Short Stories

For this blog I will explain why I like "This Sacred Soil" and "Children of the Sea."  These two stories have very different origins and purpose, but overall a similar conflict.  Both characters in each story are forced off their lands.  The means by which this happen are different but non-the-less they are forced to leave. 

In "This Sacred Soil," the author really put into perspective the view of the Natives.  He basically wrote that the Red man and the White man, will never agree on anything.  The Natives will forever worship their gods and the White man will worship his.  His reason for giving into the idea of a Reservation is that he doesn't think that their will be any Native Americans left by the time the Reservation has a big impact.  All he can do is hold onto the virtues they have left and pray that one day both cultures will find that their maker is the same.  The part that made a deep impact on me is this: "At night when when the streets of tour cities and villages are silent and you think them deserted, they will throng with the returning hosts that once filled and still love this beautiful land. The White Man will never be alone."  to me this means that Chief Seattle thinks that for as long as the White Man lives in America, he will never have the compassion of that of the Red Man.

In "Children of the Sea," the story of the life of children in Haiti put into perspective just how lucky I really am.  I believe to many people take everything we have in life for granted.  Life around the world is much harder than just getting by in school and having a good relationship with your family and friends.  In the story the kids had to worry about staying alive.  These stories of genocide really get to me because it's really hard to fathom why a race of people could turn on each other.  It happens all around the world and the reasons for it are wars that have been fought for many of thousands of years and yet each battle is still in full swing.  So this story is especially compelling because it puts into perspective all the things we take for granted.