Colors of Nature - 2nd cluster of stories

I'll start out with a useless comment: I really enjoyed 'Belonging to the Land'. For me, personally, I felt that there were separate entry points throughout the three sections of the story, which kept me interested while changing my focus to different aspects of the narrative.

The opening to the section entitled 'In the Sixth Grade' gave a very good indirect indication of the kind of relationships that were going to be discussed in the rest of the short story: "We had what, I later learned, was a symbiotic relationship. We'd cheat on tests together - he'd open a book so I could read the needed information, and then he copied my response. I provided the answers, he took the risks" (309). The mutually beneficial interaction between the two students reflects the relationship between the farmers and the farmworkers, though the risk factor for the farmworker is much greater. This unequal amount of risk brings Masumoto to the question, "Wasn't nature supposed to be fair and democratic?" (310) The concept of a 'symbiotic' yet unequal relationship is the theme throughout Masumoto's story and is especially relevant when applying the question about nature being "fair and democratic" to America and its treatment of Japanese Americans. In other words, nature is a metaphor for America.

In the section 'White Ashes' Masumoto writes, "Dad explained the advantages of land ownership. "It's American!" he claimed. "You keep all the profits." But I knew him better. He also meant you had a place of your own, a place the family could plant roots" (311). Despite his father's ambitions, the "fair and democratic" way of American life ceased to apply to Japanese Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Though the Masumoto family took great care of the crops they tended, there are still a few times throughout the story where nature destroys the crops. Similarly, though the family also makes an honest living and takes a low percentage of wages from the farmers, America doesn't hesitate to put the Japanese Americans into internment camps.

In a direct response to the epigraph, Nikky Finney asserts through content, sound, and metaphor that "We were more than blue fingers & endless backs" (163). The first line rejects the idea of African American slaves as being less than human by stating that they are more than simple body parts or, as the image "endless backs" implies, animals (163). The directness and brevity of the first line also gives it more impact as a rebuttal to the epigraph, and thus functioned for me, personally, as the first entry point.

On the first page, there are two instances of alliteration that I want to point out: "Our math, mind, and muscle" and "every heart hammered purpose" (163). The alliteration not only calls attention to these objects, but it also creates a sense of relation between the two or three things. In the first quote, the similarity that Finney builds between "math, mind, and muscle" implies that they each play an important role in their strength. Additionally, the line "heart hammered" illustrates the body as a tool; their emotions fuel their bodies, their bodies fuel their actions, and by the end of the poem, though they are being used for their bodies, they are also using their bodies to leave their signature within the landscape. I believe this is all summed up with the line, "Our hands were living blackboards" (164).

The first thing I noticed about 'Working in a Region of Lost Names' was Arroyo's enamor with nature. The narrator speaks often about what he remembers and what he doesn't, and it seemed to be a pattern that he would remember aspects of his environment over aspects of what was actually occurring at the time (i.e. "I don't recall any of those first days of work. What I remember is a morning - gold, everything - the grass, the trees, a long clothesline - speckled with dew") (46). The narrator's formal, romanticized language surrounding the environment reveals to readers his respect for nature and how closely it tied in with his emotions. Despite not remembering the names of the men he worked with, the narrator is still able to remember their faces, and the time that he spent with them he remembers most often as associated, somehow, with the color gold. The reflection of the narrator's respect towards the men he worked with in the way he remembers the environment displays his deep connection with nature in its ever-cycling changes.