Titles

Another point about running any group of people was the need for “titles”. One of the most interesting aspects I took away from this project was the need for some sort of job positions. At the start, our group lacked specific job titles making meetings nearly pointless as they took a long time, and a lot less was actually “done”. At the second meeting, our group began to delegate jobs. Some were in charge of interviews, others about the history, and another was in charge of relating themes back to past readings like Tocqueville. At this point our group became much more productive. For the next few weeks we each performed our jobs, reporting back every few weeks to the group in meetings.

This was an extremely productive way to delegate the workload and to get the work we needed done on time. In addition, job titles make people reliable for that information. Since they had the title and it was written down, people “woke up” to do their portions since they were responsible for them. Overall, delegating was the best way for our group to make this project come together.

Genre- Black Elk Speaks

After our discussion about this topic in class the other day, when we brought up Black Elk Speaks in terms of its genre, I went online to see what it is generally listed as. I went to several sites, such as Amazon, to see what this book is technically listed as but I couldn’t find a clear genre. I went found an explanation of what types of genre this book encompasses on “Cliff Notes” which I think made the most sense. “Black Elk Speaks, a personal narrative, has the characteristics of several genres: autobiography, testimonial, tribal history, and elegy. However, Neihardt's editing and his daughter's transcription of Black Elk's words, as well as Black Elk's son's original spoken translation, raise questions about the narrative's authenticity”

I agree with this statement, Black Elk Speaks could be considered all of those genres found above. It could be a historical account, or a biography, as most of the book is written in this fashion. Personally, the moments when Neihardt puts his own impute don’t make me think less of what is written. The story is still the same in the broad sense. The biggest difference is that these additions help readers to better understand what they are reading. Since I have a version of the text which highlights what is or is not the original manuscript, I feel like I trust the work even more. Instead of writing these additions without noting them, this book tells the reader, so I believe the other parts are mostly straight from Black Elk. I also understand that this information was passed through several sources, due to translation and documenting and I recognize this too makes other unavoidable minor alterations.

Overall, I agree that this work is a biography, with some small changes. As a whole, these alterations do not undermine the main objective of this work, as a biography of Black Elk.  

Views on Gold

“Up on the Madison Fork the Wasichus had found much of the yellow metal that they worship and that makes them crazy, and they wanted to have a road up through our country to the place where the yellow metal was; but my people did not want the road.”

Black Elk Speaks, pg 8

I enjoyed this passage because it was very different than what can be commonly read about. Instead of having texts that describe the somewhat “unusual” (basically foreign) worshipping that is practiced by Native Americans, white Americans were instead being viewed as the unusual worshippers. Even though technically, one wasn’t worshipping gold itself, it probably seemed like something worth a lot spiritually. The amount of time invested into the gold industry must have seemed almost crazy. Why would a collecting yellow metal drive people into harsh environments, with foreign people and lots of dangers? I think a lot of the time Americans today learn about the practices that were new to the white people, that the Native Americans did. This text highlights the fact that this trend went both ways. The white “Wasichus” also had weird practices, such as collecting yellow metal. In all, this book highlights more of the similarities all humans have. People are unique and different, and we all notice and react to these differences.  

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.