Images of Manifest Destiny

Vaningen Snyder

John Gast

After viewing the manifest destiny pictures in class the other day, I wanted to see what other images there were about this topic. Instead of finding more photos mainly from the “white” view, I found some that portrayed some of the Native American views. The photo below showed that the natives were simply pushing further west, but were really lost in the dark side of the painting. In the other image, the Native Americans are the focus of the picture, and the train is in the back off to the side. Instead of being seen as a glorified thing, the train does not seem to be nearly as important to the scene. The nature as well as the on looking people seems to be the major focus.

I don’t know enough to understand how the train is being portrayed, but it does not seem positive or negative to me. It seems as though the Native Americans are observing the train with concern, but they do not seem overly affected. The situation seems fairly neutral. It would be really interesting to see what paintings would look like drawn by the Native Americans.  

Interviews

The interviews done of Thoreau were really interesting. They connected the studying of the transcendentalist movement that we have been doing, with our future interviewing assignment. It was helpful for both the interviewer and the person being interviewed to take part in that practice in order to experience the good and the bad of both roles. I have a lot more confidence going into the real interviews now, since prior to this practice I had only been interviewed before.

It was hard to answer questions while pretending to be someone else. For instance, there were several topics brought up where one had to go on related beliefs of Thoreau in order to answer the question. A lot of the time it was instinct based responses. Our interviews later on though will not have that same type of issue since we are directly interviewing people.

I did find that it was helpful to see how an interviewer could pull out more information from whomever they were interviewing by asking the right questions. Also important to getting out responses was the wording the questions as well as the order they were presented. This required prior preparation with focus on that idea.

These are all traits I would like to carry out into our own research and interviews of the 4H club coming up.   

Nature Walk

I really enjoyed the nature walk we did the past week on Friday. Although I initially thought of it as a way to have class cancelled, I ended up actually taking a walk off the sidewalk. I thought about something other than weekend plans or texting people on my phone. I realize how much of the time I spent wasting the alone walks from building to building here on campus. I find it natural to either reach for a phone, or simply walk briskly from place to place.

This time I actually slowed down to enjoy the scenery. Although there weren't any life changing thoughts on that walk, I now have been attempting to look around more while on campus. I am really glad for that time these past two weeks I made an effort to enjoy the outdoor sunshine while getting lost in thoughts, not texts. (Especially with this drastic change to April snow).

Satire

“When they desired to travel, they walked, if possible, begged the loan of a vehicle, or boldly entered car or coach, and, stating their principles to the officials, took the consequences. Usually their dress, their earnest frankness, and gentle resolution won them a passage; but now and then they met with hard usage, and had the satisfaction of suffering for their principles. “

Transcendental Wild Oats by Louisa May Alcott

Part II

I really enjoyed the play with sarcasm heavily used in Louisa May Alcott’s work. There were several passages that I found to be really entertaining but the imagery of this section really made it stand out to me. While reading this passage I could actually imagine some crazily-dressed transcendentalist running up to a car, needing it for some cause, and simply taking it with the intent of returning it at a later time. The fact that their dress and speech would be able to get them out of most trouble was extremely funny to me. It was as if their lifestyle was an excuse to live without boundaries. I think that this is pretty funny, especially because I sometimes find that I like to use speech to get my way in some cases. This took that idea to the next level though, “barrowing” cars when they felt the need. The way it is presented is humorous and uses satire in a way that, even without really knowing these people, one could imagine the ridiculous nature of the lifestyle. Overall, I really enjoyed this the style and the work by Louisa May Alcott.

Cali Landscapes

Now that I have read other spring break blog posts, I felt slightly inspired to write a little about my own. I actually spent this year’s trip going with a friend to Southern California. In past years I have always been at various ski races, waking up at the crack of dawn to put on layers of jackets to then spend the break not getting a tan. I couldn’t get all the way away from this though, since I still spent the last four days here in MN racing, but I was able to get away for most of it (and ended up with a burn not a tan).

In SoCal I went to visit a few friends that weren’t on spring break. I stayed at Azusa Pacific University and Chapman University for a couple of nights each, which was very fun (and cheap for me!). Overall I really enjoyed each of their schools but they had a much different feel than what we have here at St. Olaf. It took a bit to understand, but it was a part of that same feeling that ultimately caused me to choose St. Olaf. The causation for these vibes ended up being the campuses.

At Azusa Pacific University there are two main campuses in which the students are bused between. The two seemed very isolated from one another, one containing most of the Freshman Dorm life, while the other consisted of the academic buildings. That caused a feeling of separation of school from the rest of life. The two areas just created different vibes. At Chapman the campus was much smaller and condensed due to California land space. There weren’t as many open quads or nature filled areas. People did not tend to “hang out” in localized areas like I find at St. Olaf. Instead a focus of campus was the dorm buildings or academic buildings themselves or apartment complexes for upperclassmen. 

Basically what I gathered from these visits was that landscape plays a much bigger role in overall vibes such as the community aspect than I ever could believe. I know we spent a lot of time covering landscape as a topic last semester but this was the clearest way I have ever seen this concept. Each school’s campus was different. None were necessarily better than the other, as there were both positive points and negative points to each style, but it was clear they all created different atmospheres.

Future Travel Promise

Now that we all have almost made it through the first year of school, (it seems crazy right?), I am trying to plan out as far into the future as possible…. lunch at 1 today.

 But in all seriousness I have been looking at study abroad programs, in an obsessed sort of way. At this point I have lots of options and I am extremely excited for all of them. After reading Tocqueville’s work I have become even more inspired and know that I will be taking advantage of study abroad options. He took a trip to America and was able to learn so much about our culture. Having a different viewpoint (French) coming into this trip, Tocqueville was able to understand American politics in a light different from any longtime citizen. Some of these points were so simple or common to our lifestyle that we tend to overlook them.

In general, I have decided to reflect on everything I observe in my travel and write a journal. I am really bad because I like to start things and struggle to finish them but I am stating this on my blog therefore it is much more likely to happen. I feel like learning from seeing and doing is so much stronger. I hope I can enhance this future trip even more through my writings.  I want to look back onto my trip much later and remember even more the things I learned from this experience that tend to be lost over the years.

I guess this was mostly a pledge to writing while traveling…. as inspired by people such as Tocqueville.

Identity in Associations?

I know this seems a little late but relooking at organizations like girl scouts got me thinking...

“Joining a group became more a matter of individual fulfillment than an expectation of life in society, and leaving a group no longer presented the same dilemma as when it meant serving ties that defined one’s identity.” 

I found this quote when reading Leslie Lenkowsky’s analysis (“Still Bowling Alone?”) of Putnam’s article “Bowling Alone”. I really liked the way this quote highlighted several concepts. In the past Americans tended to identify themselves with these associations. Lenkowsky says that today we find a lot less of this in America. Instead, people freely join groups but are no longer “tied” down to them since they no longer need that identity, and therefore quite much more frequently. I think I have to agree with that statement, at least the idea that people join and quite these associations a lot today.

 I felt this way in my own life in the past. So many times I would join some sort of group but eventually quite keeping my membership short lived. I also saw it a lot in the groups I did stay in. For example, I was a Girl Scout for all my elementary years. That group actually retained a large amount of girls from year to year, but we also saw many girls make half-hearted attempts to participate and then drop their membership after a short period. I think the difference between those that stayed and those that left, was that those that were more committed also identified more with the group.

Why is that? This trend continues even today in my more college level view. Groups tend to have people that come and go a lot more frequently. Is it because the members don’t identify themselves with the group? I think a big causation at least in college people’s life is the ability to identify oneself in other volumes. Facebook seems to dominate that realm. That makes since for the college audience but it doesn’t really explain this trend in other age groups like the child associations.

I still basically have left off with the same question I had before. Why have we lost identity with the groups? Lenkowsky believes it is because membership has become easier to gain and therefore means less. I sort of agree with that but how had would it have been to ever join associations like bowling leagues?