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.