Author: Victoria Campbell

In  “American Slavery and ‘the Relentless Unforeseen’” Sean Wilentz, the author of this piece write about how the abolishment of slavery was meant to happen one way or another. Wilentz states that the Abolishment of slavery was “Inevitable” because of a  “moral revolution” that  began to take place in western culture in the late 1740s and early 1750s. There was this surging growth in the highly educated about learning  and about discovering laws and principles that would enable human society to be something more than this hungry self desire for power. This new view point making slavery be seen as an offense against the enslaved human rights. For the first time putting those that were involved in any part of the slavery process,  were being made accountable for their actions. With these new opinions forming on the topic of enslavement,  there was no surprise that the push to abolish slavery came soon after as well. The ‘relentless unforeseen’ as talked about by Wilentz, in my opinion is the un predictable need that came when slavery was created. There was always going to be this unforeseen fight for the human right of the wrongfully enslaved, whether it was the enslaved or those who were just in small way doubted the ethics of slavery it self. I personally agree with Wilentz that slavey would have been abolished at some point in history if it had not of already happened. I say this because part of there reason that enslavement was need it was the free labor need for the plantation and the pursuit of money, but with the industrial revolution and the new modern era that they were going into, plantation work was becoming obsolete almost. Every thing was becoming modernize including education and technology so at some point having all these enslaved people on a farm would become a “waste” of money because you would not be making as much money as someone who has began working a job or creating a company in the industrial revolution.

In Hannah-Jones, “1619”,she talks about how her how her African American Father proudly has an American flag in their yard. Hannah-Jones felt as if African American have this need to to do what told of them by the United States no matter if enforced to or not as if they are still somewhat tied to the bonds of slavery. Hannah-Jones doesn’t understand why a person of color would continue to respect and serve a country that has done nothing but repeatedly treat them unjust and unfair.I mean The United Stated of America was built from the foundation and or roots of slavery and what slavery contributed to our history as a nation even if that history is not very positive. Some people might believe that the United States “in its DNA”  is an evil, unjust, racist society. I personally don’t think that the  all people of the United States are evil, unjust, racist in their “DNA”. Though there is still a racism in the world I don’t think racist and evil people  are just born like that but are  instead created through experience and the type of environment that a person is raised in.Their is no denying that there are road blocks that make it harder for a person of color to achieve the so called “American Dream”.  Those road blocks are always going to be there because of the color of their skin and the history that they’re ancestor endured. Hannah-Jones states that until the all opportunity of our founding ideas are open to Black people we can never really say that we a nation of Truth, justice and liberty. The United States when it was first being built was not for the African American people. It was built to serve white man as they try to create this structured way of living of more so this dream.It was not made to benefit anyone else because the thinking if the founding father were of themselves and how it would benefit them in the future of this new nation. And because of these facts I do feel that the United States is unfair. I will always have to prove my self ten times more because of the invisible  restriction placed on people of color. It is because of this that I know I will never truly be able to be accepted by the world no matter what I achieve because of the history of ancestors who were never given a choice to begin with

In Diaz’s Drown, he shows a vast amount of Yunior’s relationships. And how his connection and and view of them shapes the person he becomes later in life. For instance, Yuniors’s relationship with his mother is very different from the one he has with his father and brother. Yunior and his mother are very close him.  Yunior’s mother thought the course of the reading try to protect Yunior from his father aggressive ways, for example in the chapter “Fiesta”, When Yunior knows he is not allowed to eat before getting in to a car because he gets car sick and throws up, and the father proceeds to grab him up and yell at him the mother jumps in almost as if it second nature to try protect or shield Yunior from his fathers wrath and try to take some of the blame. Yunior  also trys to be protective of his mother, specifically of her feeling. When Papi takes Yunior and Rafa to meet his”Puerto Rican mistress” and latter that day when his mom asks what wrong he does not tell her about the mistress because he does not know how his mom will take the new but more importantly because there is no right way to bring up something like that and not tear apart whats left of his family as well as his moms happiness. Even though Yunior and his mother are  close there mother-son relationship changes  depending on the situation or setting. When they are at the Tia’s house in Fiesta and when Wilquins, the mute boy he was hanging with decides to bed and Rafa and the other kids start to go off and do their own thing and somewhat exclude him, he almost immediately turn to his mom to try and take away his loneliness but when he realize that she is hanging with the other adults so he just decided to sit on the side. Yunior growing up with his mom’s carried more of her behaviors and values then his brother, Rafa, who showcased a lot of the father’s behaviors and values

Yunior relationship of his father and brother is more as a model opposed to a suport system like his mom. His Father and brother both display this masculine role and Yunior values them even though throughout the reading  they both don’t treat him well.  Growing up with Rafa as his “older” male role model, was always try to have his brother approval. In “Ysreal”, He tells of wanting to hang with him and his friend and be seen as an equal even Rafa barely speaks to them when they are home. In “Ysreal” Rafa treats Yunior nice and lets him hang around him more even telling him story. Yunior hangs on to every word of Rafa’s story even though he does not understand what Rafa is telling him as if the story as some secret life lesson in it that Yunior will need to know for later on in life. Yuniors father was absent for a large part of his early childhood as well as very aggressive with Yunior even so Yunior care about what his father thinks about him and does not want to disappoint him.His Father and brother constantly thought the book pick on Yunior. They belittle his behavior and try to make him feel less about his self.They only treat him nice when they are trying to show off.To Yunior these were his examples of how a male should act or showcase to the world. And later on as the book goes on you can see that Yunior begins to showcase more of his father and brothers aggressive behavior then of his mom soft and loving behavior.

A discourse community to me is a group of people who all have a common goal or purpose and they all come together to communicate their connection and experiences to help each other reach their common purpose or goal. In Junot Diaz’s “Drown”   he writes about two brothers who are spending their summer in the countries, The brothers don’t seem to have a good relationship with each other when they are home mostly because the older brother doesn’t require the younger brother when they are home because he has his friends to hang out with and listen to him and tell his story but when they are in the countryside where there aren’t as many people around, the older brother treats the younger brother almost as an equal or a friend telling him all the stuff he would a friend. After reading “Drown”  my view on what a discourse community has shifted a bit. I understand that each person in a discourse community can contribute something to the conversation that will hopefully lead to achievement in finding the purpose for the community in the first place. In “Drown” the two brothers Bother throughout the story share a common purpose that constantly changes throughout the story. In the beginning, the goal was to try not to get bored in which the older brother used the younger brother to help meet that goal. The younger brother has the same goal as the older brother so he listens to his story even if he doesn’t understand too much of what the older brother is saying. The older brother was now inviting the younger brother to be apart of his discourse community. Then as the story continues the brother’s original goal begins to shifts when they find out about Ysrael, the boy with the deformed face because a pig had eaten it when the boy was a baby. The brothers both become interested in the story and want to go and see Ysrael without his mask helping them further their agenda not to be bored. In the discourse community, that I’m apart of, I and my friends started to use words to refer to an experience that only we can relate to. In other discourse community, I would not use that reference, because other people would not understand it. 

In conclusion, a discourse community is an understanding that each person in a community can contribute something to the conversation that will hopefully lead to achievement in finding the purpose for the community in the first place.