Your assignment, should you choose to accept it (and you'd better), is to read the section Literature, History, and the American Experience (only pages xiv and xv). Answer the following questions in a comment below and respond to at least one other student's comment (make sure you use a name I can recognize so that you can get credit for the assignment, and please include the name of the student to whom you are responding).
Questions:
1. Evaluate this selection for any type of bias. Which group of people does the selection favor?
2. Select a different point of view and describe how the information would change if told from that point of view.
3. What is the tone of this selection (especially the second page)? Use different words from those other students have already used :)
Ready? GO! If you don't understand the question, post what you don't understand about it in a comment below and we'll help you!
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ReplyDelete1. I think there is a bias, because the author favors the Native Americans.
ReplyDelete2. If this information was told from the point of view of someone who thought that Native Americans were heartless savages, as many people once did, the information would probably express that the destruction of Native American traditions was a good thing.
3. I think the tone of this section is remorseful, because the author seems unhappy that the Native Americans were treated the way they were.
1. I agree with Stephany on the bias, that the author favors the Native Americans. And I think that the author favors them more then the other groups that are in the writing.
ReplyDelete2. If the information was told from the point of view of the Native Americans I think that the writing would have been similar to a plea, instead of an overview.
3. I think that the tone of the selection is a questioning tone, and the author as asking why did this happen to a innocent group of people?
1. I agree with both Kelsye and Stephany on the bias that is in favor of the American Indians.
ReplyDelete2. If this section was written by someone in favor of the Englishmen it would have had great vehemence toward the American Indians. They would've discussed how the American Indians tried to run the Englishmen off their land, how the American Indians stole the Englishmens' belongings, and many other horrid things the American Indians did to the Englishmen.
3. I think the tone of this section is angst, because the author seems very sad that the American Indians were treated so unfairly, given diseases they didn't ask for, and traditions were taken from them.
Heather,
ReplyDeleteI think that nuber 2 is very good and I like the words that you used like vehemence, horrid and angst it made your point very clear.
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ReplyDelete1. It defiantly is biased with the Native Americans. If you look at history, the native Americans where Fighting the Europeans, and very hostile. So, a lot of the conflict was caused by them. One more thing I noticed. Sure they brought over illnesses, but the natives had them too. Not only that, but it wasn't used purposely.
ReplyDelete2. If this was from non-involved country, it would have a more detached tone. They would probably say they "conquered" america, more then having the modern "stealing" viewpoint.
3. It feels like the author is talking about it like a long lost friend. Almost a biographical feel to it. However the last pharagraph feels like the end of a "fireside" story.
1. I believe that the story is quite biased against the Spanish explorers. Some of it is true of course, but the aggressive statements about them bringing diseases and killing millions of Native Americans are too aggressive. I mean, the Spanish had no idea it was their fault or that they were killing so many Native Americans.
ReplyDelete2. Again, going back to the Spanish, I belive that if the section had been told from their point of view, it would be largely different. In response to Ben's post, I agree that the majority Native Americans were aggressive and killed many Spanish men. This other view point would show them being killed by Native Americans, but simply finding certain tribes villages empty and dead, without a known cause.
3. The author seems to take a a very tragicomical tone especially in the last page. This tone is very well-founded as he proves when he says, "Within a few years of the Europeans' arrival, entire tribes had been decimated by fatal diseases."
I agree with Ben in his 2nd answer about the different countries point of view. It made me think of like a Russian hearing the news, and after I thought about what that Russian might think, I believe that even if the stories were told as if "stealing" the evidence simply shows a straight-up conquering of America.
ReplyDelete1. I agree with Stephany when she said the this section was biased think by only including the Native American culture but I also think that the author could have evened it out and speaking what the English must've felt when they came to a strange land and found a culture completely opposite of theirs.
ReplyDelete2. The point of view that strictly Native American, and while that is not a bad thing, it did make the section seem more biased (as I said above). If it were from the English, or even from a country that was watching this happen as Ben said, it most likely would have shown the Native Americans as the strange and evil people that needed to be conquered becuase they were very different.
3. The tone seemed very dramatic and sounded as though it were climbing to some point. I did not agree with the tone becuase while History will climb as the earth gets older, there will not be a climax until the end of the world. There may be endings, but a new beginning picks up from there as well. So, while the section was regretful, I thought that one shouldn't waste time regretting things in the past like the English coming to America. No one now can change it, but one can choose to be sad about it.
Stephany, I agree with how you said the writer was remorseful, but I think that the writer may feel a bit guilty for something his/her descendants did. I don't think it's very healthy for someone to regret what someone else did: they are their own person, after all.
ReplyDeleteJon, I agree with what you said in reference to the story in this section being told from the point of view of the Spanish. I think it's easy to side with the Indians and forget that they weren't totally innocent either.
ReplyDeleteOkay, Katrina couldn't get her comment to post, but here it is via an e-mail :)
ReplyDelete1. I agree with Stephany, Kelsye, and Heather that there is a bias in favor of the Native Americans; because the overview also mentioned the Mayan and the Aztec people, but did not go into as much detail as for the Native Americans.
2. If the overview was written by Christopher Columbus, then he most likely would of said that the Native Americans were uncivilized, and need Europeans help to live like the English men.
3. The tone of the overview was heavyhearted, because it talked about how some of the people got sick and died, because the Europeans brought over fatal diseases. Another sad thing is that the Europeans introduced the Native Americans to deadly weapons, like guns.
"If the overview was written by Christopher Columbus, then he most likely would of said that the Native Americans were uncivilized, and need Europeans help to live like the English men."
ReplyDeleteI disagree. Maybe cortez, or someone after him. But Columbus thought he was in India. So his view would not talk about the mater like this article.
Ok wow this is the first time I have ever done one of these things so bare with me....
ReplyDelete1. I agree with Stephany, Kelsye, Heather, and Katrina that the bias is in favor of the Native Americans.
2. I really liked Heathers answer on this one. If the information was told by a person favoring Englishmen, the story would be a little more even. They would have talked more about what the Native Americans did to them. There is always two sides of the story.
3. The tone of the overview is a little dramatic and sad because it seems like its focusing on death and the negative things.
Jon I liked what you said nice job!!!!! I totally agree!
ReplyDeleteI think some of you took my comments above totally wrong. I did not say the Englishmen stole America from the Native Americans. I said the Englishmen stole the Native Americans' belongings. Just wanted to clarify.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Katrina. Just because Christopher Columbus thought he found India doesn't mean he didn't think the Indians were uncivilized.
ReplyDeleteI did not mean the Englishmen stole the Native Americans' belongings. I meant to say the Native Americans stole the Englishmen's belongings.
ReplyDelete1.The author of the overview is partial to the Native Americans.This bias is first noticed in the third paragraph. This paragraph is begun with the sentences, "Today we view that beginning as an ending as well. The inroduction of 'Western Civilization' into Columbus' newly discovered continent was also the end of a varied and well developed civilization of numerous native peoples on the land mass we know as the Americas."
ReplyDelete2. If told in the point of view of the Spaniards who first conquered the Americas the point of view would most likely change from an offended, hurt tone (as seen in paragraph.5) to a victorious, hopeful tone. The Spaniards would have been delighted to conquer the Native Americans and obtain riches untouched by any other European nations. The literature steming from this enraptured victory and conquest would have been one sided and favoring the Spanish. The tone would be more of a positive one.
3.The tone on the second page begins in anger. To quote paragraph 4, "The cultures of these native peoples varied as widely as their domiciles. They spoke more than one thousand languages. In Central and South America, the Aztec and Mayan peoples created great empires, building powerful armies and strong cities. The Mayan civilization developed a written language, although the Spanish conquistadores who annhilated their physical empire destroyed their written works as well as their world." The author begins by swelling the reader's emotion to enchantment with the Native American empire then uses strong and somewhat violent language to bring the reader to anger for the loss of that empire, for example the words annihillate and destroy. As the selections continues the tone changes to melancholy and longing for the return of the ancient Native American empire.It seems as though the author is trying to capture the essence of the sorrow felt by the Native Americans at the passing of their empire. This tone is seen in paragraphs 6-8 and especially in the concluding paragraph is the grief observed.
I am in total agreement with Amy's answer to question number three. A reference from the text for her answer would be the last sentence which reads, "Nevertheless, reading these works, especially aloud, and imagining them being performed under the starry skies in front of a Native American clan, gives us a taste of one world that came to an end as another began. Really their is no use crying over spilled milk. The world just keeps turning round.
ReplyDeleteJon brings a unique perspective in his answer to question one. Instead of stating that the bias favors the Native Americans he takes the negative statement and says that the bias is against the Spaniards. This can be seen throughout the whole selection but especially in paragraph 6 where it states that, " The Europeans brought trinkets to trade with the natives, but, stowed away alongside the the shiny baubles that the Europeans hoped to exchange for gold, was another kind of cargo--death."
ReplyDelete