To finish off the quarter I decided to read one more article about Norwegian-Americans. The article I read was called “Snowshoe” Thompson: Fact and Legend by Kenneth Bjork. This comes from the 19th Volume of Norwegian-American Studies and Records.
I thought that this article was definitely one of the best that I have read for this quarter. The article is about the life of a man named “Snowshoe” Thompson. Thompson lived in the mid-1800’s and he lived in the area that is now Utah and Nevada. He had emigrated from Norway when he was 10 and moved around until he ended up in Nevada in the 1840’s. This area of the country was completely shut off from contact during the winter months due to the snow. Fortunately, Thompson had grown up in Telemark, Norway and knew how to make skis. He made himself a pair of skis and began transporting mail across the mountains to the cities shut off from the world by the snow. He became a legend for is strength and I see him as a true Norwegian. He was honest and lived a clean life. He also was good to his word. One especially Norwegian characteristic that he possessed was in great storms; he would go up on a rock and dance his native dance! This action was compared by some writers to the snow trolls of Norway and it is very fitting. Thompson was so strong and dependable that he became a legend and I am truly proud to share a Norwegian heritage with him. I think that he is a great man and he is almost my ultimate hero because he could conquer almost anything and had no ego about himself. Those are some values that are so important to me. I just loved this article!
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Sixth Post
This week I decided to put the Norwegian literature behind and read more about the history of our nation. I started reading the book 1776 by David McCullough. The book is about America and it’s fight for freedom from England.
The beginning of the book was a window into England before the Revolutionary Started. McCullough wrote about the way the war was perceived in England and how the people treated the king. I found it very interesting that the king was treated as almost a god and crowds of around 60,000 people would gather to see him drive by in his enormous chariot. The book also gave a brief biography on the king himself. I found it different because he seemed like a very astute man. He was all tied up in himself and into fashions like other kings of the time. I had always known him to a crazy king who was unstable in his actions and made poor decisions. This is the way that I had read about him since I was young and this impression was cast by the School House Rock video about the Revolutionary War. The book mentioned that later in life he began to resemble a man much more like this due to a hereditary disease. I thought that this idea of the English perception of the war was very interesting because we never learned about it in school. We always learned what the Americans thought about what was going on and it was refreshing to hear what other people thought, especially what British people thought. I really like this book and look forward to reading more as the week goes by.
The beginning of the book was a window into England before the Revolutionary Started. McCullough wrote about the way the war was perceived in England and how the people treated the king. I found it very interesting that the king was treated as almost a god and crowds of around 60,000 people would gather to see him drive by in his enormous chariot. The book also gave a brief biography on the king himself. I found it different because he seemed like a very astute man. He was all tied up in himself and into fashions like other kings of the time. I had always known him to a crazy king who was unstable in his actions and made poor decisions. This is the way that I had read about him since I was young and this impression was cast by the School House Rock video about the Revolutionary War. The book mentioned that later in life he began to resemble a man much more like this due to a hereditary disease. I thought that this idea of the English perception of the war was very interesting because we never learned about it in school. We always learned what the Americans thought about what was going on and it was refreshing to hear what other people thought, especially what British people thought. I really like this book and look forward to reading more as the week goes by.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Fifth Post
This week I read another article in my Norwegian-American Studies and Records book. This article was called Boyesen and the Norwegian Immigration, and it was written by Clarence A. Glasrud.
Boyesen is a young Norwegian who comes to America after attending college. He decides to become a writer and he writes stories of American propaganda for immigration. These stories aren’t written by a government contract but the tales often make America seem appealing to the reader. Boyesen actually hated things similar to the American propaganda that he wrote but his writings were different because he didn’t completely glorify America without attention to facts or being correct. I really liked this man compared to Rasmus B. Anderson who I read about a few weeks ago. He had a real heart and American ideals broke it. He was accepted but only to a certain extent by fellow authors and they paraded him around for curiosity and as a novelty. During this time Boyesen broke from his Norwegian roots and began writing stories about other immigrants. One story that he wrote called “The Man Without a Name” seemed to resonate with his cause. The story told of a Norwegian who came to America and was struggling but taken in by a rich farmer. He became a music teacher and fell in love with his student a beautiful girl. He confessed his love for her and then went to sleep at her doorstep dreaming the she would love him. While sleeping on her doorstep he froze to death. This really summarizes what I think of Boyesen. He tried so hard to be an American and when he did few recognized his efforts and when he criticized America people jumped on him and told him that if he didn’t like here to go home. I am sure this was the kind of stuff that broke his heart. It hurt me to keep reading because he really just wanted to be accepted but he wasn’t and he wrote about that. In the end Boyesen ended up changing his feelings for Norway. He wrote favorably of it’s immigrants and how the were a very hardworking and frugal people. In the end I believe that he had sorted out all his thoughts and achieved peace within himself about what he truly believed in. I really enjoyed this article.
Boyesen is a young Norwegian who comes to America after attending college. He decides to become a writer and he writes stories of American propaganda for immigration. These stories aren’t written by a government contract but the tales often make America seem appealing to the reader. Boyesen actually hated things similar to the American propaganda that he wrote but his writings were different because he didn’t completely glorify America without attention to facts or being correct. I really liked this man compared to Rasmus B. Anderson who I read about a few weeks ago. He had a real heart and American ideals broke it. He was accepted but only to a certain extent by fellow authors and they paraded him around for curiosity and as a novelty. During this time Boyesen broke from his Norwegian roots and began writing stories about other immigrants. One story that he wrote called “The Man Without a Name” seemed to resonate with his cause. The story told of a Norwegian who came to America and was struggling but taken in by a rich farmer. He became a music teacher and fell in love with his student a beautiful girl. He confessed his love for her and then went to sleep at her doorstep dreaming the she would love him. While sleeping on her doorstep he froze to death. This really summarizes what I think of Boyesen. He tried so hard to be an American and when he did few recognized his efforts and when he criticized America people jumped on him and told him that if he didn’t like here to go home. I am sure this was the kind of stuff that broke his heart. It hurt me to keep reading because he really just wanted to be accepted but he wasn’t and he wrote about that. In the end Boyesen ended up changing his feelings for Norway. He wrote favorably of it’s immigrants and how the were a very hardworking and frugal people. In the end I believe that he had sorted out all his thoughts and achieved peace within himself about what he truly believed in. I really enjoyed this article.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Fourth Post
This week I was very busy so I only had time to read the first article in the other volume of Norwegian-American Studies and Records. The volume is number 19 and the article I read was called, Immigrant Image of America by Theodore C. Belgen.
I found the article to be very interesting and illuminating. It was similar to the article I read about the Norwegian immigration earlier but it had a much different tone. I equally liked both tones. The tone of the article was very informative and had very little bias. It gave the facts about how Europe saw America and the reasons for going. The other Article was too proud to be taken a seriously as this one. This article was more general than the previous and I liked that. It told of “America letters” which the author loosely tied to Norway seemingly on purpose to tell the general feeling about America. The early Norwegian settlers were greatly inspired by a manifesto that was written by early settlers of Virginia. The immigrants seemed ready and apt to face the challenges of the New World and some didn’t make it. The article also touched upon a very interesting topic. The topic was that as you move further into society you lose more of your heritage. This inverse relationship seems like common knowledge but the article described it in a great way. The article mentioned that when the immigrant came loaded down with his cargo he would have to abandon much of it because his traditional clothes weren’t right for the climate and his tools weren’t right for American farming. The description really made me think about how much of the culture is lost and only preserved though tradition and not functionality. As a side note, I found it very odd that throughout the article the author referred to America as, “the New World”, “the New Canaan”, “Canaan” and certain cities as “Utopias”. This new volume seems to be panning out as much more exciting than the other.
I found the article to be very interesting and illuminating. It was similar to the article I read about the Norwegian immigration earlier but it had a much different tone. I equally liked both tones. The tone of the article was very informative and had very little bias. It gave the facts about how Europe saw America and the reasons for going. The other Article was too proud to be taken a seriously as this one. This article was more general than the previous and I liked that. It told of “America letters” which the author loosely tied to Norway seemingly on purpose to tell the general feeling about America. The early Norwegian settlers were greatly inspired by a manifesto that was written by early settlers of Virginia. The immigrants seemed ready and apt to face the challenges of the New World and some didn’t make it. The article also touched upon a very interesting topic. The topic was that as you move further into society you lose more of your heritage. This inverse relationship seems like common knowledge but the article described it in a great way. The article mentioned that when the immigrant came loaded down with his cargo he would have to abandon much of it because his traditional clothes weren’t right for the climate and his tools weren’t right for American farming. The description really made me think about how much of the culture is lost and only preserved though tradition and not functionality. As a side note, I found it very odd that throughout the article the author referred to America as, “the New World”, “the New Canaan”, “Canaan” and certain cities as “Utopias”. This new volume seems to be panning out as much more exciting than the other.
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