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.