Khrystal - Ethnic Am Lit
Sunday, May 18, 2014
"My Digital Story"
"Lone Star" Movie
While I watched the movie “Lone Star,” I noticed that
this was not your typical romance/murder mystery movie; there was in fact a
much stronger meaning behind this film. What I happened to take from this movie
was a combination of every story we have read throughout the semester, every
conversation we’ve had and even every digital story I’ve seen; all of the
material we have covered can be related to this movie. What I found most
fascinating about this movie was a subject I may have pondered about a couple
of times but have never actually seen it being discussed or addressed. Here in
this movie we have whites, blacks, Chicanos and Indians; such a diverse group
of people living in one town, and yet still so much alike.
How so? For example,
this semester through the film “The Cats of Mirikitani,” for the first time I
learned that at one point Japanese-Americans were considered lower than
African-Americans, but what I also learned was that when you truly think about
it, every culture has at one point had their fair share of racial exclusions.
Every culture or race breaks down into pieces what they have went through in
America and their experiences, when in reality every culture at one point or
another has experienced their fair share of racial discrimination in America. Instead
of understanding and relating to the past together we seem to think that our
culture is the only one that have been faced with difficulties. In this film
the people of Rio County, whites, blacks, Chicanos and Indians all remember the
past in dissimilar ways. But eventually I understood, these people have lived
together in this town, and although they each remember things differently what
they did have in common was that they each had to pay a price.
Monday, April 14, 2014
"Cats of Mirikitani" Film
The film “ The Cats of Mirikitani,” showed me how we truly do not know
what a person has been through in their life until we get to know them. Jimmy
Mirikitani may have just seemed like a struggling artist/ homeless person to
anyone just walking down the street, but to Linda Hattendorf there was
more to him. Linda knew right away that there was more to Jimmy, there was a
story that was worth discovering. After the 9/11 attack Linda could not bear to
leave Jimmy on the streets alone, so she took him in. Not only was it an
opportunity to help someone who needed it but it was also an opportunity to
unravel an inspiring story. For Jimmy the 9/11 attacks was history repeating
itself, humans always feeling the need to go to war. Jimmy was a
Japanese-American who experienced and lived through the Japanese American war.
His art consisted of the camp, the war and cats because a boy who constantly
followed him in the camp loved cats so he would draw them for him.
Painting for him gave him a sense of release; he turned
his hurt into art, along with his memories and experiences. Aside from what he
had been through he used art as an escape and was still hopeful about life. All
of Jimmy’s siblings aside from one, died in World War II. It was amazing to see
that a man that had went through so much in his life and has experienced racial
discrimination chose to tell his story through the beauty of art. There are
those who let what they have been through in life affect there future but Jimmy
never did, judging off of his personality you wouldn’t think Jimmy had gone
through so much. In the beginning of the film we see the hurt behind
Jimmy’s eyes, we see the obvious and well-deserved resentment he has against
America. But in the end of the film you can notice almost a weight being
lifted.
"Fictive Fragments of A Father & Son" by David Mura
This story is about a son who with time
learns that his father has practically abandoned his Japanese roots. The father
has become fully submerged in the American culture. As the story goes on there
is a mention of the father being proud to be an American, however, in no moment
was there a mention of the father being proud to be Japanese. The fact that
Mura's father has completely abandoned his culture could be the result of the
scorn his culture may have received in the past. At one point the
Japanese-American were considered less than African-Americans. Mura's father
was obviously ashamed of his ethnic background and made the decision to slowly
abandon his roots completely.
Although some people may find it unfair to Mura for Mura's father to
have abandoned his Japanese roots; I can honestly understand his father's
reasons. It has always been hard and is still till this day hard for immigrants
to have the same opportunities as Americans. Or to say in the most bluntest
manner; it is hard for immigrants to have the same opportunities as
"whites." Mura's father had to work ten times harder to get to where
he is just because of his cultural background, he had to adopt the American
ways and in a sense be more American than the Americans. Therefore the father,
throughout his life converted himself by changing his name, changing his
beliefs and converting to Christianity. Mura's father’s decision to become a Christian
gave him a sense of fitting in with the American way of life. What he was
escaping from was the burdens that had shaped his parents or his fathers life.
“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.” ― Oscar Wilde
Monday, March 17, 2014
"Smoke Signals" - Movie
Smoke Signals is not your typical Native American movie but there are
some themes such as the way life works that are Native American themed, it’s
about the sense of how in life everything you do has consequences. “Some
children are pillars of ash, me and Victor were born of flame… and ash.” In the
movie “Smoke Signals,” one other major theme is definitely Fire. The first
fire that occurs in the beginning of the movie results in the death of Thomas’s
parents and would have led to Thomas's death. Also if he hadn't been
saved by Victor’s father Arnold Joseph. The first fire in the beginning of
the movie is the center of the story; it is where everything begins. No
one truly understands the mourning that Arnold Joseph went through and why he
was so strongly affected by the fire.
He mourned by cutting his hair, jumping into his yellow pick-up truck and vanishing to Phoenix; the truth comes out towards the end when Victor speaks to Suzy. Victors father Arnold Joseph was the one who started the fire that killed Thomas’s parents and this quilt remained with him till the very end of his own death, who in result became ashes himself. The second fire that occurs towards the end of the movie brings about the sense of closing a chapter in life and embracing a new beginning. It was important for Thomas and Victor to return to the roots of their distress, by doing this it allowed them to accept what happened and move forward. They were able return home from Phoenix with a sense of relief and closure, "Sometimes to go forward you have to drive in reverse."
He mourned by cutting his hair, jumping into his yellow pick-up truck and vanishing to Phoenix; the truth comes out towards the end when Victor speaks to Suzy. Victors father Arnold Joseph was the one who started the fire that killed Thomas’s parents and this quilt remained with him till the very end of his own death, who in result became ashes himself. The second fire that occurs towards the end of the movie brings about the sense of closing a chapter in life and embracing a new beginning. It was important for Thomas and Victor to return to the roots of their distress, by doing this it allowed them to accept what happened and move forward. They were able return home from Phoenix with a sense of relief and closure, "Sometimes to go forward you have to drive in reverse."
Thursday, March 13, 2014
"Let America Be America Again" by Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes's poem "Let America Be America Again" is being written from not only a black man's perspective, but also from that of an immigrant, a poor man and an Indian. Hughes is hopeful of what America could one day be "Land of the Free," although it has never truly been. Hughes causes readers to question the patriotic images that are wonderfully painted for us and for those who come to America with the hopes of achieving the “American dream.” In the third stanza of the poem Hughes writes "But opportunity is real, and life is free, Equality is in the air we breathe" this line in particular makes the reader question the true meaning of “opportunity” for all because as Hughes states, "There’s never been equality for me, Nor freedom in this homeland of the free." Although America has never truly been America "the land of the free," we should never stop fighting for that dream, we must never forget what the original dream was and why we started fighting for our freedom in the first place.
It is up to those who have been deprived to get back their America. It
is up to those... to us who have seen the people that have come before us fight
so hard up until this point. It is up to us to continue the long journey
and to always fight. America has not been "good" to everyone
equally there are people who have come to America with hopes and dreams and who
have believed this land to be a promising one yet have been let down. For some
America has never lived up to its reputation. Hughes ends the poem with the
hopes that America can someday fulfill its destiny. He believes that America
can still be all the things it was supposed to already have been. Everyday
people forget what we originally started fighting for in the first place.
Instead, we continue to fight each other when we should be lifting one another.
Hopefully as time goes on we continue to fight for the original American
dream... EQUALITY FOR ALL!
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