Week 4 Readings

Okay, so, this week we read Bernal Diaz's narrative of Cortes' Conquest of New Spain and I must admit that I was way more into it than I originally thought I would be. Plus, I facilitated this week which I think helped me get a little more involved with the text than I may have been had I not prepared to lead class. That being said, the idea that I will forever take with me when I think of this conquest (and something I may or may not have been sharing frequently with random people I associate with who may or may not care even the smallest little bit about the subject matter at hand or ,therefore, literature at all) was that after being presented with gifts of gold and cloaks from Montezuma Cortes asked if there was more gold at Montezuma's disposal, for he and his men had a sickness of the heart which could only be cured by gold. A sickness of the heart which can only be cured by gold?! If there has ever been a richer tag line for greed I don't know what it is...


Then again...this is coming from a man who will forever be known as the "conquistador who led an expedition that led to the fall of the Aztec Empire." Personally, that would not be something that I would take pride in. The Aztec Empire was incredibly rich and had and intricately developed culture, which we know far less about than we should. And why is much of who the Aztecs really were such a mystery to us in the modern day? Oh! That's right because they were completely wiped out for no real reason other than desire for dominance and greed. Thanks Cortes. I apologize if I tend to seem a little overly hostile about this topic...when I was little my father travelled to Mexico for business but had the opportunity to visit some incredible Aztec ruins and I was fascinated with the pictures he brought back for the longest time--to the point where my imaginary friend lived in one of the temples--but I digress... I will come back to Cortes in a moment but for now I want to introduce the purpose for the images that I have chosen to put at the top of this post (in case you were wondering exactly how they relate).


Well, all throughout reading of the text, viewing of the Cortes' video, and my own bits and pieces of research I have been pre-occupied with Malinche's story. Maybe I tend to sympathize with the somewhat tragic female character, however, I feel like she really got the raw end of quite a few deals. Many view her as the greatest traitor in the history of Mexico while others see her as the quintessential victim. I think that she was absolutely a pawn in the great plans of Hernan Cortes but I also believe that she wouldn't have had the influence that she did had she been simply a "dumb girl". I found it very interesting how she has been portrayed throughout a span of time. My images rank from present to long past. The two images at the bottom of the stack are 15th century and show Malinche with no particular, outstanding feminine qualities--she is mainly portrayed as a mediator, standing between the Spanish men and tribal leaders. The next illustration gives Malinche some definitively feminine facial features, braids and portrays her in white (lots to read into there)! This is also the first picture where she is obviously represented as being "lower" than Cortes both with her visual placement in the picture as well as then in her actual importance. Why is it that now she is more feminine and therefore more lowly? Do you think it has something to do with the fact that this appears to be a European painting? In the second-to-top... I would go as far as to say that Malinche looks beautiful, she is given some very attractive qualities and is "caressing" Cortes's knee. In this picture Cortes is definitely portrayed as the superior with armour and all. Finally, we see Malinche in a very modern, movie version of herself. She is scantily clad, which have not seen at all before, and is attractive in a very earthy way. Do you think these photos actively represent how we, as a race, tend to manipulate images and ideas as our culture allows? I sure hope so. I found a bunch of really interesting sounding/looking books while I was sifting around online with Malinche's story as the basis. Hopefully, I can get my hands on one or a few in the somewhat near future.


I thought we covered some really fascinating ideas in class this week. Many of which I still seem to be working through my brain. The idea that I have expanded on the most, though it is still far from complete, is this idea of dominance [in a very broad sense]. We all have a desire to dominate...each and every single one of us...and I think that in most cases it happens on a daily basis. It doesn't have to be violent or sexual, though it absolutely could be. I can be as simple as the desire to dominate a conversation on a topic that we feel well versed in, or the simple everyday strive for bits of attention. I think domination comes in an incredible number of varieties and take on forms that we don't even necessarily realize. My real question is then: is domination at the core of the human existence? Are the small things that we do at seeming constant derive from the more extreme form dominance used to take in the "olden days"? Have we created a more complex albeit more hidden form of dominance? WWE, for instance, takes these ideas back to a much more raw form but can its popularity attest to the fact that we each have this little dominance monster at the heart of our being that needs to get fed every once in awhile? Am I getting too philosophical? I feel like I might be...

Nonetheless, I thought that this narrative was beautiful beyond all the gore and heartbreak. I thought the descriptions in the first section that we read were vivid and brilliant. Diaz definitely gets and A+ for description. I could feel myself travelling in time and place and putting on his shoes, which is getting harder and harder for me to do the more I read. I was definitely sucked in with this one. I loved the exchange on 222 and 223 where Cortes just comes right out and launches his religion on Montezuma, saying that "what they worshipped as gods not gods but devils, which were evil things" (222) and Montezuma was totally unphased by it citing that "ever since that time he had wanted to invite some of these men to visit the cities of his kingdom, where he would receive them and do them honour, and that now his gods had fulfilled his desire, for we were in his house," (223)proving that his gods did exist and were good to him.


I also love the question raised about how it is that so many of the heroes in our history have been such violent and brutal people? As kids in grade school it seems as though these are who we are taught to idolize as we learn about history. It's sad. CONQUISTADOR! If only I had known the violence and greed associated with that title from the get-go...

I don't mean to take a cop-out on my favorite quotes however, I could read the entrance, description "The Stay in Mexico" section through and through, just drinking in the details of the land and culture.

I think that might be all for this week.

Week 3 Readings (skipping around can't find my week 2 file that never posted)

Okay...so let's see how this works this week...

In this week 3 we, as a class, focused on our reading of Women's Indian Captivity Narratives (Penguin), particularly Mary Rowlandson's narrative.

Right when I first began reading I found it to be really interesting how concerned the editor was in the introduction to the collection with the particular "version" of the text was being presented to us. In class we discovered that it is impossible to come into contact with any first edition of Mary Rowlandson's narrative because they were all literally read to shreds (not always a bad thing)when the first edition was published and distributed. In the article "The Indian Captivity Narratives of Mary Rowlandson and Olive Oatman: Case Studies in the Continuity, Evolution and Exploitation of Literary Discourse" by the collection's editor Kathyrn Zabelle Derounian-Stodola there is really good breakdown given of how each edition evolved and was tapered to become what the readers wanted to hear rather than an authentic, vivid account of what happened.

When Mary first sat down and penned her narrative, she did so for purely personal reasons--a way to try and clear her head of what had happened. However, at the encouragement of Increase Mather (familiar family name?)she agreed to go public with her accounts and allowed her narrative to be published. It was first published as The Soveraignty and Goodness of God, this title appropriately gave it an autobiographic feel and and "stressed the captivity narratives religious dimension and its author's role as an orthodox Puritan woman" (Stodola 37). Interestingly, by the time the fourth edition came out the title had been changed to A true history of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson--this edition "described Rowlandson to English readers as 'a minister's wife in New-England' and capitalized on what it described as the 'Cruel and Inhumane usage she underwent among the Heathens'" (37).
As Rowlandson's story was told and retold it was manipulated and sensationalized, making it into a tale that the settlers could use to their advantage. They could easily instill fear in newcomers and make the Indians out to be brutal savages. When I think of barricaded forts surrounding little "cities" I think of Medieval Europe not our homeland. However, I found this website and it names over 20 forts in Ohio alone that housed settlements in the early parts of our state's history in order to protect against Indian attacks. There are also some really good "old" images on this page . It is because of accounts such as Rowlandson's that in all reality became a form of propaganda. People were so scared that they went to almost extreme measures to protect themselves. Of course there were also other realities of Indian attacks and there was great brutality in the King Phillips war but there was no effort made on the part of the settlers to see what it is that they were doing to these people in order to spark such violence. It was much easier to presume the accountability of the Devil or "evil" in general rather than look at their own part in the blame.

Quite frankly, I don't think that this is ever what Rowlandson wanted. I think that she had a small soft spot in her heart for the troubles of the Indian. She came to understand what they're lives were like and if she had been able to see what eventually happened to them it would have broken her heart. It breaks my heart just to think about it. I have worked on the Ogalala Lakota Indian Reservation in South Dakota and been to see Wounded Knee, my [adopted] aunt is pure Navajo Indian and these stories really eat away at me and maybe I read into Rowlandson's occasional empathetic words too much but I think that she really, truly had a soft spot for these people. In the last pages of her narrative she continually mentions "vanity" and it seems that she is almost disgusted with her people's obsession with it. She has seen what it is to live a truly "pure" life and she must have questioned some of the cultural ways [i.e.obsesseion with status, etc.] of her fellow Puritans. I love the moments when we begin to see a flicker of am emotional connection, such as on page 37 when she speaks of meeting with Tom and Peter and how even "though they were Indians, I gat them by the hand, and burst into Tears; my heart was so full that I could not speak to them". It is sad to imagine that these parts were probably abolished from the text as the various editions were published. For me, these are the moments I waited for and completely sucked in like some scene from (but with obvious gender role reversal).

What do you guys think? Am I being too dramatic? Do you really think that huge forts being constructed in Ohio could be attributed to some captivity narratives from women was this really the "embryonic stages of our national psychology" [as Suzanne put it]? What kind of role do you really think the Puritan ministers played? Am I really crazy for drawing a connection between Dances with Wolves and Puritan times? lol (maybe?). I digress.

I loved to movie we watched in class--not just because it was a movie...but rather because it gave a really good background to the reading. I am so glad that we got the Indian perspective. I know I got a little carried away with my supplementary material but thanks for reading!


Favorite Quotes:
"They had turned him out of the Wigwam, and with him an Indian Papoos, almost dead (whole Parents had been killed) in a bitter cold day, without fire or clothes; the Young man had nothing on, but his shirt and waistcoat: This sight was enough to melt a heart of flint" (31). Melt a heart of flint... Love it!


"Then also I took my Bible to read, but I found no comfort here neither" (30).


"I had taken two or three Pipes, I was presently ready for another." (24) This goes out to Christine...but I also love how it shows her comfort level growing.

These are my top three...I could write dozens more but I don't want to be a bore...I love, love, loved this reading! Have a happy weekend!

Week 1 Readings

Okay, so here it goes! First of all, I am really excited about all this blogging business and can’t wait to really get into the meat of the material this quarter. I think that these weekly explorations in conjunction with what we discover in class is going to make for a really interesting and fun next ten weeks. This week we started out with the text On Witchcraft by Cotton Mather. We read just a small excerpt; however, it was jam-packed with some awesome description and details of a seriously significant little bit in our nation’s history. I found the reading fascinating in the fact that it was written in advance of the Salem Witch Trials. I think by now most of us have become fairly well acquainted with the story of the Salem trials through “The Crucible”, “Hocus Pocus”, and various other mediums but I think that many of us, myself absolutely included, were surprised to find that there had been a precursor to the more famous [or infamous] witch trials. That being said, the small “chapter” that we read was entitled “Enchantments Encountered” and really just served to set a baseline for what is to be exposed within the bulk of the text. Cotton makes gives us vivid images of what his people have been dealing with, take for instance,
“ And we have now with Horror seen the Discovery of such Witchcraft! An Army of Devils is horribly broke in upon the place which is the Center, and after a sort, the first-born of our English Settlements : and the Houses of the Good People there are fill’d with the doleful Shrieks of their Children and Servants, Tormented by Invisible Hands, with Tortures altogether preternatural. After the Mischiefs there Endeavored, and since in part Conquered, the terrible Plague, of Evil Angels, hath made its Progress into some other places, where other Persons have been in like manner Diabolically handled. These our poor Afflicted Neighbours, quickly after the become Infected and Infested with these Daemons, arrive to a Capacity of Discerning those which they conceive the Shapes of their Troublers…” (15).
In this passage it is easy to see that Mather not only takes a very vivid and firm stance on the situation but also uses very vibrant images to bring to life the full effects of exactly what is happening. He capitalizes words that are to be given certain emphasis, which I presume was allowable within the confines of preliminary grammar. Throughout the entire reading Mather uses incredibly strong language, particularly using words such as Plague, Infested, Infected, Tormented, Irritated, Wretches, and so many more to be affiliated with the Devil and his affairs. I think for me, personally, it was within these words that I was really able to feel the impact of the situation.
In class we discussed our individual and varying views on the idea of “evil” and myriad on descriptions/explanations were offered. I don’t think that any single person had a complete, holistic idea of what evil was in our own mind, which is interesting to me considering we had just read the accounts from a man [representing an entire community of people] who had a really solid and unyielding idea of exactly what was going on. How can he be so certain? And why is it that in our current lives we seem to be so far detached from a definite idea of what seemingly should be our greatest adversary?
Other than the passage that I spent time re-typing I really like a quote from one of the first lines of the passage: “it may be easily supposed that the Devil was exceedingly disturbed.”
For me, that set my reading off and put me in a good mood, it was a “duh” moment and made me laugh. Simple as that. (<<I also really liked the way that the quote “the Wretches have proceeded so far, as to Concert and Consult the Methods of Rooting out the Christian Religion from this Country” flowed off my tongue as I sort of read it aloud. I imagined myself being a stately, serious minister standing at a pulpit and making this proclamation to my congregation. Don’t know why exactly…it’s just what happened in the moment. However, that came back into mind as we were discussing in class the mindset of these Puritans and how they really, truly believed that they were God’s Army sent to this new land to actively engage in “battle” with the Devil himself. …Very iiinnnnteresting stuff!

I think that might be all I’ve got for tonight…better get back to some reading…Peace!
(I am so sorry for the awful formatting! I guess I will learn my lesson not to type in a word doc first!)

Just checking this out! Seeing how everything works! Thought I would get fancy and even add a photo! [too many exclamation marks?]