History and Poetry Analysis (out class essay#2) with Reflections

Tsung Cheng Lin
Instructor: Brian Curran Lewis
English 1B
21 May 2010

The History of California

Starting from the Gold Rush time, California is a gold land for most people. Kirse Granat May in his article “Suburban Eden,” states, “With that name, California held the promise of potential treasure and first entered the realm of fantasy” (9). To get a better life, a better job, a higher opportunity to get successful, a better education, etc, there are many people who immigrated to California. Nevertheless, how about before the Gold Rush time or for those nonwhite people? Was California also a gold land for Native Americans? Were Native Americans treated well under Spanish colonialism? In the book California, James J. Rawls writes, “All the nonwhite minorities in American California suffered from various kinds of discrimination, but the mistreatment of Indians began earliest and was by far the worst” (398). In the poems “Itch like Crazy: Resistance” by Wendy Rose and “Indian Cartography” by Deborah Miranda, both talk the history of California in the Spanish colonialism. They use the different tones and themes to state different native historical point of views in the similar ways.

In the poem “Indian Cartography,” it’s like telling a story that father says to his son what had happened in his childhood. First, metaphor is used in the beginning of the poem, “My father opens a map of California -- /traces mountain ranges, rivers, county borders/like family bloodlines.” It began with metaphor that father uses his eyes to see what had happen in their land. Also, Miranda uses simile in the poem when he says, “Places he was happy,/or where tragedy greeted him/like an old unpleasant relative.” This shows that after the Spanish came, their lives became sad just as an unhappy memory. In the lines, “A small blue spot marks/Lake Cachuma, created when they/dammed the Santa Ynez, flooded/a valley, divided/my father’s boyhood: days/he learned to swim the hard way,/and days he walked across the silver scales,” it represents that the Spanish destroyed Indians’ living places. Another metaphor that is used is in lines, “swollen bellies of salmon coming back/to a river that wasn’t there.” Wanted to go home, the salmons swam back to their home that was shut by dam showing how Indians suffered and died under the Spanish control. “The government paid those Indians to move away,/he says; I don’t know where they went,” after their hometown has destroyed and gone by Spanish, they didn’t know where to go and live.

Wendy Rose’s poem “Itch like Crazy: Resistance,” contains many wonderful imageries to indicate the anger of those Indians. In the lines “The voices beyond my office door/speak of surveys and destruction,/selling the natives/to live among strangers,/rewards fr sine service/or kinship with the crown,” the voices represent Indians’ anger. It seems that author uses imagery to say that Spanish destroyed Indian’s culture. They sold the native to service for the king. Rose expresses that the Indians were trying to get rid of the Spanish control when she writes, “Ghosts so old/they weep for release,/have hunted too long,” and “Now I dance the mission revolts again,/let the ambush blossom in my heart,/claim my victory with their own language,/know the strength of spine tied to spine.” We can see it in the word “release” and “revolts”. Those reveal that the Indians wanted to be free and against Spanish. To indicate how the Spanish treated the native Indians, Rose writes, “every red thing in the world/is the reflection of blood,/our death and our rising.” They killed a lot of Indians. James points out, “Many of the punitive expeditions launched against the Indians were financed by the state government, and during the 1850s more than $1 million worth of state bonds were issued to pay the expenses of local volunteer campaigns for ‘the suppression of Indians hostilities” (152). The Spanish government even paid those volunteers to kill Indians.

Different styles of the poem make reader feel interesting. Both of poems use enjambment method to present the idea. Enjambment is not ending with some kinds of punctuation—period, comma, semicolon, dash, etc. It divided one sentences into several lines which spills over into next line. Enjambment is used when a poet wants the rhythm, meaning, and continuous movement to carry over into the next line. It keeps the language moving without stop. The most important point for doing that is Enjambment can surprise the reader keeping them attention to read the poem or making them feel interesting. It can also emphasis of certain words in the ending of each lines; it makes poetry flow better.

In the poem “Itch like Crazy: Resistance,” Wendy Rose uses the name “Resistance” to show that to get better life, the Native American needed to resist the Spanish colonialism. In the book California, James says, “Active resistance to missionization included short-lived revolts, occasional attempts to murder individual missionaries, and raids on mission herds by mission fugitives and unconverted Indians” (46). The author wants to express the anger of Indians. Rose expresses the ongoing action that the Indians still can fright for their lives. In the poem “Indian Cartography,” the word “Cartography” means making map. Miranda starts talking with the father opens a map of California showing to his son what had happened and already done in those places. The tone in “Itch like Crazy: Resistance,” is bitter, hateful, and angry when Rose says, “Now I dance the mission revolts again,/let the ambush blossom in my heart.” Just in the word “revolts,” we can see the angry tone. Comparing with the tone in “Indian Cartography,” is sad, painful, and longing when Miranda says, “Swollen bellies of salmon coming back/to a river that wasn’t there.” We can see the sad tone that when those salmons swam back, they couldn’t find their home. The Indians had lost their living places. Its theme is suffering and painful of what native Californian Indians have suffered. Both authors have similar sad tones, but Wendy Rose’s poem is more angry and bitter. Mirada’s poem is sad and longing while Rose’s poem is more about angry and resistant to Spanish.