Read "Hard Times: Jane and Tom Yoder + Peggy Terry and Mary Owsley" and "The Good War: Peggy Terry + E.B. "Sledgehammer" Sledge"

Hard Times: Jane and Tom Yoder + Peggy Terry and Mary Owsley
This post really goes into depth pertaining to what it means to be an American, presented by Jane and Tom Yoder, but also displays traits that aren't fitting of an American, portrayed by Peggy Terry and her mother.

The Good War: Peggy Terry + E.B. "Sledgehammer" Sledge"
This post is interesting in that it offers two completely different views of the war. The first, from Peggy Terry, is introduced by a hillbilly, someone who lived on the home front and experienced the war much differently than Sledge did, as Sledge fought on the front lines and fought his own type of battles. Neither Peggy nor Sledge could ever understand the battles faced by the other, so this post is interesting in that sense.

Larry Heinemann + David Brower

I wasn't initially going to chose to read Larry Heinemann, figuring that he was just another man telling about his experiences in Vietnam. However, when I read that one of his works won the 1987 National Book Award, I figured that he must offer an alternative view of the Vietnam War, perhaps one that I haven't encountered yet.
Heinemann was sent into vietnam a couple of months after the Tet offensive began. This is very interesting, as I know that after the Tet offensive, Americans began disapproving more and more of the war, receiving a distorted picture of the war that told them that they were losing when in fact they were doing quite well. I can only imagine the fear that Heinemann must have experienced before going off to war, having all of his friends and family watch the news in disbelief while they were informed of the atrocities occurring in Vietnam every day. Initially, Heinemann was very indifferent to the war, calling it "a bunch of bullshit" (416). He talks about the indifference he felt, seeing no real point in fighting in Vietnam. This view parallels how a lot of Americans felt about the situation in Vietnam. Once home, Heinemann could no longer live his life the same way, having experienced so much in such a short period of time. He put himself through, the way he calls it, "self-imposed isolation" (419), ignoring all of those around him and acting on his own beliefs. Clearly, Heinemann's experience in Vietnam changed him for the worse. As far as I could tell, he has turned into a cynical, grumpy man who just doesn't seem to be happy in his life. This is very typical of men who were scarred by the war, and one can see just how detrimental the war was to many who fought in it, not just in battle, but once they got home as well.

The second story I chose to read comes from David Brower. David is almost 80 years old and is an environmentalist, so I figured that his experience would allow him to offer a point of view that other younger writers may not have been able to do. David explores the idea of age in his account of his life as an environmentalist. He says how at his age, "they can't do much to hurt me" (527). It is interesting that David holds this point of view as it surely allows him to carry out his work to the best of his ability and certainly better than his younger counterparts might be able to. Brower recognizes this, saying that young people don't have this same freedom that he does and for that they tend to work more conservatively, and rightfully so. They have a long time of working ahead of them and providing for a family; they can't afford to screw up. Brower, at his age, is able to enjoy what life can be like uninhibited. Fully experiencing the freedom of an American, Brower enjoys life and is truly making an impact on this country that he loves so much.

Working: Dolores Dante + Phil Stallings

These chapters on the working class of America offer a blunt perspective on American life.
The first comes from Dolores Dante, a waitress who has worked in the same restaurant for twenty-three years. Anyone devoted to the same job at the same place for that long certainly has a quality which not many have: patience. Dolores says that the reason she became a waitress was because she "needed money fast and you don't get it in an office" (329). Immediately, Dolores qualifies her decision to become a waitress by dismissing a common misconception about waitresses. She says that many believe that waitresses have broken homes because they're waitresses, while really she was a waitress because she had a broken home. Dolores takes pride in her work, seeing herself as an actress due to her ability to improvise and think on her feet. She sees the life skills that she has adopted while working as a waitress as more important than any that could be learned elsewhere. Constantly Dolores is judging other people and is being judged by them as well. Regardless, she has a simple outlook on life, evident by the fact that her biggest fears in life are the bathroom and the grave (332). She tries to be liked by everyone because she knows the feeling of having someone talk badly about you. All of her life she has only tried to satisfy, and she bottles up all of the hurt inside of her. She hurts inside, but she remains optomistic and looks forward to the next day when she will get to perform once again. Her view of an American is always remaining optomistic, regardless of the circumstances. Sometimes, the hurt in life has to be ignored so that the happiness can come out.
The second story comes from Phil Stallings, an auto worker at the Ford assembly plant on the South Side of Chicago. Phil does the monotonous job of putting the initial welds on a car by pressing a button on a welding gun. He figures that he presses that button about 12,288 times every day. During this time, Phil lets his mind drift, thinking of past experiences and a life that wasn't so complex, the life of his childhood self. Phil admits that this is the only thing that keeps him sane during the day. He starts to wonder, and perhaps wrongfully so, what the Ford company probably thinks of him. The answer is not to his liking, as he realizes that the company could easily find another replacement were something horrible to happen to him. "The only thing they have on their mind is to keep that line running" (356). Stallings witnesses so many injustices, many to himself, all carried out by the company that employs him, yet he refuses to quit. He needs the money and this is the easiest job he can find. However, his refusal to take action doesn't stop him from thinking that something should be done. He thinks, "A job should be a job, not a death sentence" (359).

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Division Street: Tom Kearney + Dennis Hart

Both of these stories demonstrate an interesting view on life in America during the early 1980s. These accounts come from ordinary people with extraordinary observational skills who were able to fully capture the wide range of emotions felt by common Americans at the time.

Tom Kearney, a policeman for 23 years, recalls his life as a serviceman as a rewarding one. Kearney's attitude growing up was that someone had to be a policeman, so why not him? Growing up in Chicago, Kearney had grown accustomed to the various niches that were occupied by the residents of the city. His father was a fireman, working hard everyday for very little pay. He recalls the people of the hunger marches, charged at by the police. He remembers the men in line for their newspapers, the Poles, Slavs, Irishmen, Italians, and Jews who all inhabited the streets on which he lived. One good lesson he learned was at the Church where he was instructed by nuns and was learned alongside African-Americans. He learned that some things in life will inevitably be faced, so you might as well get used to them. This lesson is often forgot later in life, as people go to great lengths to avoid inevitable discomfort. Kearney learned this lesson at a young age and thus grew up embracing life as opposed to hiding from it.

The second story comes from Dennis Hart, a cabdriver who has dedicated his life towards never living a dull moment. One immediately can tell the attitude he carries when he describes the way he would like to die. He says, “If I could die on some battlefield someplace, doing something good, I feel my life would be worthwhile. I want my death to be worth something” (237). Hart’s experiences in life really show that he was determined to live the way he felt an American should live. Being an American, he felt that he should take advantage of every right granted to him. He says, “An individual should stand for more than a handout. This is the way America is. You fight for what you get, and once you get it, you hold on to it: your pride, your bread and butter, and what not. . . . Freedom is the most important thing in your life” (238). Even as an ordinary man, with an ordinary job, Hart took advantage of every opportunity presented to him in order to live a life that he would not regret when it came time for him to pass away. Hart truly embodies what it means to be an American: living your life to the fullest because you can. Hart didn’t take his freedom as an American for granted and we can all learn by his example.

The Good War: Peter Ota + Betty Basye Hutchinson

Both these stories serve to offer alternative views of the war; they don't depict the standard stories of heroes on the battlefront or housewives on the home front left worrying about their loved ones. The first story is offered from Peter Ota, a Nisei Japanese who first-hand experienced the battle against the Japanese that occurred on the home front. Ota recalls having to live at Santa Anita horse racing track. This truly shows the dehumanization of Japanese-Americans that the U.S. government hoped to accomplish. They felt that by treating them like animals, they would hopefully feel equivalent to them. Ota reveals other aspects of living in such a dehumanizing way, but most importantly he reveals the persevering attitude he had throughout the experience; he didn't let the poor treatment of himself and his family get to his head the way other Americans may have wanted it to. His attitude was: "You persevere. Take what's coming, don't react" (206). Ota revealed that an important Japanese value is perseverance, and this is also a value that is important to Americans. Perhaps Ota meant to show that both Japanese and American traditions have a lot in common, and that for this reason the physical separation of such similar cultures was that much more preposterous. Rather than focusing on the differences between the communities, the similarities should have been stressed, and maybe the situation could have been seen in a whole new light.
Basye also offers an alternative view of the war: one that focused on the results of war, the side that wasn't all too often seen by the public. Basye felt the need to serve her country any way she could during the war, and she found her calling as a nurse to those who had been wounded on the battlefield. At first, she was in sheer horror, disgusted by just the sight of men so harshly wounded. Eventually she would grow accustomed to the sight of such men, and it was then that she found a new sense of appreciation for what her peers were doing overseas. She found herself able to tell jokes in order to lighten the mood in the hospital where so much pain and suffering was felt. But the real shock that Betty experienced was not in the hospital, rather it was outside, where the common citizen was disgusted by the sight of the wounded men, just as Betty was when she first started working at the hospital. People wrote letters to the editor asking why wounded soldiers can't be kept on their own grounds and off the street (216). As Basye points out, these people didn't know real war. The propaganda showed to the general public only depicted the heroism and bravery of the men overseas. It didn't depict the real truth. Basye's account effectively shows the dark side of war that most people did not see, or perhaps were just too ignorant to see.

The Good War: Peggy Terry + E.B. "Sledgehammer" Sledge

Peggy Terry, originating from Kentucky, has lived in Chicago for the past twenty years. Peggy offers a much different perspective on the war than I had ever heard of before. Mostly, we had studied and read the accounts of people who were heavily involved and familiar with the war. These people were either soldiers or families of soldiers who were serving over seas, all of whom knew the details of the war. These people had radios, watched newsreels, and knew as much about the war as anyone. Peggy, on the other hand, had no radio, and all she knew about the war was that there was one. She sums up her attitude pretty well when she says, "When you are involved in stayin' alive, you don't think about big things like a war" (190). Peggy's only real concerns pertained to her own security and monetary situation. Because of this, she focused solely on the necessities; the war was never an issue. Not even when she was working, assembling shells that would be used to kill people, was she aware of her country's present situation. When she would be exposed to chemicals that would cause her hair to turn orange, her safety wasn't a concern, rather she was only worried of what others would think of her dyed hair. Later on, when she moved to Paducah, Kentucky, her eyes were opened to a whole new world. She was introduced to racism and the propaganda that everyone had been experiencing for quite some time. She says, "I believe the war was the beginning of my seeing things. You just can't stay uninvolved and not knowing when such a momentous thing is happening. It's just little things that start happening and you put one piece with another. Suddenly, a puzzle begins to take shape" (193). One can tell the drastic effects that the war had on people by Peggy's account. Peggy went from a woman who didn't even know who was in the war to a woman whose husband was now having nightmares of people dying on the battlefield. Peggy notes how the war also changed the overall attitudes of the government and its citizens. Usually, she notes, killing is frowned upon and those who commit it are punished. During times of war, however, those who commit killing are awarded with medals and ribbons.
Eugene B. Sledge was one of those who was awarded for his actions as a marine during the war. However, Sledge notes, he really doesn't feel like the hero he is perceived as. He notes how Hollywood really glorifies men of war but that deep inside, he was just a kid who was fighting so that he could go home and return back to his normal life. He didn't like violence at all, and wasn't interested in seeing how many people he could kill. He says, "I don't like violence, but there are times when you can't help it" (198). Sledge was in a situation where you couldn't take a humanitarian approach. He learned this lesson when he and a buddy attempted to help a wounded Japanese. After attempting to fetch medical help for him, the Japanese soldier reached for a grenade and tried to detonate it in order to kill himself and the two American soldiers who were trying to help him. From this, Sledge really learned how one's own morals and values have to change when placed in a war situation like this. He says how one has to develop a sense of insensitivity on the front line as it is the only way he can cope with the horrors around him. He recalls his friends, who were really just kids at heart, thrown into a situation far above their maturity level, eventually becoming sick, twisted men. "This was just a mild-mannered kid who was now a twentieth-century savage" (201). This account shows a completely different way in which the war affected Americans. Terry's story showed the effects on the people on the home front while Sledge's story well demonstrates the effects on the soldiers overseas. These Americans were tested in a cruel way, forced to make decisions regarding how to react during times of war. Terry was tested socially while Sledge was tested mentally. Sledge sums up the change very well when he says, "We had all become hardened. We were out there, human beings, the most highly developed form of life on earth, fighting each other like wild animals" (202). This fighting didn't only occur on the battlefront; it was occurring on the home front as well. Both stories help to show the ways in which Americans were tested during the war. Some passed the test, while others failed miserably.

The Good War: Introduction + Bob Rasmus

This introduction to the war (WWII) does not go as much into the facts of the war so much as it delves into the effects that the war had on our nation. The effects varied: some were on the citizens at home who had family members across seas; others were on the soldiers themselves who experienced much pain and destruction that they had never known; still others were on our government, whose members did not know quite how to react. Even more specific than that is the effect the war had on our president. Just coming off of post-WWI and his New Deal project, Roosevelt now had more on his mind than simply American jobs. In the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt himself, "Dr. New Deal was replaced by Dr. Win The War" (168). However, when I recall all of the other matter with which the President had to deal with, this statement seems largely untrue. If, in his own words, his new goal was winning the war, why was the anti-Japanese propaganda necessary? Why was the removal of thousands of Japanese-Americans from their communities necessary? I think that an Iowa farmer describes the effects of the war in a way that is easiest to understand: "The war--it does something to your country. It does something to the individual" (168). The war wasn't only about the battles overseas; it was about the battles on the home front as well.
Bob Rasmus was one of those who fought a battle both overseas and at home. He was only fourteen years old when Germany invaded Poland, and right away he knew he would be in the war. He says, "You saw those things in the movies, you saw the newsreels. But you were of an age when your country wasn't even in the war. It seemed unreal. All of a sudden, there you were right in the thick of it and people were dying and you were scared out of your wits that you'd have your head blown off" (177). And not only was he in the war, but he was a rifleman, putting him at prime risk to be killed on the battlefield. From Bob's account, one can learn that fighting in the war wasn't only a test of strategy and skill on the battlefield, but it was a mental battle that was fought by each and every soldier. Bob expresses this idea well when he says, "The reason you storm the beaches is not patriotism or bravery. It's that sense of not wanting to fail your buddies" (179). Bob experienced the true battle of an American, desperately wanting to help the people he cared about both on the home front and on the battlefront.

Hard Times: Jane and Tom Yoder + Peggy Terry and Mary Owsley

Reading the accounts of this mother and son made me realize how many of my posessions I take for granted. I am fortunate to be in a situation where I know that I will always be warm if I want to and will always have enough food to eat. Jane Yoder, having lived through the Great Depression, will most likely never again take anything for granted. At the time of the Depression, her family was barely able to afford anything, let alone stay warm. She was grateful just for a coat that would keep her warm through the harsh winter, boots that would keep her feet dry. Jane even recalls having such a strong desire for food that she would look forward to the day she was sick so that her mother would feed her oranges and bananas to allow her to recover. Jane has memories of overhearing her fellow classmates talk poorly of her family, calling them lazy, and Jane simply thought, "You don't know what it's like" (129). I feel that she was directly speaking to her readers that, like her classmates, don't know what it's like, and perhaps never will. So is the case with her son, Tom, who grows up in a world that is very different from the one his mother grew up in. He says how he's never gone to bed hungry, something that his mother must have experienced quite too often during the Great Depression. However, after listening to his mother's story, Tom begins to understand where his mother came from and starts to become grateful for what he has. He displays a great aspect of what it means to be an American: learning from the past, understanding what it means in the present, and planning accordingly for the future.
Peggy Terry along with her mother, Mary Owsley, lived and experienced poverty in a more extreme way than perhaps Jane Yoder did. Mary and her husband lived in Oklahoma for a decent part of their lives together, from 1929 to 1936. The Depression hit them, and it hit them hard. Mary recalls a family she knew in Oklahoma City that had to resort to living in a hole in a ground. I can barely believe living in a world where the people I knew would have to resort to living so desperately. And perhaps more sad than this is the suicides that came about as a result of a life so full of hardship. Mary describes the reasoning behind these suicides, saying, "...they couldn't see any hope for a better tomorrow" (139). This starkly contrasts with the ideas brought up earlier by the Yoders, a family that has relied, and continues to rely on hope for a better tomorrow. Another important topic brought up by the account of both Mary and Peggy is the idea of shame. Mary explains how people that were more well off than others felt ashamed because they were able to eat while their peers weren't. Peggy describes a different sort of shame, shame that came about from not being well off enough to procure one's own food. Peggy was able to use the ignorance of a child to combat shame, seeing the trip to the soup line as a game to play with friends as opposed to a declaration of poverty. However, as she grew older, she began to recognize the shamefulness that came about with her status as being poor. One situation where she must have felt this the most was when she received food from an African-American family, as she looked down on African-Americans and saw them as inferior. Peggy displayed qualities that really don't fit what it means to be an American. She looked down on others in order to make herself feel better about her situation, and that is not the way to succeed in life. Being an American is accepting yourself for who you are and not looking down on others and inferior, nor should you be looking up to others as superior. As it is written in the Declaration of Independence and is upheld as the framework of our country, "All men are created equal." They should be treated as such.

Hard Times: Arthur Robertson + Oscar Heline

It was impressive to read Robertson's many instances of success in his life, but what caught my attention was the nonchalance with which he mentioned his successes. For example, he says, "I recently sold it for $2 million. I bought it in 1933 for $33,000" (100). Robertson knows that his interviewer is aware of his wealth, so he makes sure not to center the conversation around that fact. Instead, Robertson talks of the lifestyle and the idiotic choices that were made by many that lead to the stock market's crash in 1929. He introduces such economic terms as "selling short" and "scavenging." Robertson reflects on all of the poor decisions people were making and how they're attitudes contributed to they're own downfall. He says, "Everybody in those days expected the sun to shine forever" (101). People were making purchases with money they didn't have and eventually this caught up with them. All of these people were trying to live the "American dream," however cheating and stealing was not the way to go about attaining it. One would think that we would have learned our lesson with this crash, however the same thing happened just a few years ago when we experienced yet another recession. The same poor decisions were made resulting in the same outcome.
Oscar Heline, on the other hand, introduced a much different tale. It says something about the community and the people who live there when in trying to find a single man, one has to go searching all around the town just to find someone who's heard of him. So was the case with Oscar Heline, a farmer living in a small rural community who reflects of his life in the pre-WWII and post-war life as a farmer. Heline seems like a good representative for his fellow farmers as he was very involved with the legislation of the time regarding farmers. Heline describes just how deep the depression hit the farmers. He recounts experiences of burning grain as it was cheaper than coal. This was the same grain on which they relied to make a living. It was as if they were burning their own money! It was because of this depressing introduction that when Heline begins to describe the alleviation of his suffering, the reader feels the same joy that he felt. Heline even brings himself to tears. He says, "New money was put int he farmers' hands. The Federal Government changed the whole marketing program from burning 10-cent corn to 45-cent corn. People could now see daylight and hope. It was a whole transformation of attitude. You can just imagine...(He weeps)" (123). Heline could really appreciate this transformation, even if it was just a little one. He was able to take advantage of his circumstances, and this display of optimism is an important quality of what it means to be an American. Being an American is having the ability to remain optimistic in the worst of times and to take advantage of every opportunity that presents itself to you. In this aspect, Heline can be seen as a role model for all Americans.

The Lasting Legacy of the New Deal

America was in a rough stage. We had just suffered the worst economic depression in the country's history. We needed help. We hoped that President Franklin D. Roosevelt would provide that help. With nearly 15% of all americans relying on the government for relief, something had to be done, and fast. Roosevelt, in his daily fireside chats, had spoken of this "New Deal" that would ensure our prosperity in the present and in the future. Little did people know how significant this New Deal would become in shaping our country into what it is today. And so it began. . . .Within the first 100 days of the new administration, Congress had passed the Agricultural Administration Act, established the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), voted in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), approved the National Industrial Recovery Act, and enacted the Emergency Unemployment Relief Act. All of these programs were monumental in getting our country back on the right track. Later, Congress would enact the Works Progress Administration, the Social Security Act, and even the Federal Writers Project, whose goal was simply to add to the body of American literature and to capture the folklore and culture of groups that had not left many written records. Bridges were built, monuments were erected, national parks were created, all of which helped beautify our country, while at the same time giving jobs and relief to the hard-working Americans who needed  and deserved it. As you can see, the New Deal was not simply about getting people money; it was about reshaping our entire culture and making this country not just a place to live in, but a place to live for.

American Dreams Lost and Found: C.P. Ellis + Vine Deloria

The account of C.P. Ellis, a former clansman, was fascinating to read. It was most interesting to follow his changing views regarding himself and blacks as he progressed throughout the different stages of his life. C.P. started out his life in in the lower class, and remained that way for most of his life. However, although the amount of money in his pocket never really changed, the ideas in his head were changing throughout his life. After being poor for most of his life, C.P. was sick of it. He began to get bitter, as he says, and didn't know who to blame. So, he jumped on the bandwagon and began blaming blacks. It's important to note that he did not hate blacks; rather, he just blamed them for why he was in the economic situation he was in. With his "hatred" of black people came his activity in the Klan. It was fascinating to read his views of the other Klansmen and his assumptions for why they joined the Klan. He says, "Maybe they've had bitter experiences in this life and they had to hate somebody. So the natural person to hate would be the black person. He's beginnin' to come up, he's beginnin' to learn to read and start votin' and run for political office. Here are white people who are supposed to be superior to them, and we're shut out" (66). Most members of the Klan did not really hate black people; they were simply self-conscious and egotistical and felt that there out to be levels of class in their society with black people being on the bottom. It is even more interesting to note that most Klansmen, as Ellis said, were very poor. This is interesting as they were all very hypocrital because they were on the lowest level of class in society, and to make them feel better about themselves, they had to make themselves feel superior to someone, in this case to black people. Reading the rest of Ellis's story is very inspirational. Ellis, fighting the pressures of the rest of society to simply conform to the accepted standards of the time, was able to cause major changes in his life as well as in others' lives; for whites as well as for blacks. Initially, as a Klansman, he was ignored by the public. He was only seen as a rascist, bigotted man, and thus his ideas were largely put to waste. However, when others heard of his ability to speak the truth, to say what was on everyone's mind but what they refused to say out loud, he finally began making a difference. He was elected as co-chairperson of a group put in charge of making a difference. Ironically, he was co-chairperson with a black lady whom he very much so despised. However, after working with her and seeing that she was a human being just like himself, his view of blacks and of Jews and of Catholics was completely altered. He was able to put these differences aside by instead focusing only on what they had in common as opposed to how they differed. This is very connected to the American values that we have studied throughout the year. It shows how if one is able to fight through pressure and remain adament in one's beliefs, a real change can be made.
The account of Vine Deloria is told from a completely different perspective, but reveals similar ideas. Vine is a Sioux Indian and he reveals his views of his past and its influence over his present and future. He says, "You have to take a new look at what you thought America was before you can figure out where it's going" (35). He means that we must constantly be drawing on our own experiences so that we may make better decisions regarding our futures. Vine draws on his own experiences, growing up on a reservation in South Dakota, being taught in school that "We're all Americans and none of us is ever disloyal. The United States has never been on the wrong side of anything" (35), to formulate views of where he thinks our country is going. He sees his own heritatge slipping away from the people of his generation and replaced with American ideals that he feels are poisonous. This offers an alternate view of the "American Dream," an idea that is so engrained in our lives as Americans. Deloria sees the American Dream as only in the past, something to reflect on as opposed to something that can be achieved. Because of this, he can only see a future of "grayness" (38). He says that we all must grow up eventually; even our own country must do so.