Screaming silence

Jorge Eduardo Rivera Vázquez March 3, 2010

English Course/Prof. Platón
Essay#1
Screaming Silence
As is commonly understood, otherness has been a familiar human conduct through all times,making social divisions for the superior one to be alienated from the other, the inferior, the weak, the poor, and obviously, the oppressed. This is nowhere more evident than in racism, where thesubjugated people dream of an almost impossible merit of equality, suffering within stillness. In American literature, silence is the voice of oppression, portrayed in its dreamy quest for searchingjustice and freedom. This silent cry can be appreciated in Black Elk Speaks, by John G. Neihardt, Desiree’s baby, by Kate Chopin and Harlem, by Langston Hughes.
First, beginning with the absence ofequality and respect, based on the historical context of Black Elk Speaks, we can have a taste from this essay of the suffering of innocent people, caused by the distinctive inability of human beingsof loving, respecting and sharing with different cultures, a behavior known by everyone (at least those who have a basic historical knowledge), since the beginning of times. Nevertheless, even thoughthe massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 is recorded in hundreds of books, the wish for revenge, divine justice, restoration, empowerment, freedom, acknowledgement, prosperity and reconciliation of thosewho were oppressed with awe, faded in the memory of a few who can remember, and still, tell the story beneath darkness, suppression, and fiery silence, without being heard or considered, as thefollowing quote illustrates, “And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people’s dream died there. It was a beautiful dream.” (Neihardt, John G.,447).
On the other hand, Desiree’s baby is not based on a specific historical fact (yet, it is part of History); however, this less violent story criticizes with more strength the cold-hearted...