Entry 9

Larry Heinemann

Vietnam War Veteran

First off, I would like to say that I chose this section because the section title is Second Thoughts on the American Dream.  Earlier this year, I read the book The Great Gatsby which had a major theme that revolved around the “American Dream.”  I chose Heinemann, the war veteran, because I wanted to see how the American dream would change after a war like that.  I wanted to see how people thought of life and how people wanted to live life.  What were the goals that Americans were trying to reach? While discussing his feelings of the post-war life with Terkel, Heinemann said, “When I got back here, I was scared and grateful and ashamed that I had lived, ‘cause I started getting letters: So-and-so got hit, So-and-so burned to death.  My good friend flipped a truck over an embankment and it hit him in the head.  I had been given my life back, I felt a tremendous energy.  At the same time, I felt like shit,” (Terkel 417).  Heinemann shows that he does not know what to do with himself after the war.  He experienced the most traumatizing and fearsome events in Vietnam that he should worry about, but he is now liberated from that feeling and is free.  He demonstrates the confusion that he has for his future.  He does not know if he should feel happy for his life or sad for the dead.  I believe that Heinemann shows that the individual should not live to capture an American dream.  He shows that it only brings confusion and trouble. Based off of his story, I believe that his dream during the war was to return home alive.  Once he reached his dream, he was only saddened by the people that could not reach it.  He also had nothing else to work for after he reached his dream.  He portrays the idea that the individual should just live day to day instead of reaching for a unreachable goal.

Jacob Lawrence

Artist

I chose to read the story by Jacob Lawrence because I wanted to see the creative way that he describes his life.  He shows the beauty of what it was like to live during the twentieth century.  I chose him because I wanted to see what an artist would believe is beautiful about that time period.  He knows that what the individual does without the help of technology or others is true beauty.  While describing that beauty, Lawrence says, “The tool is an extension of the hand.  The hand is a very beautiful instrument.  Think of what we can do with the hand, its dexterity.  It’s been with us hundreds of years.  You look at works of art and the tool hasn’t changed.  It maintains its beauty,” (Terkel 521).  In the present day, we now have machines to create vehicles and furniture.  We have computers and calculators to help the individual do amazing things.  There is no beauty behind letting an inanimate object doing ones work.  The individual should take pride from the work that they complete.  That is the beauty that Lawrence is trying to describe.  What is the point of letting a machine create an object?  It gives no sense of pride to the individual.  Throughout the whole twentieth century there was no technology to help those individuals work.  They had to work tough, long hours, but the reward was much greater than the reward that one receives today.  I believe that life would have such a greater reward if the individual works with his hands instead of relying on a computer.

Entry 8

Dolores Dante

Waitress

            I was interested with this passage because Dolores believed that she could help save so many people by being a waitress.  She chooses to be a waitress because she can pass information she learns from one person to the next person.  While she is describing her decision in becoming a waitress, Dolores Dante says, "Everyone wants to eat, everyone has hunger.  And I serve them.  If they've had a bad day, I nurse them, cajole them.  Maybe with coffee I give them a little philosophy.  They have cocktails, I give them political science," (Terkel 330).  By this, she is saying that she can help individuals with problems.  She can help people enjoy their day because she is serving happiness in her food or her gestures to people.  It is powerful to see one person do all they can to help another person in need. She shows the morale that people need to have during a time of low morale.  People are down because of the Vietnam War, and people like Dante can help them rise above it.  She answers the question, what can people do to gain morale?  How can an individual help make other individuals happy?  She shows what she can do to help people remain happy while working.  People struggle while working, and Dante is an important figure when it comes to being a happy worker.  When the individual is happy while working, more work can be done which will further progress the country.  And by progress, I mean that the country can progress by becoming better people and, the work will help progress technology. Overall, she interests me because it helps me learn how to become a better person and help others become better people.

Phil Stallings

Auto Worker

I was interested in this reading because it helps me learn how to avoid issues and to make goals. Stallings use to get into trouble with other employees at work.  He demonstrates how to move passed trouble.  In order to prove how to do this, Stallings says, "Lots of times I worked from the time I started to the time of the break and I never realized I had even worked.  When you dream, you reduce the chances of friction with the foreman or with the next guy," (Terkel 355).  He thinks of things that make him happy to brush off the friction and tension between workers.  Again, I believe that this issue shows how we can progress as humans.  Instead of instigating an issue with people, individuals can avoid the issue.  By focusing on their dreams, they can avoid the tension plus build a foundation for their future.  They build the foundation because by dreaming the individual sets a goal for the future.  The goal leads to the work that is put into the future.  Overall, Stallings demonstrates a way that the working society can overcome problems.  By getting rid of problems, work will be more smooth and much more can get done.

Entry 7

Dennis Hart: Cab Driver

I was interested about how joining a group or organization gave him the confidence to overcome his fears and doubts.  Hart grew up moving often due to the poverty that he faced.  Because he was always on the move, he spent the majority of his time alone working for money.  While alone, Hart got in fights all the time.  He lost more than he won, but he kept fighting because he believed that he could not back down.  He joined the John Birch Society.  While describing his experience with the group, Hart said, "I got scared.  I'm a three-time loser and I came through this.  I can't fail again,"(Terkel 239).  He almost drowned three times because he was alone.  When he was alone he was scared because anything can happen to him.  In his life, three life threatening events happened to him when he had no support.  The group may give him confidence because when he does face a dangerous situation, he will have the support to continue.  Hart is an example of the way that somebody should live their live.  They should join a group because it gives them a sense of safety.  He constantly had to fight his battles, which could have led to fear and loneliness. 

Tom Kearney

Tom Kearney was a police officer who made very little pay.  I was interesed about his story because he hints at the reasoning of the corruption of the local police.  While explaining his experience on the force, Kearney says, "There was no money for two years.  At that time, the firemen and policemen weren't paid," (Terkel 263-264). The reason why the police and firemen were corrupt was because they were not making any money.  They made money to feed their families by taking bribes.  If the government were not going to pay them, it only makes sense to take the bribe.  The only thing that does not make sense is why Kearney did not take the bribe.  What causes someone who makes no money to turn down a bribe? Is it only his values? or is there some other reason behind it?  Kearney said to a man that bribed him, "No harm trying.  But i just don't go that way," (Terkel 263).  He shows how it is tough being the man with authority.  I believe that the reason he was able to make it through the situation was because his dad had done it as a fireman.  It shows how family can make or break the corruption.  If ones family was able to overcome the poverty before, then it is what breaks the corruption.  When the family is unable to overcome the poverty, the officer will act corruptly because its the only way to feed his family.

Entry 6

Peter Ota

            The most surprising concept that came from this piece was the humiliation and separation that the internment camps brought.  Peter explains how Execution 9066 forced his mother into a sanitarium, his father to Missoula, Montana, and his sister and him to Santa Anita.  The order is breaking up this family which is awful.  I believe that the order was made out of vengeance and that it was not thought out thoroughly.  According to Peter Ota, “Shame in her culture is worse than death.  Right after that day she got very ill and contracted tuberculosis.  She had to be sent to a sanitarium.  She stayed behind when we were evacuated.  She was too ill to be moved.  She was there till she passed away,” (205).  The embarrassment and betrayal of the United States destroyed her will to live.  The government destroyed that family’s beliefs and freedoms.  During that time, society may have said that it was okay to do that.  But, I believe that it contradicts the United States value that every man is created equal.  During World War II, the Nisei were not treated equally to other man which is what is the most distraught thing about this.  The Nisei are people that believed in America over Japan.  They chose to leave Japan to come to America.  Did the government ever think about that?  These people trust the United States for a better future, and the United States destroyed the Nisei’s lives after that.  America is a diverse country, so they should not punish one type of people because their homeland is threatening America.  It is just sad to hear a story of a woman that lost her will to live because of the betrayal of the government towards her family and culture.

Betty Basye Hutchinson

            I found it quite interesting how she was so determined to become a nurse in the war.  I understand that her brother and boyfriend went to the war, but she does not understand what she is getting into.  She does not know what war brings and causes to people.  She just assumed that she had to go to people and help the wounded.  Did she even consider that she was going to get to know these people that were hurt?  According to Hutchinson, “He was very hard to manage because he would scream when they changed his dressing.  He was insistent that he never was gonna leave that room until they brought him back to where he was before.  The staff couldn’t quite figure this out.  Why isn’t he quiet?  Why can’t he be brave when they’re changing his dressing?  What does he think we are, miracle makers? This mystique builds up that bill can’t handle it as well as the others.  Be brave, be brave,” (215).  Here she is saying that Nose needs to be brave about the change.  They want him to grow up and accept the change.  I think that those nurses should stop doing this.  The only thing about war they understand is the injuries.  They do not know the trauma that it believes.  Do the nurses know what the soldiers are thinking about in the process of dying?  Do they feel the pain that the soldiers feel? No, so it does not make sense why they are forcing the soldiers to change what they want.  Those soldiers have already endured too much pain and trauma.  I believe they should have the right to choose his dressing.  The nurses are contributing to the war, but the soldiers are the reason why the war would be won are lost.