LITR 5731: Seminar in American Minority Literature

Sample Student Final Exam Submission, spring 2006

Giselle Hewitt

Additional Option #1: American Minority Literature and Me

I have always been enthralled with minority history and literature, and the study of the historical effects of the minority experience on other aspects of their lives.  I began my undergrad career as a political science major.  However, I found myself searching for a more in depth look at minorities and the political/social movements throughout the United States and wanted a degree that would allow a broader understanding.  Transferring into UHCL I found what I was looking for in the Humanities degree. 

While here I came across the undergrad level of American Minority Literature class, which I took in my second semester and soon found similarities popping up in many of the other classes I was taking.  Many of the courses I have taken have helped develop my views towards minority literature:  Social Structure, Human Rights and Social Justice, Minorities in America, American Immigrant Literature, Cultural Anthropology, Texas and the Borderlands, and The New American Nation.  The historical and sociological background of minorities has made it a lot easier for me to form understandings of minority literature. 

At the beginning of the semester I was wondering how I would view the literature assigned for class, since I had already read all of them before except for Song of Solomon.  Several of the books were read outside of the education realm and I enjoyed reading them again with the course objectives in mind.  The text I enjoyed rereading the most was Bless Me, Ultima, which I initially read for the undergrad level of the course.  The first time I read this book I found very little to relate to and had difficulties completing it.  When I saw it was on the reading list for the grad course I decided to read it before entering the semester since I had had such difficulties before.  I couldn’t put the book down and have since reread it again.  The major minority experience theme I was able to pull out of the text and found myself applying to other texts is the idea of the “new American”.  I am curious whether the minority who chooses to “blend” their identities is “fight[ing] or join[ing]” the dominant society, and will develop this concept more in my second essay. 

Overall I feel the literature has helped show that the minority experience is ongoing.  The power relationship created between the minority and dominant culture is a constant characteristic throughout their lives and thus will remain in minority literature.  For example, in Push and Song of Solomon the characters constantly bring up slavery and post-slavery discrimination.  There is an understanding that the relationship of their ancestors with the dominant culture has placed them in an unending cycle of struggle in their daily lives.  Precious understood that she wasn’t perceived to be as good as a “white chile”, and Guitar felt that justice wouldn’t be served when “whites” killed “one of his own” unless he took justice into his own hands.  These examples show that a division of power still exists and is felt throughout minority literature. 

#2: Syncretism of the Multiple Identity in Minority Literature

 Syncretism is not a new concept to me; however, when I initially heard of the concept I never saw the full range of capabilities for its application.  Usually syncretism is defined as the fusing of “differing philosophical or religious beliefs”, but if we expand the application to objective 4a it can be used to exhibit the minority experience through the “cross[ing]” of “ethnic or gender identities” or a type of identity “hybridity”.  For the purpose of this essay I will explore syncretism within the Mexican American identity, and then within the alternative identities of women and homosexuals. 

            The syncretism found throughout Mexican American literature seems to be a defining characteristic and is a major source for their “ambivalence”.  In Bless Me, Ultima Anthony is confronted with questions to his identity.  He must decide whether he will be his “mother’s priest, or his father’s son”.  If he chooses to become a priest then he will hold onto traditions and follow the ways of the people, but if he chooses to follow his father’s dream he will become a “wanderer” not tied to any land or anything much like his brothers.  Anthony knows that both of his parents are relying on him heavily.  He is the last son, and the other boys have chosen a life for themselves outside of either parent’s dream.  He must choose whether he will become a voice for his people and remain in the minority realm, or whether he will go in search of the “American Dream”.  Throughout the novel Ultima is there to guide him into finding an identity that is uniquely his own, while other characters are there to persuade him into “choosing”.  For example, when Anthony is questioning his faith after learning about the golden carp he asks Cico, “What if I become a priest?” and Cico responds, “You have to choose between the g-d of the church, or the beauty that is here and now.”  Ultima shows him, however, that a “blended” identity is possible.  

Women and homosexuals are both put into the “dilemma” of being split between two identities or two worlds.  Gender role definitions set up restraints for women and homosexuals in our society and leads to discrimination.  Often women are split between their identity as a mother in the domestic realm, and their identity within the male dominated realm of the workforce.  Women find themselves being questioned on their ability to be good mothers if they venture into the workforce.  Many times women are given negative connotations if they appear to be too goal/career oriented, or have strong personalities.  Ultima and the woman in Eyes of Zapata (WHC) are great examples of women who have been placed into negative categories because of their personal strengths.  Women often find a need for a syncretistic identity to survive.  This is to say they find the need to achieve a blended identity that encompasses both “power and beauty” like the character Beatriz Solis in WHC who is “a criminal lawyer by day, an Aztec dance instructor by night…”  This character is an example of a woman who has been able to “blend” the gender identities by working in both a strong male-oriented position and as a dance instructor typically seen as belonging to the feminine realm. 

            Homosexuals also face similar difficulties when trying to find their place in the world.  Often they find themselves stuck in between the dominant heterosexual world and a homosexual subculture often defined by discreetness and “codes”. In Best Little Boy the character shows how entering into the homosexual subculture for the first time can be an extremely frustrating and scary experience especially since he had very limited knowledge of the group he belonged to.  He feared he would have to go through an actual “coming-out party” where everyone would critique his gayness.  He also feared going into a gay club, and deciding what to wear.  He didn’t want “others” to see him going in, and he didn’t want to stick out “as if [he] didn’t belong” to those once he got inside.

 Homosexuals must ask whether they will “fight or join” the gender roles that are expected of them by society and many times they decide to combine the roles in order to create a new self not defined by the dominant.  For example, in Whitman’s In Paths Untrodden he carefully chooses “coded” words that could take on double meanings such as “athletic love” so that the reader is “confused” whether he has gone to another world or not.  While Frank O’Hara in My Heart on the other hand, talks very openly about his attempt to “blend” his identity by not “prefer[ing] one ‘strain’ to another” and “confusing” even those “aficionado[s]” who think they know him.  Both Whitman and O’Hara show possibilities of syncretism by not choosing one identity or the other, but finding a combination of both based on their own levels of comfort. 

One danger that I have found of these syncretistic identities, however, is when it shows up as a form of discrimination.  If a minority is “blending” their identity by choice it is okay, but it is problematic when the minority feels they must “blend” their identity to fit in or qualify.  In Pat Mora’s Depression Days the character is told that if he “change[d] his name” and his identity that he would be hired because he didn’t “look Mexican”.  He must decide whether the economic gain and acceptance in the dominant culture is worth a part of his identity.  Another example of this can be seen with The Best Little Boy who is so proud he was able to “come-out”, but not under his real name since he still had to function in the dominant realm.  Andrew Tobias chose to write under the fictitious name John Reid because he was scared he would no longer be accepted.  In order to avoid discrimination minorities may at times decide to “blend” their identities to become more accepted, which becomes a form of discrimination in itself.  This is similar to Yoshino’s explanation of homosexual “covering” when entering into the dominant world.  If the dominant culture sets up specific roles to define the way people should look or be in their eyes, then they are putting everyone who falls outside of these roles into a separate class defined as “others” setting them up for discrimination.  These roles also set up confines for these individuals that limit their potential for fully becoming functional in our society.  If an individual is constantly having to remind themselves to act a certain way when in the eyes of the dominant then they aren’t being allowed to reach their full potential, and they are aiding in the continuance of such roles.