Cheryl Voskamp

Caught Between Religion and Reality

When I first walked into this course, I imagined I was just going to get a broad view of the various texts available from American minorities and immigrants to introduce in my future classroom.  I hardly imagined the journey we would follow to find the heavy emphasis Puritanism and education has had on American citizenship and its continued consumption of outside cultural and religious identity.  Through a close reading of the Exodus story and Of Plymouth Plantation, it is obvious that the dominant culture in America came to be through communal structure and a strict adherence to religious beliefs, as well as the pursuit of education and an elitist stance that has resulted in overarching dominance over independent entities, but texts such as Bread Givers and “Preparations for Seder” promote hope that full assimilation is not necessary to be successful.

In Exodus and Of Plymouth Plantation, the immigrants moved as an entire community and were under strict orders to maintain racial purity and religious laws.  Both groups were forbidden to breed with the inhabitants of the lands they took over, though communication was allowed.  In both cases, individuals grew weary of the controlling force on their lives and branched out to gain more for themselves, as is human nature, they suffered the consequences of such, and had to appeal to the core group for salvation.  As such occurred, the dominant group bent on maintaining purity of both body and mind have been able to enforce their rule on other, less clean societies.  In Exodus, the dissenters and the Canaanites suffered at God’s hand for the breach of conduct.  In Of Plymouth Plantation, many who left the core group in Plymouth were successful, but still relied on the force available from the core to handle volatile situations with other whites, such as Morton, and the newly armed Indians.  They were well-versed in the Exodus story and knew better than to stray too far, at least from the core belief system.  As DG discussed in a 2006 Final Exam, though the Indians greatly outnumbered the Pilgrims, the immigrants had education and superior technology on their side.  Through such, they were able to manipulate transactions with the Indians in a manner that led the Indians to submit to their higher standards, regardless of tensions that arose.  Over the years, despite the loss of various families and individuals to find better land for economic gain, the core group had instilled enough of their Puritan beliefs as to control the masses, and their brand of justice and control, as well as their focus on education spread throughout the land and forced change on the inhabitants.

As per Objective Four, this tendency toward a dominant culture consisting of steadfast and educated individuals tends to force assimilation from less tenable cultures and belief systems.  We see, in Bread Givers, though the family suffers tremendously as they attempt to make their way through American society while adhering to their belief system.  The father’s extensive study and focused religious education forces destruction on his family, as he refuses to assimilate, and he ends up destitute and broken.  His daughter, Sara, by breaking away from her family, manages her life according to the practices of the dominant culture (for the most part), finds love, and manages to save her father from ultimate doom.  Without embracing the practices of the dominant culture, the entire family would have never survived.  Instead, they would have been crushed by the overpowering machine that is American reality.

Though the dominant culture retains much of the elitist tendencies evidenced in Exodus, Of Plymouth Plantation, and Bread Givers, the religious beliefs of the group have less impact on today’s society.  In “Preparation for Seder,” this is evident through the hesitation the speaker feels concerning the carcinogens in the animal fat he is using to make Matzoh balls for Passover.  Though his father eagerly caught the scraps his grandmother slipped him as a child, the educated dominant culture induces him to warn his son of the danger inherent in the religious observance.  As a third generation family member struggling against total assimilation, the speaker is fighting a losing battle against the insistence of the dominant culture. 

This occurs, as well, in “Hunting Mr. Heartbreak.”  The narrator speaks of the world of extreme poverty held below the quarter-line of a high rise society that mimics the original dominant culture.  The “Air People” have forced themselves on society as the dominant culture, despite the discrepancy between their numbers and those of the “Street People,” all due to their ability to access higher education and tendency toward financial dominance.  Though the narrator attempts to hold on to his connection with the “Street People,” the dominant “Air People” are slowly grinding him toward full assimilation.  Soon, he will be like Diane, who barely knows how to function in the “lower” society she once travelled freely.

Overall, the course has given me much to chew on in consideration toward the factors that will be affecting my minority and immigrant students.  Obviously, the dominant culture does not allow a nation of “we,” but insists on a nation of “me” while you bow to my superior beliefs and status.   Though this is the case, I can give my students enough hope and knowledge, through stories such as Bread Givers and poems like “Preparations for Seder,” to adjust successfully with the dominant culture without sacrificing their traditional beliefs.