Connection between American culture and American literature Essay Example

lives of many black women together with their children through messages which were all over stating that being white is being superior. The characters show the theme of racism by their lives and also the stories they give especially the girls; Pecola, Claudia and Frieda. The author explains to us how destructive it is to have the idea of the white beauty both on the individual and also on the society. The Bluest Eye has many elements which are relating closely to the author’s personal life and that is why it is referred to as primary source. Its story is set in a town in which the author, Morrison grew up. The town was Lorain Ohio (Morrison 3).

The town’s population was considered to be ethnically unequal. Segregation was legal, but the town’s community was integrated. Both the white and the black children were attending same schools, and also the neighborhoods were interracial. The girl who is narrating was nine years old. This is the same age Morrison was in the year 1941. The family of Morrison struggled so much in terms of finance at the time of the Great Depression just as the MacTeer family did in the novel. The novel states how a young girl who was black is vulnerable. Explaining how the black people in the community were not valued. In the novel, events are not comparable to specific events of history.

The main purpose of historical reflection was not to be romanticizing the past, or maybe to be justifying the present, but to be able to unmask power structures. This is made clear by the narrator when she states that she wanted to

know the story’s “how” and not the “why” or the intentions. When it comes to the social hierarchy, the opening of the novel is a passage on the story of Jane and Dick. This is a story that represents a perfect and a happy family of the whites. It is a story that reflects different families in the novel. It shows how some families are financially and economically stable and also represent the ruling class. The ruling class would consider the less fortunate as people who are worth nothing in the society. Captivity is another primary text where by the author talks about Mary Rowlandson, a married mother who in 1676, the Wampanoag Indians captured. The poem is based on a story which is true.

The author uses many characters such as tricksters. This reflects her American heritage. Her major tactic of writing is the use of captivity narratives history. In the two primary sources, the Bluest Eye and Captivity, there are concepts philosophical contexts. Also, the western standards stress importance of wealth and also maleness in The Bluest Eye as in the American heritage. The black males have nothing but their maleness according to the western standards. According to the western standards, the males have the power over the others and also provide and protect their families. These standards do a distortion of the vision of the black males for their families and also themselves since as black men who are poor, they are unable to grand the protection they and their families need from the white people. In the novel, a black father like Cholly, would recognize how he is unable to provide for

the offspring whenever he would notice how the children were powerless but with a lot expectations.

Literature being part of people’s cultural heritage enriches their lives in many different ways. Literary works are funny, beautiful, entertaining, meaningful, informative and tragic. They make us see beyond our life’s limited experience and see other people’s lives. This gives us an experience that we never face with our lives. Like in the case of the Bluest Eye, we get to have the experience of the writer even though we never experienced it. The connection that literature and people have works in both ways whereby as literature has an effect on people, people also have the same effect on literature. History has a big role in the shaping of literature. Every poem, play or novel people read are highly influenced by political context that it is written in, how the author knows the people around him and also the entire society framing the work.

Therefore American literary texts connect so much with the American culture within a specific time. American literary texts contain different units where each unit has a specific timeline of some historical events accompanied by dates of the literary texts of the authors of the movement. The timelines help us to make the connections between or among the specific movements, authors and eras which are covered in every unit. A definition of things that constitute literature has being changing over time: some examples of texts that we can be able to consider politically are speeches mostly found in The Norton Anthology. Political texts mostly ask people to be considerate of the social works of certain pieces of literature.

These include tracts like the slave narratives and also sentimental novels which normally have great impacts on the American history of the politics and also the politics in general. When we understand political debates of a certain era, we are able to understand popularity of certain works in their own times.

In Captivity, the narrative talks about three stories concurrently. They include a literal story, cultural story and also a story about religion. The narrator explains how she was captured in February 1676 from Lancaster and how she made it to go back to Boston the same year May. The religious and the cultural stories that are implied into the events in the literal story are very significant in the indication and the construction of fear of loving the other. The two latter stories that is, stories about religion and culture are the basis in which Louise Erdrich constructed her poem. So as to understand the response of Louise to the narrative, both the religious and cultural stories in the literally story should be well examined so as to reveal the function of the religion and the culture when it comes to the formation of perspective of puritans to others.

This is what perpetuates and justifies the fear of loving one another. This narrative is a cultural story since it provides an evidence of the views on the other and also illustrates how the Euro-American have been influenced by the view of the other, specifically the Puritans, and the native relationship of the Americans. So as to understand the view of the other of the Puritans in America, mostly during the times of Rowlandson, it is very

necessary to go back to Europe. In Europe, the Native Americans were compared rhetorically to other types of the other. This kind of comparison made the Puritans and the other Euro-Americans who had an encounter with the natives to start regarding and treating them just like these types. In general, Captivity is an American literature which shows a big connection between American culture and literature.

In the Bluest Eye, American culture is highly connected to the novel and the narration. There is a high influence of the popular culture towards the African-American community. This is done to the extent of making the blacks have a huge self-hatred. Hence making them have the desire to start internalizing the values of the culture of the whites. Like in the novel, Pecola is not happy with her identity which leads to her having a great desire of having blue eyes just like a white girls eyes. She believes that being beautiful is the key to being loved and respected and hence doing away with the cruelty which is in her life.

According to Pecola, having blue eyes, white skin and blond hair is equal to beauty and this leads to being happy. Certainly, both the black and the white communities of her world support the idea. The author in this book presents that everyone in the community has adapted the beauty criteria of the white and made it their own. So at the end of the day Pecola is with many others in the whole thing of white standard of the female beauty internalization. In general, the story relates so much with the American culture hence the connection between American

literature and the American culture.

The Bluest Eye and Captivity have a connection thematically. Both of them talk about two relationships which are complicated. In the Bluest Eye, there is the relationship between the black people and the white while in Captivity there is the Americans and the Europeans. On a social context, the Bluest eye explains how the poor people were neglected in the society. They were despised and given no respect at all. On the other hand, in Captivity, the woman who was held captive did not have the freedom to her cultures and family. The two have a difference in terms of whether they compare to any historical event.

In the Bluest Eye, the events do not compare to any historical event while in Captivity history for the relationship of the American and the Europeans is re-viewed. In the Bluest Eye, American culture by that time is seen in the portray of the prostitution, incest, child molestation, domestic violence and also racism. In Captivity, American culture is seen in the battles of the puritans and the natives. It involved the kidnapping of colonists when they were struggling for land. Through the help of the synthesis of several secondary sources, one can defend the demonstrations of the American values.

The Bluest Eye is specifically of a certain black community located in the US in 1940s. it portrays discriminatory structures of very different kinds. Most of the structures are constructed through polar opposites. There is also some causality in the racist behavior found in the novel. Also the concept of the other is close to the stereotyping concept and also in stereotyping. In many literary discourses, the

other concept has replaced stereotyping. The concept of the other is pointed out easily in the white peoples’ behavior towards the Africans for the past centuries.

In conclusion, there is a big connection of the literature and the American culture (McGill, Meredith 15). Many authors of books, novels or poems are inspired by the culture. The authors of primary texts have a firsthand experience of what they are writing about. They write about experiences they are going through or experiences that they have witnessed. On the other hand, authors of secondary texts do not have the firsthand experience that the primary texts authors have. Literature has had a great impact on the American history. In the Bluest Eye, the events of racism and discrimination of the black in the novel remains in the American history since the novel is based on a true story.

On the other hand, Captivity is a poem that shows how there were colonialism and kidnappings between the Americans and the Europeans. Also, this being a poem based on a true story of a kidnapped woman, it remains to be in American history. The American life of today has really changed (Kennedy, Liam 29). It is not like before when racism was at its top. The interpretation of the two primary texts that is, the Bluest Eye and Captivity has a great impact on the understanding I have for the American culture. The two are talking about racism during their time although it does not exist anymore; it feels like there are some Americans who are still following that culture.

Work cited

• Karnac, Harry. Melanie Klein and beyond a bibliography of primary and secondary
  

sources. London: Karnac, 2009. Print.