelites facing the Red Sea questioned their plight and thought they might be better off with the Egyptians than realize what appeared to be imminent death.  Moses invoked faith of God’s plan by saying, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord…for the Egyptians you see today, you will never see again.”  (Exodus 14:12-13)  Yezierska captured this concept of faith as a Jewish Immigrant from the Russian Pogroms in “Soap and Water,” in the passage, “…the persecuted races all over the world were nurtured by hopes of America.”  (Yezierska, p. 109)  The protagonist in “Soap and Water,” exemplifies the basic stages of the immigrant narrative of leaving the Old World, shock and discrimination by the Dominant Culture, but recovers and retains the hope and quest of the thesis of this paper that the “American Dream/Dreams,” incorporates freedom of choice.  The earliest immigrants to the “New World,” the Pilgrims became the historical model for the culture or basis for the USA’s dominant culture.  The paper’s quest, thesis, will now address this English Culture’s point of view, the culture to which American Immigrants assimilate.

     Bradford’s “Of Plymouth Plantation,” was the subject of my text presentation in this course. The Introduction by Francis Murphy introduces some major tenets of the Pilgrim’s point of view before they left England and the Netherlands for the “New World.”  Murphy’s words, “Leyden is not their home…and a better place to make a living is desired…Last and which is not least…they might lay a foundation…propagate Gospel of Christ.” (Bradford, Intro. p. xxii)  To me this reflects Course Objective 8. The importance of economic fruition, which without, their loftier goal of spreading the gospel according to their separatist’s beliefs would not have been possible.  Freedom of religion, though not a clearly defined course objective was definitely a causal factor, along with the economic angle, in the “Great Migration” of the Pilgrims, and a bastion of the “New World’s Dominant Culture.”    Immigrants, especially the model immigrants, the early Jewish and more recently, the South Asians, strive to assimilate to Objective 8 of the course, which stresses the importance of education as being the first rung to economic success of the “American Dream.”  These model immigrant cultures aspire to these educational and economic goals while retaining a great degree of their “Old World” cultural units of religion and family traditions.  Their assimilation focuses on that economic aspect of the Pilgrim’s, yet resists the religious assimilation to the dominant culture.  It is seen that our American model for immigrants comes from the “Great Migration” of the English Pilgrims.  The paper’s thesis is corroborated by the notion of the model immigrant’s point of view, specifically the desire for economic assimilation, follows that of the early Pilgrim’s dreams.   The Pilgrims, Jews and South Asians represent “true immigrants” with the “from-to” notion of leaving a place on a journey to better themselves, which is in stark contrast to the American Minorities, the Native American Indians and the Afro-Americans with their slave heritage.  These minorities will be the subject of the next portion of this paper.

Objective 3 of the course is to compare and contrast the Immigrant narrative with the minority narrative—or, American Dream versus American Nightmare.  The reading by Chrystos and James Baldwin vividly capture the angst associated with their minority heritage and reflects that they are, and will probably remain the least assimilated groups in America.  Chrystos’s Poem, “I Have Not Signed A Treaty With The United States” is a message from the Native American Indian minority to the “Dominant Culture” of the injustices manifested upon the Indians by the greed of the “Dominant Culture” in pursuit of its American Dream.  The American Dream is seen to have a darker side which is manifested in Chrystos’s poem, and will be further examined in part 2 of this final exam.  Chrystos’s style reflects the spoken word of the Indians as it has no punctuation, yet it has spaces for pauses when read or spoken.  She uses extra spaces between her words, and utilizes 1 ½ spaces between lines.   She sends a message thru her style and narrative of non-acceptance and resentment of the Native American Indian minorities to the “Dominant Culture.” The American Nightmare is manifested clearly with the Indians.

     Baldwin’s article from, “No Name In The Street,”  (White, HO) captures the point of view of a Black American intellectual who does not understand how some of his race can say they are part of the “We,” or the “Dominant Culture.”  Course Objective 3, the “Color Code,” is seen in this reading as well as Baldwin’s depiction of the marginalization of the Black minorities, African-Americans, being drafted to fight other “coloreds,” the Vietnamese, in a war he does not believe is valid.  His high school friend in the story is a postman who apparently has assimilated into the dominant culture from the trappings he enjoys.  Baldwin visits, and gets embroiled in a profanity laden tirade towards his friend, who identifies with the “Dominant Culture’s” values and acceptance of America’s war with Vietnam.  Baldwin’s reading is very complex, as he has resisted assimilation to the dominant culture intellectually; yet, he and his friend enjoy the trappings that economic success in American offers.  Baldwin tries to objectify his outlook by inferring that his friend has followed “The Dream,” of which MLK so eloquently spoke.  Baldwin sees the capriciousness of the “Dominant Culture,” regarding the Vietnam War, and he later strives to see his friend’s point of view while maintaining his perspectives.  His friend had exhibited the physical manifestations from the opportunity of the Dominant Culture’s American Dream, while Baldwin retains his intellectual freedom from the Dominant Culture’s intellectual philosophies.  These views contrast, yet reflect notion of minority assimilation and resistance to assimilation.

     This course has provided me a foundation, a spring board, to continue my studies in the diversities associated with literature.  The current situation in American regarding Mexican Immigrants remains a real central political issue still unresolved.  Every child in America should have an opportunity for an education.  One of the basic tenets of our society is that of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  To live we must have basics to survive: food, water, shelter and warmth.  The degree to which these are met become the basis of the next step towards assimilation; get an education to advance one’s chances to become economically stable beyond a subsistence level of survival.  The American minorities, the Native American Indians and the Afro-Americans from slavery heritage cannot be ignored or excluded from garnering some part of the “American Dream.”  How centuries of marginalization and exploitation can be undone or rectified is beyond the scope of this paper other than to point out the existence of same.  My sensitivities and understandings of immigrant narratives compared and contrasted with the American minorities have been greatly enhanced by this course.  It would be “Pollyannaish” to try to simplify such a complex subject with a notion that all will be assimilated into the “American Dream.”  We all have different points of view and different dreams.  Grant that we can achieve some form of patience and some modicum of solution through education and understanding of other’s viewpoints through our studies of literature and the humanities.  A teacher’s role and influence can be eternal.   I cannot wait to grow up and become a teacher, and maybe touch just one person to spark the enthusiasm which my new venture back to school has brought to me.   We will always be prisoners of the times, but we live in a country where choices can be made in the quest for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.