As the boat slowly approached the beach we came to a stop. The boat could go no farther, the water was to shallow, we would be walking the rest of the way to Turtle Island. We where excited to see the turtles and other animals at this small island. We got there and started looking at the baby turtles to the full grown turtles. We were amazed by their size and their strength. As we were taken to the different turtles we here following behind a group of Koreans. We thought nothing of this, we were in a foreign land after all, we expected to see other people. But, to them we here the big news. More impressive then the eighty-year-old turtle were my wife and me. They wanted pictures with us and to talk to us. They wanted to know everything about us. They completely forgot that there were sea turtles all around.
Now I know that this is nothing compared to what James Baldwin has gone though his whole life, but as I was treated as an animal in a zoo to see I knew what it felt like, on a small scale, to be looked at different. It is weird to be the odd ones out, the people that don't quite fit in. With this experience I could relate a little to how James Baldwin felt when he was new to the village.
As he talked about the children running around yelling Neger it made me think of when I walking down a dirt road in Indonesia and the children coming home from school yelled, "Hello, what's your name?" This being the little English they knew.
Yes, to some small degree I know what Baldwin felt like going to little village in Switzerland, but as the essay goes on he talks about the struggle for all African-Americans to find their identity in a foreign land. This I don't understand. I can't imagine trying to make a new life for myself and my family in Indonesia, were I am not in the majority. I can't imagine having everything taken from me and sold. This is horrible and something that I can't fathom even in my worst nightmares.
I love how Baldwin talks about the struggle for these strangers in the village called America to find a new identity. To become more then just visitors, but to become part of the village. It is a struggle that effects both the African-Americans and the European-Americans. He does a great job of showing the evolution of this relationship. Of the changes that have taken place to bring the relationship where it is. I think that he does a great job of showing how even though their ancestors have been her longer then mine, African-Americans still feel the the strangers in the village.
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2 comments:
I think that your experience was a valid reference. There are only so many ways that we can try and understand the stuggles of others. But that's the important part, is to try.
Haylee
Jordan, I liked reading about your trip, it flows so well. I think you really understood what James was writing about even if you can't relate as well. You did have an experience that gave you a taste of the stranger in the village. You have a sense of openness in what you write. It's refreshing.
DaLyn
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