When I foremost read Howard Frank Mosher s fresh Stranger In The Kingdom I was astonished that something like that took topographic point in Vermont. I have ever been under the misconception that racism isn T highly prevailing in our local civilization today. Once once more my white American s positions were challenged when I read Snow Falling On Cedars, by David Guterson. The two books seem to me to be precisely the same narrative, merely they occur about 40 old ages apart from each other. The book are so synonymous with each other, that most of the characters are comparable.
As the narrative of David Guterson s book unfolds, we find ourselves looking through the eyes of a adult male that has lived on the island for most of his life. His name is Ishmael Chambers. Ishmael seems to be a perceptive kid, and shortly gets to cognize one of the island s many Nipponese misss, named Hatsue. As destiny would hold it, they fall in love with each other in Shakespeare-like-fashion. The job of them coming from two different races of people forces them to be close about their relationship. When Hatsue is forced to travel off because of WWII ordinances, she ends her relationship with Ishmael, directing him into a life filled with green-eyed monster and heartache.
Howard Frank Mosher paints the same portrayal for us, merely in a more normally know puting. A black adult male and his boy are cognizant of their colour when they are forced to populate in a town of entirely white people. As the slaying test unfolds, we find out that the adult male s boy besides has been holding a relationship such as the one Ishmael and Hatsue had. He had been holding dealingss with a white mail-order bride that had merely arrived in town. They kept this secret because of the obvious jobs it would hold caused with the bigoted townsfolk. In both narratives, a love between two different people has evolved. Similar to each narrative the lone ground the two immature people were separated was due entirely on the race and societal standing. ( The similarity to Romeo and Juliet here is astonishing. I am get downing to believe that all modern love narratives are based on that drama ; West Side Story. ) I believe that narratives such as these will go on to go on indefinitely in the hereafter.
Ever since Columbus foremost set pes on the New World, racism and bias has been an issue. I personally have ever been a little more aware than most young persons about racism, due to my male parent s work with Cesar Chavez. The media has been good about publicising events about the battle for equality, particularly the battle that continues to this twenty-four hours in the South. One country of racism in our history that I had ne’er heard of earlier, was the rounding up of oriental people during WWII. My head instantly flashed back to scenes during Steven Spielberg s hit Schindler s List. Jews being rounded up into concentration cantonments became synonymous with 1000000s of oriental faces life in mediocre ( at best ) conditions. Why hadn T any of my old history categories of all time covered this subject? Why, at 17 old ages of age and a junior in high school was I merely going aware of it now? Provocative ideas such as these kept circling through my caput as Hatsue described the conditions in the cantonments. I believe that we have adequate books like Stranger In The Kingdom in our repertory. Books such as Snow Falling On Cedars is a book that should be more widely taught to edify pupils about the issues our state seems to bury.
Ever since the challenging meeting of C.V.U. s Diversity Committee, I truly do believe that we are non informed of a well-balanced sum of information in school. After reading and rereading the subdivision about the mistreatment of oriental people during WWII, I believe that we should concentrate more on issues such as these in our history categories at school. I remember a address that Jesse Jackson one time gave where he stated that in order for us to repair racism, we had to educate all kids at an early phase. Although we as upper classmen at C.V.U. are far from being at an early phase, we could still utilize a small reminder of what our predecessors have done.
These two books we read over summer interruption were a phenomenal resource for acknowledging jobs with our society. Although the two books occurred during different periods of the 20th century, they are far from different. Both show the same human behaviour and attitudes towards people that are different. They re besides different because one is a more good known subject of racism than the other. However, both books present us with ideas and emotions that should be felt by immature grownups.
