AMERICAN DREAM(NEW)

To be a 21st century American today is not easy. Obtaining the America dream for some relies on having a job. Getting a job and keeping it is a very difficult task. If you do not have job that eliminates having a house, car and even a wife. Having access to the American dream is not equal for all. He or she who has the money is the top dog. There are people who are born into money and have anything that they want. Watching these individuals parade around without a care in the world is just sick. Another problem I have is when rookie and veteran NFL players hold out on signing a new contract because they want more money. Then there are the ones who have to work their tail off to get it. They have to do whatever job comes their way. Sometimes they get lucky and find a job that they enjoy but for the most part they do not. There is always military service but it does not come without a price. Service members sacrifice time with family and their own personal freedom for the greater good. It is not for everyone though you must be willing to do what it takes to get the job done. But in the end it is worth the trouble because it gets you that much closer to the American dream. I think that it is unattainable goal though because we will always want more. As new trivial merchandise comes out we will want it.

The Woman Warrior

This book was very interesting to say the least. When I first started reading it all I could think was here we go again another story that jumps around. But to my surprise it was not all that bad and yet interesting. Her use of symbolism and myths plus the vivid detail in the story made it easier for me to follow. I also found some of it to be a bit humorous like jumping over walls from a prone position and the ape like man. The image of the Jack Links Sasquatch popped in my head and the movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon as well. Slightly farfetched but a funny diversion from the truth. I liked her imagination in this book because at times it did seem a little dry but stories of grandeur made it a good read. The Chinese culture at that time was very hard to live due in part to communism. Being man and women during this period was tough and to survive it was an accomplishment. So we can believe that the women were sold as slaves and that the men were forced to fight. One part I did question was when the girl was asking her mom about telling her that she had cut her tongue. Had she really did that or did the mother want her to think that so she would behave. I think the mother saw herself in her child and knew she was going to be a handful to deal with. So it was better to control her at a young age than let her be a free spirit. I liked this book better than Beloved but not more than The Indian Killer.

BELOVED

I found this book to be a hard read but it also made me think about how bad life was for African Americans. The hardships that they had to endure on a day to day basis were unreal. In this story there were individuals, the Garners, who treated there slaves like people instead of animals. Mr. Garner said to the other land owners that he had men working for him and not boys. When Mr. Garner pasted away life for the men became a little more difficult. Following in suit with her husband Mrs. Garner fell ill and had to bring school teacher in to help run the days operations at Sweet Home. School teacher did not come alone he brought his two nephews. All three were very evil, lower than life, dare I even say men. They savagely beat the workers into submission or they ran. Life got real bad and it left Sethe with no option but to run. She had run to Baby Suggs who had her freedom bought by her son and lived in Ohio. But they were able to track her down at Baby Suggs house. The fear of going back forced her to murder her unnamed daughter and attempted to murder her three other children. The fear of going back to Sweet Home, back to school teacher and his nephews who beat her and stole her milk. The same men who, in essence, murder her sole and deprived them of their freedom. We can’t judge her for what she did because that is left to a higher being. Also we do not know what we would do if that was one of us. The story was told very well but I did not like how it jumped around a lot which made it less appealing for me personally.

Discrimination

The closest I came to witnessing racial discrimination was hearing others complaining about other races and when I took a flight home a few years ago. I was on a flight from San Diego to Las Vegas and then on to Nashville. I had boarded the aircraft took my seat and I happened to look up a see two Arab looking men getting on the plane. They caught my eye because it was getting dark and they both had on very dark sunglasses. Neither one of them was speaking nor from what I could tell they did not seem to be happy. It just so happens they sat down right next to me. At that time most people are friendly and say hi or something close to that but they said nothing. The flight attendant never said anything to them but I’m sorry, they just looked creepy. So I politely asked them to remove their sunglasses. The gentlemen sitting next to me turned and looked at me as if to say “are you kidding me” but I was not joking. They removed them and I told them thank you. I even offered them some gum before we took off. That was the longest hour flight I have ever taken. I do not know if that was discrimination but I will let others say yes or no. I was taught to treat others the way I would want to be treated. I do not care if you are white, black, brown, yellow, red or whatever race or nationality you claim creepy is creepy. If I got on a bus, train or plane and I creeped you out please tell me and I would have no problem trying to come up with a solution.

Indian Killer

Indian Killer was a very captivating book and I found myself unable to put it down. From the opening the story had me hook and wanting to know more about John Smith. I wanted to know where his life was going and where he came from. We have an infant Indian boy being adopted by a white, seemingly upper-middle class, couple in Washington. From his young childhood to his adult years he knew he did not fit in the white man’s culture. The loss of Father Duncan made things even worse for him. I believed he battled with conflicts with whom he was and where he belonged. In today society many of the young adults have difficulties dealing with the same issues and they have lashed out and became rebellious. Then there are those like John Smith who repress their emotion until it becomes overwhelming. They do not seek help and become isolated and do not speak to anyone. When they reach that peak they violently react toward themselves and/or others. There is however a story behind the story and that is the conflict between the white man and the Indians. This has been going since the white man first set foot on this land. Our government’s greed for land and the white man’s need for money forced Indians onto reservations. But once valuable natural resources were found on the reservation the government drove them onto even smaller reservations. Those who would refuse to leave were simply killed. And those who moved to the small land provided suffered because of lack of food or medical treatment. Sadly there is not a whole lot that we can do in this generation other than apologies and hope that they would not look bad upon some of us that appreciate there heritage. As the book ended it left me wondering who the killer was. Sherman Alexie in my opinion left the book to open for my taste. I still want to know who the killer was and what tribe John Smith was from. The reason is I do not believe that neither John nor Reggie was the killer.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Where do I begin with this interesting and thrilling book? As I read this book it reminded me of all the adventures I had in my life. In the opening Hunter S. Thompson describe all the narcotics and alcohol they were taking on their journey to find the American dream. I recalled the countless trips my friends and I took to the outer banks of North Carolina. We would get a wild hair and load up the car with booze we bought on base and head out. Once we got there we partied the whole weekend and cruise back to Norfolk just in time for morning muster on Monday. Barely able to stand we somehow managed to not get into trouble for the most part. On rare occasions’ one of us would fallout and the s#*t would hit the fan. Naturally I was into this book from the beginning. The essence of paranoia Thompson had brought back memories of my shipmates wait for the results from our random drug test and from times we came back to the ship three sometimes four sheets to the wind. Hoping that the Officer of the Deck would not catch us in our drunken stupor. That fear was enough to make us sober long enough to get past them and make it to our berthing (place where we slept on board the ship). All in all I really enjoyed this book and that is shocking for me because I don’t like to read a lot.