21st American & the American Dream

My answer has not wandered much since the last time I was asked about what it means to be an American in the 21st century. I still believe that there is no set identity. We are all different shades, different textures of hair, and different goals. However we all yearn for and appreciate the freedom we obtain as a citizen. I do not believe you necessary have to be a “citizen” to call yourself an American either, nor would English have to be your first language. America has allowed us to be a nation of multi culture and multi languages. I think being an American in our current time allows a lot more room of acceptability. I understand we still have issues with race and discrimination but I think we are at a better stage than we ever were and hopefully it will increase. It is also a huge moment for the virtual world. We all strive for the ipods, the iphones, and rely heavily on the internet to find us a perfect mate. I love technology but I think it has unfortunately left us with less and less emotions due to the lack of connection with people. For example, we text instead of calling. I find it a little disturbing to look at the numbers of single mothers just within people I have met or know. Women are considered LUCKY if they are still with the father of their child and they are taking care of that child.
\I do believe that every one has the opportunity to access the American Dream because every one decides what that dream is. Some may be simple due to their lifestyle and needs and others may complex and unrealistic because of their different upbringing. But these are all American Dreams. It comes down to what people have and do not have. The richer already have what the poor don’t so their dreams strive for more. The poor have yet to catch up with the wealthy so their dream may be simplistic and be something the wealthy would have taken for granted. But in the end I believe it’s a pursuit of happiness and never a destination. We will always want more. I always want more. I find things that I want and think that once I have them I will be satisfied but it only leads to another want. I will never be completely happy with the things I have, someone will always be out doing me and ill be on my constant journey to out do them.

woman warrior

Overall this was a good book. A lot better than I thought because I knew this book was going to have something to do with ghost and I was afraid it was going to be very similar to Beloved. It went a bit slow for me at first, but it definitely picked up. The ghost stories weren’t ones that I rolled my eyes about; they seemed modern like it could have been a tv series or movie. In particular I’m thinking of the story where brave orchid was away at school and slept in the haunted room to prove her classmates wrong. Only she was proven wrong when a ghost sat on her and tried to suffocate her. It took me a while to catch on to the fact that everyone in the book who was not Chinese was considered a ghost. I assumed because I had heads up about the book being about ghost like Beloved that maybe it was some sort of ghost town. But as I got more and more into the book I did come to realize that every American figure such as mail men were considered ghost. This showed another act of discrimination like many we have seen in all the other books we have read. These Chinese people thought that anyone who was different was not even considered human, like slaves weren’t considered human during beloveds time. My favorite of the stories was the one with Brave Orchid and Moon Orchid searching for Moons double life husband. That is something I could see me and my friends doing so I like the way it seemed so real in my mind. I like things that are easy to relate with and can mean something in my life. With that said my least favorite of the stories was the one where the girl is learning to fight better than a man and defeat armies alone. Having seen Mulan it helped me get the idea of what the scene was about but I couldn’t appreciate it.

BELOVED

I hated beloved with a passion when I began to read it. It took me 3 days and numerous tries just to get through the first 4 pages. I kept beginning and stopping not able to get through it. Once I did, merely by force, the only reaction I had from it was confusion. I did not understand a lot of the situations that occurred do to the flashbacks with little transitions. I found it hard to relate with any of the characters and had to imagine Paul D as Pauly D from Jersey Shore just to allow the book to be some sort of entertainment. I think if I read a book on slavery that made it easier to relate, I may be enlightened with some new appreciation. But Toni Morrison story is less appealing to me because it seems so far fetched to me. I am not a fan of ghosts and spirits and was kind of thrown back from the idea that beloved was a ghost who had came back after all this time to seek revenge on her homicidal mother. I felt that you had to pay really close attention to every word that had been written or something significant would be meaningless to you in the end. This was true to me, while discussing the book in class, I realized that you as classmates had absorbed a lot more information from the book than I did, and some of the scenes being described seemed as though it was the first time id ever heard it. This was a really humbling book, much different than the other two we read in my eyes.

who is the indian killer?

In my opinion, like I expressed in class, is john. It never crossed my mind for a second that it was anyone else. When I was discussing this with some of you in class and you told me you thought it was someone else, I thought I was so smart because it was so clear for me from the beginning. Haha. But I quickly realized that it was never clear. I had unconsciously added details to the book that led me to believe he was with out a doubt the Indian Killer. Being someone who studies crime, I felt as though John fit all of the criteria. He came from a broken home, even though his adoptive parents were good to him and married, those weren’t his biological parents. He was mentally ill and refusing to take medicine. He kept to himself. He fantasized about killings. And I could never pin point his sexuality. Not that gay people are usually murders, but serial killers usually prey on people who are attractive to them. Thus the killer only killing men, I felt that John still was in the running for this position. If I am right and it was indeed John I think he stood for a lot more than just wanting to even up the score like we discussed in class. This would have been someone who needed to kill. Someone who may not have been able to function as well as he did in the world without so. He needed to keep the trophies so he could relive the killings until another opportunity approached him. I believe the first murder was someone with little importance, their background was not really exemplified and they were almost a stranger. This is usually how a serial killer begins their career. It is usually unplanned and sporadically done; but after that it becomes essential.

an act of discrimination

Fortunately, I have not come in contact with a lot of discriminatory acts. It took me a long time to come up with even one. About the only thing I can remember is in high school, the dress code became pretty biased and enforced to only some of the population. When I was a sophomore, white t-shirts were a big thing for the African American males. They would throw on there white t-shirt, baggy pants and Nike Air Force Ones. When the amount of followers began to grow at an alarming rate, the principal and staff decided to enforce a code not allowing plain white t-shirts, saying that they were gang related. A lot of people rebelled about this new rule. People who had never worn the shirts before were now wearing them simply to make a statement. I could even fathom a reasonable explanation for this. This was a time, when school safety was a big issue as it still is now, but I could not find symbolism in a plain white shirt. As for the baggy jeans, administrators set a limit as to how low the pants could sag. They actually carried around rulers in their pockets and if they thought a student’s appearance was in question they would stop them in the hallway and measure their pants right there. One other thing I noticed was the short lengths for the females. As most of us probably already know, African American women tend to be a little bit curvier than the average white girl. And because of this the black females would fill their clothes out more. This seemed to make them an easy target, even though the shorts were very similar lengths. The tall skinny legged girls were getting away with extremely short shorts simply because they somehow weren’t revealing as much.

indian killer

Indian Killer was the last one that i thought i wanted to read. but once i started the novel, i found it very hard to stop. i read it quickly and was intrigued by the mystery. it went very fast for being over 400 pages. i felt myself getting attached to characters quickly and dissapointed when i found out they were killed. everything was easy to imagine, i felt as though i was watching a movie in my head. in the end i guessed the "indian killer" right, but did not expect what comes after. over all one of the best books i have read.

even though im a biracial individual, i still have a hard time grasping the idea that the racial tension is still a huge component to an Americans life. i cant name a time were i felt that my race had any contributions to the way i was or was not treated. maybe i have just been blind or foolish towards the issue. i do not think Indian Americans were so innocent though, i hated the way that they too discriminated. they made it as though you had to be a full blooded indian in order to understand their lives and culture. marie in particular criticized value of books simply because they were edited or co written by a white man.

i found it interesting that aaron and his friends went around assaulting any indian simply because they assumed his brother was killed by one. this is what we still do today and this book was written in 1995. after 9/11 we target and suspect any one who may look like they are from the middle east. i think being conscious of an enemy is smart but foolish to assume.

i think the reason i loved the book so much and found it so easy to read was the fact that im a criminal justice student and i minor in psychology. john helped me relate both to the book. him being a serial killer who is also having some serious psychological problems. the author did a good job at kind of hiding or masking the issues at the begininng but i think as the story progressed and johns need to kill increased he became more and more detached from reality. i would have liked to seen him arrested and tried to know if he would of got away with it due to insanity.

AMERICAN DREAM

The American Dream is the pursuit of happiness. No one is ever completely satisfied with the way their life is, but I believe that at some point that becomes exceptional to them. Having goals and wanting to achieve them, as well as, taking the necessary steps in the direction of accomplishment is a big component. Everyone wants to live comfortably and have little worries in the back of their mind. The American Dream is freedom. Freedom to come and go with out consequences and at times for some, a lack of responsibility. To be care free and not have to stress of complex and or minor situations. Someone attempting to have the “American Dream” want to be viewed necessarily powerful but want their view and opinions to be important