The Roaring Twenties

 The Roaring Twenties was an era of inventions and prosper for Americans. During this time, the nations wealth had doubled creating people to become rich. Also during this time, entertainment was looked more upon and made a huge increase in growth. Even though there were people growing rich during this time, there was also an increase in poverty. Many people believed this age to be more conflict rather than celebration. This time was a birth for many new ideas, such as mass culture and new music. There is a book based upon this time, named the Great Gatsby. The Great Gatsby is a book that takes place during the Roaring twenties and shows the adventure of many people who are going through this era. The mass culture was created because many people had extra money to spend and they ended up spending the money on clothes and home appliances, etc. The Roaring Twenties was also the time of the Jazz age, where many Americans wanted to dance and create new music that created a new sense of freedom for people all across the nation. Since many Americans were prospering during this era, alcohol and smoking were things that were not prohibited. They were actually influenced more with these things because of the gigantic parties that were hosted. To conclude, this era was the time of many conflicts and celebrations. 

Native Americans and Americans

Native Americans and Americans history goes a long way back. Americans have had control of the Indians for a very long time, and it ended up parting families from each other and especially children from their parents. I feel like this Indian and American situation bases off of the African American and Americans. Both African and Indians did not conquer their freedom for a period of time, and the Americans just took over. According to articles, Indian children were required to go to American schooling so they would learn the American culture. They would teach these children how to walk, talk, dress and even eat. I bet they believed they were trying to make the Indians more civilized than they already were. When I read all of these articles and even saw various pictures, I thought that the Americans may have done this to create every society to be the same. If everything was the same, then they would be able to control people better and create a larger society. Even though these Indians were practically turned into Americans, they did not forget their heritage or their culture. They still remembered everything they learned from their parents and kept those hidden. Throughout this period of the differences between Indians and Americans seemed as if the Americans wanted to take away the Indians culture by replacing it with theirs.

Emily Dickinson and Poetry

Emily Dickinson was one of the greatest poets, and have created poetry that changed the way we perceive it today. She was someone who was very secretive, and did not enjoy sharing the company of others. But when she did meet others, she would be fascinated and created poems about them. Despite the fact that she lived in this isolation, she would create poems that were beautifully written. After her death, they were found in her drawers and in the end they were published for the world to see. It's quite interesting to see that so many people create poems, about events that happen around them. Many people who have had conflicts around them, do create poems because it is a great way to let you express yourself through the use of words. Emily Dickinson's life revolved around her religion, and her isolation. But, due to this it also allowed her creativity flow through. Also, because of these poems it gave us today a new perspective on American literature. It was not just Dickinson who made contributes to the poetry society today, we can also say that Edgar Allan Poe and Walt Whitman had a great hand in making the poetry in our society to what it stands today. Without these poets then the discovery of poems and expressing feelings would be very difficult. We should all appreciate these people for their work toward poetry today. 

Some Thoughts on the Reconstruction Era

Despite the fact that the African Americans were declared freedom during the Reconstruction, they were still faced with many challenges from the South. The Reconstruction Era is a lesson for everyone to learn, but it was necessary in order to get our society back in order. President Abraham Lincoln had died as soon as the Reconstruction era started and then came in Vice President Andrew Johnson. Andrew Johnson made a statement that the southern states must swear loyalty to the Union and pay their debts off and this gave them a chance to rebuild themselves. The Reconstruction Era was one step to making our nation into a world of freedom, especially for African Americans. But, with every step you will always have complications. Before Lincoln died, he declared the Emancipation Proclamation, which according to the web, freed more than 3 million slaves in the Confederate states. 3 million is not a small number. Despite all the negative impact slavery had on African Americans, before the Reconstruction, we can say it all changed due to the Civil War. 

Was the Civil War necessary?

I believe the civil war was somewhat necessary. I feel that the war determined freedom and abolishing slavery. Despite the fact that the war caused many problems in the end, it was a lesson for everyone. It helped create a sense of understanding among people due to the after effects of the war. Wars in general, are never a good thing because it creates a harmful environment, but on the other hand wars are necessary to fight in what one believes in to be true. Wars are not crucial to the society, but are usually acted upon due to disagreement upon several subjects. Slavery was one of the major reasons for the civil war occurred. When it comes to the idea of slavery, then I believe the war was absolutely necessary because the lack of slavery in our society has lead to many new innovations and helped our society grow as a whole. People may think that the war was completely unnecessary because of the huge loss of people, but the war taught people a very important lesson. It is hard to explain such a topic when the civil lead to many benefits and losses. Abraham Lincoln described in the Gettysburg speech that the civil war was a test to see whether our nation would last, and according to the conclusion of the war, the nation was able to pass this test. 

Slavery

Throughout this week, we mainly focused on the idea of slavery. Slavery in America, and everywhere else was horrific. It was abuse to the African American people. It all began when the first African slaves were bought to Jamestown in the year of 1619. Slavery was carried on throughout many years, and the freedom of the African Americans were lost. Slaves were bought for labor, because people believed they were a more plentiful labor source. It is devastating to see people being treated this way. Everyone should be treated the same, no matter what religion or race they believe in. In my opinion, slavery should have never happened. Placing a difference between people is incorrect, and is not fair to everyone in the world. Slavery impacted our society greatly, but as time went on slavery started to decrease due to many leaders who choose to stand up against slavery. There were many people and many acts that were antislavery because these people knew that everyone needed freedom. These people knew that slavery in our society would destroy the unity in which our 50 states hold today.Without this discrimination, our society has evolved to try to become one. Currently, everyone is free and they have their right to choose their own religion, but still in our society today there are some racist acts which still affects people negatively.

Liberty in America

Liberty. Liberty has many different definitions and meanings according to many different people, but it's main purpose is freedom. Liberty is an act of freedom, it gives the societies today the freedom they deserve. It is astonishing to understand that one simple word like liberty could define an entire country like America. America has fought for liberty for years, and as of now we have liberty, we have freedom. During John Adams time, he was fighting for liberty for all men in America especially because of all the wars happening around him and all the free people getting affected. Since, we are talking about John Adams and the freedom of all men, John Adams wife Abigail Adams sent a letter to her husband talking about the freedom of women which was sort of ignored. She wanted to make sure that women get the freedom they deserve because women were the people working behind the men. They are the ones who take care of everything in the household, and work as well. Women deserve the freedom, just like men do so they both deserve liberty. It took some time to get the freedom of both men and women but today we have achieved it and if the question ever comes back to liberty, we will always fight for it. 

Oladah Equiano

Equiano was a slave carried on a slave ship and eventually was purchased by Micheal Henry Pascal. Even though his slavery, he wrote a journal and created it into a narrative. In American Literature class, we were to read chapters 2 and 3. Chapter 3 seemed to have some important events in Equiano's life because he was obviously physically purchased by a person to work for him. Now, if we look into details then I believe that Equiano's slave journal was not as harsh as many others would be looked upon. Despite reading only two chapters into the narrative, it seems to me that he is not physically hurt quite often. Also in this chapter, Equiano gets a new name from his master which is Gustavus Vassa. I believe this name was given to him because Pascal wanted to disguise Equiano's real name, so that he would not remember his past and can focus solely on his future. It's hard to say the exact reason behind this name change, but Gustavus Vassa was a man of a Danish ruler. It also could be that his name change occured because other slaves doing the same job as him had a name change as well, the name change was probably a way for Equiano to forget his identity.