Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Midterm #2, Winnemucca and Dickinson II
Katja
ENGL 48 B
Journal # 18, Winnemucca and Dickinson II
13 February, 2007
"Where can we poor Indians go if the government will not help us? If your people will help us, and you have good hearts and can if you will, I will promise to educate my people and make them law-abiding citizens of the United States. [...] We want you to try us for four years [...]" (Sarah Winnemucca 16)
In her book Life among the Paiutes, Sarah Winnemucca asks the white settlers in the West to take a chance on the Native American contingent of the population. Appealing to the idea of the marginally legal West, Winnemucca asks for help outside of the government system, creating a sense of outlaws in cahoots. She introduces the radical notion that Native Americans and whites can work together in absence of government regulation.
Winnemucca was educated and used this rare privilege to attract attention to her cause. Her credentials made white people take a second look at this tiny, well-spoken, Native American woman. What she offered her white counterparts was an extension of their accepted standards of education into her own community, notably not without benefit to the Native Americans as well.
Her appearances among white western audiences lent credibility to the politics of her tribe, and indeed her entire race due to many reasons. First, she was a female in a leadership position and she was educated and spoke English. Second, she comfortably bridged the gap between traditional Paiute life and white society, being at once a brave warrior and wife. Third, she was amenable to meet with people to convey her passion for the Native American cause and she was willing to bargain to get what she wanted.
Using techniques familiar to men in general and white men in particular, in her life as well as in her writing, helped affirm Winnemucca as one of the revolutionary writers of her day.
"Mine—by the Right of the White Election! / Mine—by the Royal Seal! / Mine—by the Sigh in the Scarlet Prison—Bars cannot conceal! /" (Emily Dickinson 187)
Whereas Winnemucca’s education may have been a surprise to some, no one would ever expect someone like Emily Dickinson to be uneducated. Her fate seemed sealed at birth; pretty white female, middle class East Coast family of middling to high ambitions and capabilities. A life of guaranteed success according to societal standards. However Dickinson’s poetry reveals other aspects of her personality that only become apparent on deeper reading.
One of Dickinson’s techniques to gain her reader’s attention was to create a whole new style of writing specific to her own needs. This bold venture into unknown syntactical territory speaks volumes of Dickinson’s character. Like Winnemucca, Dickinson was brave. She needed not think twice to fine-tune her poetry to suit her needs of expression. Her unusual dashes and lines mark what she must have perceived to be necessary breaks, pauses and borders of her poems positioned just so to garner the utmost attention.
Her poems, like the excerpt from poem # 528 above, hold passionate content as seen above. While many of Dickinson’s poems are hard to understand—the lines above being no exception—they often seem to demand something, or to offer some significant viewpoint on controversial issues or problems. In the quote here, Dickinson firmly claims hers no matter the means. Significantly, the Dickinson reader could insert any number of universally contentious issues into many of her poems.
Dickinson’s technique of using her advantageous background to promote topics close to her heart is not unlike Winnemucca’s and affords her a place among the radical writers of her time.
ENGL 48 B
Journal # 18, Winnemucca and Dickinson II
13 February, 2007
"Where can we poor Indians go if the government will not help us? If your people will help us, and you have good hearts and can if you will, I will promise to educate my people and make them law-abiding citizens of the United States. [...] We want you to try us for four years [...]" (Sarah Winnemucca 16)
In her book Life among the Paiutes, Sarah Winnemucca asks the white settlers in the West to take a chance on the Native American contingent of the population. Appealing to the idea of the marginally legal West, Winnemucca asks for help outside of the government system, creating a sense of outlaws in cahoots. She introduces the radical notion that Native Americans and whites can work together in absence of government regulation.
Winnemucca was educated and used this rare privilege to attract attention to her cause. Her credentials made white people take a second look at this tiny, well-spoken, Native American woman. What she offered her white counterparts was an extension of their accepted standards of education into her own community, notably not without benefit to the Native Americans as well.
Her appearances among white western audiences lent credibility to the politics of her tribe, and indeed her entire race due to many reasons. First, she was a female in a leadership position and she was educated and spoke English. Second, she comfortably bridged the gap between traditional Paiute life and white society, being at once a brave warrior and wife. Third, she was amenable to meet with people to convey her passion for the Native American cause and she was willing to bargain to get what she wanted.
Using techniques familiar to men in general and white men in particular, in her life as well as in her writing, helped affirm Winnemucca as one of the revolutionary writers of her day.
"Mine—by the Right of the White Election! / Mine—by the Royal Seal! / Mine—by the Sigh in the Scarlet Prison—Bars cannot conceal! /" (Emily Dickinson 187)
Whereas Winnemucca’s education may have been a surprise to some, no one would ever expect someone like Emily Dickinson to be uneducated. Her fate seemed sealed at birth; pretty white female, middle class East Coast family of middling to high ambitions and capabilities. A life of guaranteed success according to societal standards. However Dickinson’s poetry reveals other aspects of her personality that only become apparent on deeper reading.
One of Dickinson’s techniques to gain her reader’s attention was to create a whole new style of writing specific to her own needs. This bold venture into unknown syntactical territory speaks volumes of Dickinson’s character. Like Winnemucca, Dickinson was brave. She needed not think twice to fine-tune her poetry to suit her needs of expression. Her unusual dashes and lines mark what she must have perceived to be necessary breaks, pauses and borders of her poems positioned just so to garner the utmost attention.
Her poems, like the excerpt from poem # 528 above, hold passionate content as seen above. While many of Dickinson’s poems are hard to understand—the lines above being no exception—they often seem to demand something, or to offer some significant viewpoint on controversial issues or problems. In the quote here, Dickinson firmly claims hers no matter the means. Significantly, the Dickinson reader could insert any number of universally contentious issues into many of her poems.
Dickinson’s technique of using her advantageous background to promote topics close to her heart is not unlike Winnemucca’s and affords her a place among the radical writers of her time.
# posted by Katja @ 3:46 PM 
