Margaret Lee Cui
Honors Essay #2
We were asked, yet again how do the books we’ve been reading relate to that of our U.S. History and English classes. The three books we’ve read are Shane, The Call of the Wild, and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.
The first being Shane, is related to homesteading, at least that’s all we’ve honestly learned in History that I know of that in any way relates to that book. The Homestead Act is and I quote from our History books “Law that granted free public land to farmers who agree to cultivate the land for a given period of time.” But to be entirely honest I don’t remember much of that book, and the things I do remember seem to be more towards ranching than farming. Though I’m still pretty sure it does have a lot to with the Homestead Act.
The second book Call of the Wild, though it is mainly from the dog’s perspective and barely mentions it, the book mentions at the beginning of The Gold Rush and How it seemed to be becoming a huge craze, that was actually how Buck got “deported”. However based on the harsh winter climates throughout the book it seemed like they were already later in the scene than Sutter’s Fort, located near southern California I think. Buck was mainly taken up North such as Canada and Alaska, I think, I might not be altogether too accurate. I think that symbolizes that the gold deposits in California and the surrounding were already near depleted and so the men were already heading up north. Besides the Gold Rush I think The Call of the Wild also mention the disagreements by telling how John Thornton was killed by the “Yeehats” ( I think that’s how you spell it) that pretty much symbolized the aggression between the white man and the Native American, how they were still and probably always will be hostile, and how they were still having skirmishes and fights along the borders of the lands. And…. I think that was it for The Call of the Wild.
The last book was The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. That was extremely obvious when it came to the relations between the book and the class. The Civil War. The very beginning of the book begins with the end of the Civil War working along with the life Jane Pittman, demonstrating how the life of the “Negroes” had progressed when it came to life and their own freedom and what they did as free people, as well as the thing that “just can’t be”. Such as when Tee Bob fell in love with a woman who was part African American, how their marriage “could never be” and how segregation started in the minds of people before it did in law and custom. How the people, through years of slavery had already built the “solid” notion that the black people were somehow inferior to that of the white man, so they didn’t recover from that idea until years later. Not only did the book mention segregation it also told of many examples of how the white men often thought them better than that of a colored one, but mainly focused on how they were doing their absolute best to keep the “Negroes” “in their place” by mercilessly slaughtering as many as they could get away with. One huge similarity to what we learned in class and what was in the book was how though the people were indeed freed the elder of the colored people chose to stay and work on the plantations where they stayed for so long, considering they did not know how to do anything else, but the younger generation being more reckless, left home to go North and not a lot of them made it. Though I did not read of anything to do with the Underground Railroad and I really would’ve expected it by then. Didn’t the Underground Railroad already start when slavery existed? So it really should be in that book, considering how it was in it’s own way preaching about antislavery. I’m not sure on whether or not I had just simply missed anything that mentioned the Underground Railroad or if it really wasn’t mentioned. But the lack of reading about it took me by surprise. I believe that rather covers The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.
I don’t exactly recall anything else that the books could have possibly related to when it came to U.S. History class. But I believe that is all. Thank you!