Earthbound

   As all short stories the twists and turns in “Earthbound” first changes the perspective when mentioning ‘girl-hood’.  Also, the understanding of the world and that all humankind should not be the dominant species in the world, that we are all intruders upon the real rulers of nature.  The humility represented by the country people show their understanding for the need to be organic, in the meaning being one with nature. 

   The idea of equality is also outlined by the beliefs of the country people, where they understand there should be no race, no class, no gender, and everything is one. The ideal of life being equal shows the author understands the necessary belief that nothing can last because all are destined to end.  Although, even though the people understand this, they still speak of the white oppressors, but the hope lies in the fact that they have a powerful belief that the black “folks” will be saved from “dehumanization.”   They knew the divine spirit of nature and the greater world would understand the oppression of the black people and the white people were not gods as they believed themselves to be.

   The Buddhists beliefs laid out in the sixties and early seventies also recognize this connection that all human life will be joined together at the end of being.  The hatching of turtle shells symbolize the hatching of a new life for the ‘black’ people who have been oppressed throughout their lives understand their lives will be changed and alternate for a new dawn.   The turtles may be small but their hard shells show their perseverance to endure the hard times in their lives until the new and easier times.  Such as the small, new turtles coming out of their rubbery shells and trekking into the harsh surf.  The hard journey to their safety is a true test if they can survive the journey that the people need to make until the light shines at the end of the tunnel and their freedom is restored.  Because of the country people’s understanding of this symbolism in nature, they know that their struggle will have an end.

    The social and critical aspect and value of the plot is shown by the symbolic nature of writing and life reflections used in the context of the writing. The use of the turtles in the story shows the author had a deep understanding of nature.  The showing of humility needed in nature shows the simple belief that all is destined to end and reconnect to our beginnings again where no race or classes will ever begin or exist.  All will achieve a peace, or nirvana in the Buddhist beliefs used in the story.  This composition shows a positive message that all need to understand in order to live in life or in a peace for life after the real life.  The application to our college lifestyle is too handle our situations with ease and understanding that certain challenges in life are not challenges at all but lessons needed to be learned.

Becoming Metis

Throughout the reading Melissa Nelson described the struggles she had to go through because of the moving she had to do and the understanding of her background. Her quote “To learn who I am today, on this land I live on, I’ve had to recover that heritage and realize a multicultural self. I think in this sentence she is trying to get the reader to understand not only for her to learn about her families past she needs to learn more about herself. She needs to understand the many cultures and religions that are out there and understand the differences. She follows that quote with “By studying the process others have gone through to embrace the cultural richness of diverse backgrounds I have come to understand the importance of decolonizing my mind.” I think that quote describes what she meant by recovering her heritage and realizing her multicultural self.

                The problems that she raised are the struggles her parents had to go through growing up. Her mom not being allowed to speak a language that she was brought up on and her father same with the father. Although her parents were treated that way she was not brought up the same way. Her parents let her believe and follow anything she wanted, her or her brother.

                The author wrote this to inform people of how people of Native American cultures grew up in America. Melissa described how she was raised and informed us on the challenges she was brought upon, such as learning the other colonial history.  She explained how she lived in California and although she was not a part of the Ohlone Territory she still helped them out and learned about their cultural. She stated “we all have earth-based spiritual traditions in our past and we should work to uncover our heritage.”  Shows that she was trying to broaden her horizons and learn more.  I think that is great that she was trying to learn about other traditions and was also helping them protect diversity and quality of life in that region she was living upon. 

                In the beginning of the reading the author seems to take for granted the reasoning to learn about our cultures and traditions. It seemed that she only wanted to know about the Ojibwe traditions and nothing else. She does learn the other traditions at the end though so I think that was a great opportunity for her to make her more multicultural.

                Through out the reading you could tell she really knew her information and she studied a lot about her ancestry and the different traditions. So I want to say most of the information was facts that she learned growing up in the different territories and the different people she met.  Melissa’s evidence was very accurate and persuasive she really helped me understand what she was talking about with the detail she gave. You could also tell that she really enjoyed learning about the different traditions and was happy she took that opportunity.

History

Throughout the reading Kincaid tries to purvey the message that history to one person is different compared to another. Essentially, history is in the eyes of the beholder and certain events are depicted differently from person to person. It is also relevant who is telling the story. One person can tell a story very different compared to another. If Christopher Columbus was telling the story he would leave out most of the information about Vermont, where as to Kincaid Vermont is a very important place for her. She states “Christopher Columbus never saw Vermont at all; it never entered his imagination.”  When Kincaid goes into describing the place she is from she doesn’t go into such detail.  She uses very vague adjectives to describe the landscapes and scenes.  The use of broad terms allows the reader to form their own perception of what the land may have been like. She lets the reader picture the places and landscapes how they want to picture it. The broad description relates back to the meaning of history and stories, and how they both can mean different things to different people.  I think she also tries to say in her writing that each person can have more than one experience or perception of a story. When she states “I no longer live in the place where I and those who look like me first made an appearance, I live in another place”.  You can think about one place numerous times and get a different meaning or picture from it. Kincaid tells the reader history can start anywhere; it depends on who is telling the story and where the reader wants to begin. Just like any person today, we all have a story of some sort but where we start to tell our story may be different to where someone else would start their own.  If I told someone my story they could get a completely different meaning then the one I was trying to state.  This is why it is important to understand that history is all about the perception of the person who accounts the events that took place.

Adopted Town

 Melissa Holbrook Pierson’s book, The Place You Love is Gone, she describes what it is like to lose what is known as home.  The chapter entitled “Adopted town”, illustrates the struggles that the author went through in her new town of New Jersey. Moving from a rural area like Akron, Ohio made it difficult to adjust to the more fast paced life in New Jersey. The chapter exposes the difficulties she undertook with the change as well as the new place she called home. She really didn’t like the apartment she lived in but then again who would with how she described it; “what it did have was peculiar gas stove, with an open grille in the inside. This, you learned somewhere around the end of October, was the heat.”  She made it work somehow and got through the tough living conditions.

One quote that really stuck out to me was “Hoboken once more bled into your blood.” To me I took that is whether she wanted it to or not this was her new home and she had to grow to love it. This reminded me of my freshman year at Salem. I didn’t really like my roommates and I knew I had to kind of suck it up and deal with it just like the author did in this chapter. Salem state is now defiantly my adopted town. I live in an apartment now and I have grown to love Salem. I had to get use to a lot of things that my hometown didn’t have. One thing that sticks out the most is the driving here compared to Salem New Hampshire. People do not know how to drive around here what so ever!

Water World

http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/543/

The reason I posted this blog is because on Thursday in Biology we watched this video clip. It made me really think about a lot. These poor children have to walk through water every day to do anything, go to school, go to work, or just to have "fun" with their friends. My biology teacher gave us a worksheet to fill out while we watched this video and she wanted us to find 5 examples of innovative responses that people are trying to do to help the people in Bangladesh adapt to the climate change.

            In Bangladesh they are trying to do a lot to help the people of this country but to me it’s not enough. A couple things that stuck out to me were the climate shelters they are building for the families. The climate shelters are basically floating houses for the people of Bangladesh. There are obviously not enough for everyone though so it’s sad to think about the people who don’t get a chance to save their families by living in a climate shelter. One aspect that I thought was great was the cell phones. The people of Bangladesh are sending text messages to Georgia Tech and getting a forecast result from the school, which is awesome so they can kind of know ahead of time about rain or cyclones that are approaching. When they get the text message or warning they can then put of flags and raise them up on a pole so the people can see and try and prepare for what is to come. The best response I think is the floating schools. Students that were not able to go to school before are not able to go to school on a floating shelter. They also can learn to use a computer and help them become more educated for the future.
            Something that really stuck out to me was the environmental scientist stating that if the sea level rises 1 meter (3 feet) 20% of the land will disappear and there will be about 35 million climate refugees. People in Massachusetts flip out if they have an inch of water in there basement I would love to show this clip to someone like that and show them 3 feet or a house that is completely under what and then see what they have to say.
            In class we talk about people losing houses or other things. The people in this country lose everything to a climate change that we could be helping them by doing very small things like unplugging our phone chargers when we are not using them. They are on the “frontline” of this climate change but soon enough it will be us.

So I challenge all of you to think about your house being under water and what you can do to help them and yourself.

MHP: There’s a qualitative difference in the type of change that’s occurring now. It’s not organic growth, what we’re seeing. We’re seeing a shift—or maybe the fruits of capitalism run amok—where basically anything and everything is for sale. It doesn’t need to benefit anybody else other than the developer. He’s not accountable to anybody. He can go and wreck a landscape that belongs to all of us. But it’s meaningful to all of us, as well as to the rest of nature. And he can walk away from it. He can do that and walk away. We’ve created a system where this is perfectly OK to do—and in fact, it’s lauded, even.

She makes a very good point. People are not considering anything else but themselves now-a-days. People only care about themselves and what will benefit them. If selling something or wrecking something that would really help everyone out in the end doesnt matter anymore if it is beneficial for one person. So if tearing down a neighborhood to build a shopping mall is beneficial for that one person, people will do it. I dont think that is fair at all for anyone.

MHP: If we didn’t love things, then we couldn’t feel their loss.

Also a very good point she makes. If you have no real connection with something and someone takes it away from you then it shouldnt affect you in the long run. But, that doesnt mean people should stop caring about things because they know they will be lost at some point which i feel alot of people are doing today too. People know things will be taken away from them or lost so they dont care even though they should.

MHP: I know! When I go home to suburban Ohio, I see these big trucks parked in front of people’s houses that say ChemLawn. Who wants a ChemLawn? I guess there are people out there who actually want a ChemLawn. This is what makes me—I mean, I know I’m out of step with the rest of America. I feel that all the time. I felt that during the last election. We were all on the floor screaming in agony.

I dont know what a ChemLawn is so i asked my friend and he said he sees them everywhere too. His comment was "yea they have a dalmation of the truck, i see them everywhere!" I still dont get why she would add this in her interview it doesnt really make sense.

In this interview it explains alot and explains how she felt when she wrote her books. I thought it was very intersting reading this and gives me a better sense on what she fealt and meant in alot of her writing. I also now know that nostalgia is definiatly not a bad thing. In fact it is a very good thing in helping you cope with things.