Journal #5: The Theme

The theme I found in the readings by Apess and Sigourney was annihilation. The two focus on the suppression of the Native American race and the mistreatment of that race when the Europeans came over to take over their land and claim it as theirs. I absolutely love “An Indian’s Looking-Glass for the White Man.” I find that the title summarizes the entry so clearly and it’s almost comical. An Indian is making a looking glass for a white man, giving the reader the impression that a white man is too clearly ignorant to understand for himself how to understand the Indian race, so one must make a looking glass for him to look through to understand is disposition. I believe I share similar beliefs with my peers that Jesus never discriminated based on color of skin, he looked at the souls of those he was serving. Apess makes it so very clear that why would a race (white) that prides itself in Christianity, not follow exactly as to what the leader of the religion taught them to do? I believe this entry is  a pioneering concept that takes the context of the Bible into his time period and applies it to the greedy, white settlers and it can also be applied to our generation as well. I really enjoyed reading this entry because I agreed with him so much on his rhetorical analysis of the teaching of Jesus and pressed questions onto the white man to consider why they  are discriminating so much. As  for Sigourney, I believe “Indian Names” shares the same theme as did Apess’ entry. Sigourney, though, touches on topics of esthetics of America and how everything that has been named was named by the very mere people that the pioneers kicked out. How awful would it be to have a land that is all your own, name it, tend to it, worship it and live with it as much as you live in it and then to have a stranger come in and literally strip you of it. That is really the theme here in “Indian Names” is that all the beauty in “the new world” was created by the Native Americans. She wishes to, in this poem, address that she sees the beauty, the names, the sounds, the colors and the life of the land that the Indians did see and she appreciates it so much more than the people who robbed them of their land. “To a Shred of Linen” was more difficult for me to understand, but after re-reading it I found the theme that matches with the other two. In the poem she addresses a “rustic lover” and how the damsel works at her wheel. I think the “rustic lover” represents the group of Europeans that claimed all the Indian land and the wife represents the Indians. The Indians worked so hard to keep the land beautiful and all the pioneers could see when they came to claim the land was how rich they could become by taking it all. Another line that caught my attention was the line “They brown complexion bleach’s?” I believe here, Sigourney is trying to convey that the Indians have had their skin “bleached” by the wave of pioneers. The Indians have changed or really disappeared from the land they once knew. I also think the line at the very end “So shall thine end be better than thy birth…” Sigourney is conveying here that she hopes the “end” of America is better than the birth of America, meaning she hopes that when the time must come for this country to end she hopes that it does not end how it started with discrimination, war, hierarchy or death upon the Native American race. The overall theme of annihilation is expressed throughout these three passages by explaining the discrimination and robbery the Native Americans had to endure during this time period.