Gender Roles and Do All Americans Have Equal Access to The American Dream

Gender roles have changed dramatically in the last 40-50 years. The stay at home moms are a minority now due to the rising economy, usually both people in a relationship work. Women have really taken multi-tasking to the limit as they are usually the ones who organize their careers, children, daycare, household chores, and getting children to sports, grocery shopping. Men are assisting with most of these things, but I think it is the women/mother who plans and orchestrates everything in most relationships. The family type has changed dramatically too over the last several decades. Due to the high rate of divorce, many families end up becoming single parents. That has changed the lives of women, men and children. Single parents have less support and a much harder time financially than 2 parent families. Many single parents lead very demanding lives because they are filling the roles of both parents. Can a person struggling with little money and little time still find The American Dream? People question what The American Dream is for them and if it is attainable. I think that it is definitely harder for some individuals who have very little money or single parents struggling to do it all. Most well paying jobs require a Bachelor’s Degree and if you’re over 25 and living on your own it is very hard to go back to school to get a Bachelor’s Degree especially while working full time and raising children. I did some research a while back on characteristics of successful people that have faced dehabiliting odds and triumphed. The main qualities they possessed were “Dogged determination” at the top of the list, creativity, faith in oneself, a great positive learning attitude, the ability to make mistakes and move on and make a problem an opportunity were some of the them. Very interesting stories about people living on the streets. The Pursuit of Happyness is a movie that is a true story about Christopher Gardner; he was homeless but his determination and belief in himself helped him find his American Dream. Look at what Christopher Reeve accomplished and he was a quadriplegic. Yes, I think that just about anyone can make their dreams come true even in the direst circumstances. It may be damn near impossible for some, but if the person is willing to do what it takes even if it is damn near impossible and stick it out they can do it. Most people are not willing to do whatever it takes for long periods of time to make things happen though, and that is why there are so many people just spending their lives dreaming of The American Dream.

Woman Warrior

I don't think that Woman Warrior is an easy read, but it is a very insightful one. I knew that China wasn't up on women's rights, but I had no clue as to the abuse and degradation that still goes on there. Woman Warrior, Beloved, and Indian Killer were definitely learning experiences for me about how minorities and woman are treated all around the world. I think it is a great thing that people can write these kinds of stories to educate the world about what it is really like. After reading these books, it has given me a fresh look and total appreciation that I am a white woman that was born in the United States. You grow up knowing that we are better off, but it really hits home after you read about these kinds of specific discrimination and abuse.

I liked the part where she is trained to be a woman warrior and triumphs over all the battles. In a way I think this sort of relates to how she feels about her mother being a doctor. Even her mother says that her father couldn't support her daughters without the mother working. The mother says, "I'm the one with the big muscles"(104). For the mother to be a doctor in a country that treats woman like dogs, this is quite an accomplishment. I think that Kingston looks up to her mother even though she didn't get the love she needed as her daughter; it helps to shape who she is and her desire to be a Woman Warrior. I'm glad that she showed us the difference between being an American/Chinese person and a Chinese person in China. I didn't realize the differences and the different issues that they have to address not just from other Americans, but from relatives in China.

Beloved-Reader Response

I’m not sure how I feel about the book, Beloved. It was kind of hard to follow and understand at some parts of the story. Some of it I just kept reading and then I understood what some of it meant. What impressed me the most was the creativeness of the writing. Certain sentences where so creatively written that it took me a while to figure what they meant. I think that is really neat. I will probably think of that as I put together marketing documents. The stuff that Sethe goes through is terrible and very vividly put. You can feel her pain and degrading like when she tells about how they whip her and take her milk. I can’t imagine being black and having to live like the slaves did back then. It is terribly inhuman. I’ve always been ashamed that my ancestors would have treated people so inhumanely. The ghost part of the story lends certain suspense throughout the story. You never really know if Beloved is going to be dangerous because of her love/jealously of Sethe. I liked the ending how Paul came back to be there for Sethe. I really liked the show of loyalty after all that she had been through. They both had such a hard struggling life. I like how the author shows the changes in Denver throughout the book. You feel her alienation and loneliness, almost desperate for someone to notice her. It wasn’t as easy to read as Indian Killer but it was a really good book to open your eyes to how black people were treated, the hell they went through. It makes you feel their pain; breaks your heart to see how they have to displace themselves totally to not feel any love. They do this purposely knowing the pain will be unbearable when all their children are taken away to be sold into slavery over and over.

Who is the "Indian Killer"?

Who is the Indian Killer? To figure this out I think we have to distinguish first whether the Indian killer is a real person, an ancient spirit, if it stands for a concept or all of these. We have evidence in a way that the Indian Killer is a real person from the chapters involving the kidnapped boy. There is evidence that the killer is flesh and blood from the fact that he carries the child, cares for the child for a period of days, and then returns the child. I do not think it is John as the only evidence we have of John’s violence is when he goes after Wilson. We have proof of this insanity, his mental dialog of wanting to kill a white man. I think Alexie starts out making you assume it will be John. We do have a lot of proof of Reggie’s violence and Aaron’s violence and also verbal hate from Truck. I think Alexie has a deep purpose for everything he writes. So, I think the fact that he feeds us information for each character is to make you ponder the plot, but to also ponder the meaning of the bigger picture. I think this part of it is superficial, like people have commented that the identity of the Indian killer doesn’t matter. The bigger picture or more significant point is the concept that it all stands for. The story is a mix of character traits for each character involving hate, discrimation, lack of indentity, insanity, and violence. We are fed so much of these things about each character that it leaves you wondering. I think the most likely candidate is Reggie, as I think there is a reason that Alexie shows us his pension for violence, hate, abusive background by a white father, his past filled with discrimination, especially his hate for the collection of tapes; really everything that would probably make someone a serial killer or in this case the “Indian Killer”. As the whole point of the book is to show us that white people don’t know what Indians go through, that collections are one sided; I think that Alexie would have an indigenous (cultural; native) purpose for making the Indian Killer an Indian. The article “The violence of Collection” explains that the purpose of the book is for us to see the irony of the role reversal involving the collections taken by white man and how inaccurate they are. The reversal is that the Indian killer is taking collections, this time it is collections of the “white man”. I think Alexie has a purpose for making the last 2 of three chapters about Reggie moving on to a new town. Moving on to the next area to take more collections. He uses Marie’s dialog to give us a further idea as to the reasons and concept behind it and the 500 years that discrimination and ignorance has existed.

Discrimination

The only real racial discrimination I’ve ever seen was in the Catholic grade school here in Springfield. By 4th grade it was pretty much decided whether you were popular, really unpopular or just sort of okay. I didn’t realize until later grades that children that came from homes with “money” were popular and treated well by the nuns. I was definitely not one of those children; I was raised by a single parent and we had very little money. It was around 6th or 7th grade that a boy came as a new student to this school. Most of the children were actually pretty mean to about 2-3 other children in the class and someone new was definitely not accepted. I never realized it till later but maybe there was instant discrimination because the new boy’s last name was of Hispanic origin; although I don’t think you could tell that just by looking at him. These kids didn’t need much reason to be cruel though, that’s just the way it was. I remember it bothered me they way they treated him, maybe more than it upset me on how they treated me . They treated him worse than they treated me and one or two other kids. I always went out of my way to try to talk to him, but he just became more and more quiet, withdrawn or other times angry. Then one day I remember being inside after recess and looking out the windows into the yard. The boy and about 10 other boys were the only ones left in the recess area. Looking out I seen them like surround him and they all began fighting, ganging up on him. I remember yelling for someone to stop it, asking the nun who was my teacher to do something. I never felt that she even was that upset (she was the meanest of all the nuns in that school). It was finally stopped.
The next day we were told that the boy’s mother had pulled him from the school. I remember the nun briefly talked about how the boys had attacked him; she seemed a little disgusted with the boys that did it, but that was all that was over said. I never understood why or how this kind of cruelty could happen, especially in a place that is supposed to be about God. (In eight years, I seen little sign of God’s love from the children or the nuns)
Over the years I would run into the boy. He was always nice if not kind of quiet; I always felt a deep sadness over what had happened. In my later 20’s I found out through other friends that he was doing drugs (like shooting up drug). I was so sickened by this and remember once or twice trying to talk to him when I’d run into him and asking him why. It makes me want to cry to this day. Over the years, I ran into some of these kids while out partying and several have pulled my aside to apologize about how they treated me. I always wondered if any of them ever apologized to him. About 4-5 years ago I heard that he died of a drug overdose. Although this school has 8th grade reunions every 5-10 years, I have no desire to go or even return their calls.