As my
husband and I finished saying our vows, my pastor from Brazil reminds us of the
importance to keep on learning about each other, understand who we are and
where we came from, I believe this wisdom is especially important in cases like
ours, a cross-culture marriage, and how the effort we put now on this matter
will impact our descendents and their generation.
There
are so many differences between two nations , those differences brings us two
choices: to seek understanding about other cultures and learn how to love them,
so their differences will add to our
relationship with them, or to ignore and judge , creating a hierarchical view
of cultures, subtracting from your relationship with one another. I chose
option number one, and this class has helped me to understand not only what
does it mean to be an American, as it has taught me about my husband and myself.
.
It
is overwhelming to attempt to write what I have learned during these 10 weeks.
What have I learned about what? Literature, life, America’s path, beliefs, flaws, difficulties, strengths
and fears or my beliefs, my flaws, my difficulties, my strengths and my fears ?
Oh how wrong I was when I read the first essay theme ( “What is an American?”) and
thought that this class would make me feel like a fish out of the water; How
mistaken I was when I thought that it was impossible for me, a Brazilian, to relate
to this class , this culture’s history , challenges and victories
I learned from early ages to be critical, to
do not accept any knowledge without questioning but I also learned to do not stop
on seeking for answers. I learned a great wrong deal about United States
through the TV, back in Brazil, that made me so distant from what today is my
new home. This class, though, made me revise my concepts, arouse my curiosity
and reminded me of who I truly am, a person that does not accept easy answers
without foundations. This culture of social networking, blogs, and globalization, brings us freedom of speech
but it also brings us a greater responsibility
to be more critical, study harder and to be slow on judging because anyone can publically
represent their country, culture or what they call to be their faith, and they
might not even know themselves. We must be as careful to speak as we should be
to have discernment about what we listen and what we read, literature and
history can be great tools on helping us to learn the truth from the experience
of others. Smart is the man who learns with his own mistakes, but wiser is the
man who learns with the mistakes of others.
As
I learned about the civil war its causes and consequences, I questioned the
confederate flags still hanging in many houses in my in-laws neighborhood; as I
learned about Thoreau’s writings on nature, I wondered how much of that could
had influenced Roosevelt’s Government; as I read about the constitution, I wondered
whether the American freedom, so acclaimed nowadays, came from the blood of
many or from the ideas of few, spread by words; or even if the blood came from
the words or if some words stopped some blood from being spilled; as I pass by
Brown’s box, I wondered if his contemporaries had the word dignity written in
their dictionary; as I read Emerson’s essays, I wondered what he would had said
about credit cards, installments and super sales. When this class began, I
thought it would require from me plenty of reading, and with my limited free
time, it would be my challenge, now I can tell that, more than writing, it
required from me an overwhelmingly greater amount of time of thinking, or more expressly,
critical thinking. I believe I learned
with this class that even though I did not agree with some of the ideas on the
essays we have read, they all made me think critically. Franklin, Thoreau, Emerson and Payne writings had
a greater impact in this particular challenge. “But
it is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to
himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing or in disbelieving; it
consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.” (Payne).
As I detailed in a previous essay, In English 241 we learned what America is through the lenses
of literature. We could notice repeatedly the influence that Literature had
throughout American History in imperative moments of changes. The first
writings of genuine literature defined the new society that was being formed in
this land; the literature of the romantics that helped to fight slavery, the
Declaration of independence that helped The United States to have freedom from
its former colonists, among many more examples. American, as we know, is famous
for being a country of freedom, we learned although, that this freedom did not
come lightly and it is still a work in process.
One of the most engaging and interesting subjects we learned in this class was
the impact of the Romanticism on insightful progressive movements. We learned
that part of the Romantic Political plan was inclined to believe that by
helping others to experience life to its best, they would learn how to feel as
others do, and learn how to have more sacrificial lives by putting others
before themselves. This way of thinking led them to engage in profound causes
and progressive movements as women’s suffrage, the fight for Native American
Rights, and the fight to end slavery. They gave the first steps towards
freedom. (Dr. Brandon)
We have been given a special attention to slavery; we brought up a delicate
subject that still affects us, black market slavery, and the discussions about
this subject gave me a bigger perspective on our contribution to this evil. I
learned that our alienation to great matters of our society does not excuse us
from its guilt. We learned that those involved with abolitionism and suffrage
used literature as one of their most powerful weapons to defend their campaigns,
bringing more and more people to believe in what they believed , which was
initially supported by only a few.
The readings of J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur,
gave me a closer perspective of the slavery issue. As in my country, Brazil, we
did not have the civil war that United States had, to give freedom to the
slaves, it has been hard for me to understand so many culture differences that
unfolded between the white Americans and the African Americans after the war of
the North against the South and all the baggage that many still carry from
it. I admit being far from understanding why in Brazil there is not so
much separation and contrast as here, although, literature has helped me to
better understand the tension created before the civil war period and reading
detailed essays about the subject, has helped me to start grasping some answers
to my restless questions.
Studying
the origins of America has helped me to understand America today, who they are,
where they came from. We learned how Thoreau’s and Emerson’s writings, with the
purpose to bridge the gap between the people of his society and nature around
them, influenced the idea of having parks (something United States is really
well known for, nowadays) and the beginning of the environmentalist conscious
that we, still today, seek for.
Another idea that is deeply related to America, consumerism, was foreshadowed
in the writings of Jefferson and Franklin, who tried to make their
contemporaries aware of how debt can be a type of slavery, truth which has
helped lead this country to its current recession. Another writer whose
idea is still applicable was Thoreau’s, who believed that happiness
was not to obtain material wealth but to live simply and enjoy nature and the
world around you and the people in it, those ideas helped me to see the signs
that were given by those scholars of the current individualist America.
Lastly, we came to understand that the Declaration of Independence was
strategically written to give a bad impression of the British Government of
King George, by detailing his innumerous despotic and totalitarian acts, to
justify their rebellion and, most importantly, their declaration of
independence.
Overall,
I learned a great deal about America through the lenses of Literature in this
class. To follow the steps of the forefathers, to read their thoughts, to learn
from their experiences gave me a far greater idea of what is an American and the
components that contributed to make the America we live in now. I also relearned,
as I mentioned earlier, to think critically, and as far as my writings went, I
believe that I was increasingly influenced by our readings throughout the class
and even though I did not fully understand the concept of the class in the very
first week, I believe it was clarified to me throughout the second week with so
many of my questions being answered by our professor and my colleagues.
I
confess I had an atypical summer, starting with my moving from my host parents
house to my own house on the first week of class, then my wedding that happened
on the second week of the curse, bringing many Brazilians from all over the
globe for me to host for a couple of weeks; followed by a sickness that kept me
in bed for over a week. No challenge was big enough to keep me from
accomplishing my goal to finish this class with excellence. I believe my
reading and writing skills improved considerably, also my knowledge about how American
history has been unfolded. I had all my essays posted at the time required by Doctor
Brandon, with the exception of those that I revised and reposted within his
grace period. I believe my second half of this curse was better than the first
as I increased my understanding of what was required from me by reading the
blog posts on the weekly assignment by Doctor Brandon. I participated in the
class discussions with consistency, and tried to incorporate the readings in my
discussions and essays as I thought it was relevant. I honestly could not stretch
my time between, work and other classes to work on extra credit opportunities,
I wanted to dedicate my time to doing a better job on what we were assigned
for, although, I believe my participation on the class blog, including making
questions and helping other classmates was one of the activities to be
considerate as extra credits. What I would had done definitely if I had the
opportunity was to take this class on campus and not online. Unfortunately,
many of my classmates did not participate in the discussion as I expected and
so I believe the discussions could have been richer and the experience greater
than in an online class, although, this online experience was an interesting
one, it made me eager to go home and see what else had been posted on the blog
by the Professor and I particularly loved the option that he gave us to listen
to the essays. Also, The
reflective essays allowed me to feel engaged in the class, it was my first experience with this class dynamic
and I truly enjoyed it.
As far as “what now?” what to do
with what I have learned? I believe English 241 had a special meaning to me. I
am not a person of many talents, what defined me back in my country were my
writings. I was the girl with paper and pencil, the poet, the bookworm, and
then I came to the United States, to a different culture and language; I have
been, since then, trying to find my identity again, I lost interest in writing.
Although, after taking this class, I believe now, that it is possible to write
again. The study of American Literature can
be the answer that I was looking for; My goal now is to learn about this
culture, read and read and read some more to learn this language so what has
distracting me from my path, can become my ally.
