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History of Appalachia
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October Sky is an uplifting film directed by Joe Johnston. It is a true biographical story of how Homer H. Hickam, Jr., went from being a coal miner’s son to NASA engineer. The setting takes place in Homer’s home town of Coalwood in West Virginia. Homer (played by the talented Jake Gyllenhaal) starts out as being sort of an unpopular kid in his high school. In his town, kids were destined to either earn themselves a scholarship from sports or do what most families did and work down in the coal mine; Homer was seemingly resistant to both scenarios while his father had only one of the two in mind. It isn’t till one starry night when the town hears news that the Soviet Union’s rocket launch of Sputnik 1 will be visible from his town that Homer …show more content…
Although Homer’s experience in the mines weren’t all that bad. He liked working with his dad. The mines just seemed like the furthest place from the stars whenever he looked up riding the elevator shaft deep into the earth. Quentin eventually comes to him with a case that could prove the boy’s innocence and in time the boys find that the cause of the fire was not one of their rockets but a flare from a nearby airfield. This allowed Homer return to building rockets and enter the national science fair. With the help of his initially reluctant father, homer is able to make it the faire and show the world his rocket that is capable of achieving 30 thousand feet. At the end of the movie the director puts in a couple slides talking about where the boys went later in …show more content…
It was very inspirational and captures some of the main ideas we have learned about the Appalachian migration. At its core, the film presents viewers with a town in Appalachia that is essentially going nowhere. The coal mine wasn’t supplying the town with money like it used to and there isn’t really any other work driving their economy. People are on the verge of poverty and there is seemingly no way out but leaving. Homer could be seen as someone who acknowledged this fact and dreamt of doing something better with his life. He sought work that suited his interests and didn’t limit himself to working where he was born. What he did isn’t easy for most individuals; abandoning your home and heritage is not something humans naturally seek out- this could perhaps be a major reason for why most thought he was strange. Before world war one and during the depression individuals who stayed in these towns faced hard times migrating to cities in search of work. The skills they had developed in their home towns didn’t translate to rural, suburban job fields. Education wasn’t a priority in Appalachia, learning a trade and helping your community was most Appalachian peoples’ goal in life. This film took place in 1957, around 10 years after World War 2. As far as I know, we haven’t delved too deeply into this time period, so I am not completely sure how different Appalachia was then in comparison to the pre/post world war one Appalachia we have been recently
The Essay, I have chosen to read from is ReReading America was An Indian Story by Roger Jack. The topic of this narrative explores the life of an Indian boy who grows up away from his father in the Pacific Northwest. Roger Jack describes the growing up of a young Indian boy to a man, who lives away from his father. Roger demonstrates values of the Indian culture and their morals through exploration of family ties and change in these specific ties. He also demonstrates that growing up away from one’s father doesn’t mean one can’t be successful in life, it only takes a proper role model, such as the author provides for the young boy.
In 1883, the first carload of coal was transported from Tazewell County, Virginia, on the Norfolk and Western Railway. The railroad opened a gateway to the untouched coal beds of West Virginia. Towns were created as the region was transformed from an agricultural to industrial economy.(West Virginia Mine Wars) The lure of good wages and housing made the coal mining appealing to West Virginians, but all good things come at a price. In the novel Storming Heaven, Denise Giardina gives us an inside look at what really happened to the small town of Annedel, West Virginia. Whether the four characters that tell the story are fictional or based in part on actual events that took place, it hits home considering where we live. The story is based on four different perspectives of four citizens struggling to survive under the reign of a powerful coal company. I am sure anyone from this area has had a family or knows of someone who has worked in the mines. If you sit down and talk to these older people who worked in the mines they all have compelling tales of events that have been handed down from generation to generation.
In the world of Appalachia, stereotypes are abundant. There are stories told of mountaineers as lazy, bewildered, backward, and yet happy and complacent people. Mountain women are seen as diligent, strong, hard willed, and overall sturdy and weathered, bearing the burden of their male counterparts. These ideas of mountain life did not come out of thin air; they are the direct product of sensational nineteenth century media including print journalism and illustrative art that has continuously mislead and wrongfully represented the people of Appalachia. These stories, written and told by outsiders, served very little purpose to Appalachian natives other than means of humiliation and degradation. They served mostly to convince readers of the need for so-called civilized people and companies to take over the land and industry of the region, in particular the need for mineral rights, railroads, and logging as the mountain folk were wasting those valuable resources necessary for the common good.
It is not out of line to expect Native Americans to live like their ancestors, and I agree with the way that O'Nell made the government look like the wrongdoers. She talks like "indians" are just part of stories or like they have not kept up with the times. This book points out many of the problems for native americans by bringing out problems in identity, culture, and depression dealing with the Flathead Tribe in Montana. The book is divided into three parts to accomplish this. Part 1 is about the American government's policies that were put on the reservations and how it affected the culture of the Flathead Tribe attached to that reservation. This is the base for is to come in the next two parts, which talk about how lonliness an pity tie into the identity and depression.
The book starts out with a chapter called “Over the Mountains”, which in my opinion for this chapter the author wanted the reader to understand what it was like to live on the other side of the Appalachian Mountains. This is where he brings out one of the main characters in this book, which is Henry Brackenridge. Mr. Brackenridge is a cultivated man in Pittsburgh. He was wealthy and he was there to ratify the Constitution. He was a Realist. He was a college friend of James Madison at College of New Jersey. He was also in George Washington’s post as a chaplain for the Revolutionary War. He believed that Indians needed to be assimilated into the American culture. “… ever to be converted into civilized ways, their legal rights were to be protected” (Hogeland 19). He will become one of the leaders of the Whiskey Rebellion.
Williams, Michael Ann. "Folklife." Ed. Richard A. Straw and H. Tyler Blethen. High Mountains Rising: Appalachia in Time and Place. Chicago: University of Illinois, 2004. 135-146. Print.
Steinbeck and Hodgins both examine the idea of “promised land” where their characters, Steinbeck’s Joad family and Hodgins’s returned soldiers, hope to find both joy and prosperity. The characters, however, later learn that the idea of the “promised land” is simply just that - an idea - because it does not exist. While the “promised land” is different in both novels, it being a beautiful home and paying jobs in The Grapes of Wrath and actual land for settlement in Broken Ground, it represents the same hope for both novels – the hope of new, positive beginnings. Both Steinbeck and Hodgins lead readers to believe that the relocation of their characters is setting the stage for a turn of events in their lives, a turn for the better. This change, though, ...
In the first 20 minutes of 2001: A Space Odyssey you see a group of monkeys going through evolution. The first change you see is that of a leader. In the beginning, each monkey did their own thing, and was not bound to any organization whatsoever. The monkeys did what they want when they wanted. Then the change begins. A single monkey, by himself, rises to the top of a cliff. He stands and screams. The other monkeys notice him screaming and began dancing and rejoicing. They scream and jump around, in what appears to be reverence for their new leader. Stanley Kubrick shows the change very simply, yet its message is still very clear. The monkeys had never shouted as loud or danced as much as they had previously in the film. Their actions confirm that something in fact had changed.
The Appalachian mountaineers have been discovered and forgotten many times. Their primitive agriculture disrupted by foragers and incessant guerrilla warfare, thousands of them straggled out of the mountains in search of food and shelter. Their plight was brought to the attention of President Lincoln, who promised that after the war a way would be found to aid the poor mountain people whom the world had bypassed and forgotten for so long. The war ended, President Lincoln was assassinated, and so therefore Appalachia was forgotten. Appalachian people are considered a separate culture, made up of many unique backgrounds - Native Americans, Irish, English and Scotch, and then a third immigration of Germans and Poles - all blended together across the region. The mountains also figure into the uniqueness of Appalachia. The mountains kept Appalachia isolated from the rest of the country and from other people's involvement in their lives that they developed a distinctive culture. (arministry.org)
“The Hmong came to America without a homeland. Even in the very beginning, we knew that we were looking for a home. Other people, in moments of sadness and despair, can look to a place in the world where they might belong.” (Pg. 273) This is probably the statement that best summarizes the book. It is sad to hear how the Hmong people were not wanted and were being killed. The Hmong people had nowhere to go except further into the mountains to avoid any harm. It is good to see that this family is having some success. However, it must be hard to not have a true place to call home.
William David Sutton, my great-great-great grandfather, or “Willdee” as he had often referred to himself, led an extraordinary life marked by many accomplishments, ups and downs, and went from a man of considerable means to a man of none. Mr. Sutton was born half-Cherokee on January 2nd, 1843, to a family of five, and later developed into an aspiring and capable young man. Mr. Sutton also kept a diary of all his recollections throughout his life, which were transcribed digitally, and I am lucky enough to refer to it for the essay.
...that actually experienced it. The author gives a good background of the relationship white settlement and Indian cultures had, which supported by the life experience. An author depicts all the emotions of struggle and happiness at the times when it is hard to imagine it. And it actually not the author who is persuasive, but the Black Elk himself, because he is the one that actually can convey the exact feeling and images to the reader.
The society of Grand Isle places many expectations on its women to belong to men and be subordinate to their children. Edna Pontellier's society, therefore, abounds with "mother-women," who "idolized their children, worshipped their husbands, and esteemed it to a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals" (689). The characters of Adele Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz represent what society views as the suitable and unsuitable women figures. Mademoiselle Ratignolle is the ideal Grand Isle woman, a home-loving mother and a good wife. Mademoiselle Reisz is the old, unmarried, childless, musician who devoted her life to music instead of a man. Edna switches between the two identities until she awakens to the fact that she needs to be an individual, but encounters resistance from society. This begins the process of her awakening.
"Through love, through hope, and faith's transcendent dower, we feel that we are greater than we know."- William Wordsworth. As stated in this quote, when we have something to hope for, and someone showing us love, we are capable of many things. In the movie Life is Beautiful and the book Night love and hope are the only things that keep the characters alive. This is shown through Elie and his father's relationship when his father reminds him of his fundamental feelings of love, compassion, and devotion to his family. Then Elie and his father look out for each other in hope to make it out the concentration camp alive. Love and hope are also shown in the movie Life is Beautiful when Guido and his son were taken to the concentration camp. Here, Guido's love for his son Josh, kept him alive. Dora, Guido's wife, shows persistent hope which ultimately leads to being reunited with Joshua. In both stories the hope that of rescue and the love that for each other gets the main characters through terrible times.
Dorothy Johnson in “A Man Called Horse” writes about a young man who was born and raised in Boston. He lives in a gracious home under his grandmothers and grandfather’s loving care. For some reason, he is discontent. He leaves home to try to find out the reason for his discontent. Upon leaving he undergoes a change in status and opinion of himself and others. He begins a wealthy young man arrogant and spoiled, becomes a captive of Crow Indians- docile and humble, and emerges a man equal to all.